Daddy Boot Camp

DH is in the midst of changing jobs. He gave his notice yesterday and then an hour later they handed him a check. Don't let the door hit ya on the way out! Now he's got a week off until he starts his new job. This new job is a bit of a commute (lol) and requires a lot of traveling so since he won't be home as much, he's spending this week catching up on all those household projects that have been in progress. Before he left, he bought Cameron a really special LEGO set at the company store and made up a chore chart for him to earn it. When he completes all of the chores on the chart (90 spots!) he may buy the new LEGO set at the discount price of $20 (it cost him $50 and that was with an employee discount).

So all day long, Cameron has been working hard helping Daddy and doing his chores: picking up the living room, folding laundry, picking up dog poop out back, etc. One of his "chores" is No Time-Outs All Day, so he's been extra good, lol. He readily agreed when I suggested school and though he whined A LOT about the phonics, he did it. We've really let that slide for too long. He was reading well about three or four weeks ago (which is why I thought it was ok to put it aside for a while when he requested that) but now he is misreading almost every word in the lessons. It's definitely time again for phonics and math nearly every day with a third subject being elective.

Today's phonics lesson was two pages long though and required a lot of reading, so I decided to only do two subjects today and let him choose whether the second would be math or science. He picked science and we did two activity book pages on measuring. It ended up being a math lesson too because the book wanted you to measure in millimeters. So a simple measurement of 240 millimeters turned into 20cm + 4cm = 24cm and then had to be multiplied by 10mm/cm to get 240mm just because of the way our particular ruler was labeled!

Hopefully the chore incentive will keeps its allure. I like hard-working and agreeable children! Now if Greyson would just stop biting everyone...

Routine is a good thing

We had another mini vacation this weekend. It was my BILs 30th birthday, so we went out to their house, by the beach, for a nice little shebang. It's always nice for me to go there and reconnect with my SIL. You know, an adult whose brain hasn't been corrupted with Barney and Dora the Explorer and whatever other obscure thing that has crept into my mind and assumed the erroneous title of Normal. You know, adult conversation. ;)

But things have been tough to get back to around here. We still haven't found that post-vacation groove again - silly kids just want to play all day! (Thankfully though, they have rediscovered other ways to play besides watching tv. I'm sure everyone being 100% healthy (knock on wood) helps too!) Anyway, around 2:00 when I finally got Greyson to fall asleep, I dragged out the ol' phonics and math books. It's been a while since they have seen daylight, the phonics especially, and I got quite a few sighs. Luckily the phonics lessons was mostly a game of Eye Spy where you had to read your clues, so it was fun. Well, I thought it was fun. When we finished all the clue cards Cameron said, "Whew! That's finally over!" I guess it wasn't that fun afterall. Next was a math lesson on multiplication. He spent half the time doodling squiggly lines all over the place. I finally stopped it by grabbing a big eraser, lol. I told him that he had plenty of time all day to doodle and draw squiggly roller coaster lines and that math was for straight lines. I'm so not fun. :P

But what does look like fun is Artistic Pursuits. My copy of Book 1 just came in the mail today and I can't wait to get started. In fact, if I stop blogging now I'll have a couple more minutes to look through it before t-ball practice. Oh, but then I won't be able to tell you about how C&C have been playing Barbies all day, lol. He'll probably appreciate that fact when he's 14. ;)

Music School

There must be something artistic in the air because I cannot get my monkeys to do anything other than music and art this week! Today, it was music, music, and more music. Our only "activity" was a picnic at Super Playground (sigh, the really cool wooden one that is being torn down and replaced with something generic and plastic, I'm sure) and we listened to Themes to Remember: Volume 1 on the way there and back.

I have to say that I'm disappointed in it. The "themes" are so short. How can you even get a feel for the music, much less remember it, when it's over so quickly? Even more importantly, it seems to me (though I have a very uneducated ear, so how would I know) that the quality of the orchestra is not very high. It almost sounds as if they are all being played on a synthesizer! I know for a fact, that many songs that I am used to hearing in full orchestra are being done on an organ. It just sounds cheap. But again, who am I to judge. But again, if it sounds "cheap" to me, how would it sound to someone who really knows what they are talking about??

The book has some nice biographies in it though and a nice timeline with other suggested pieces to listen to. I plan on using the books (I spent enough for them!) as a spine, of sorts, to guide us through the composers but I doubt we will be listening to the CDs much. Even Cassia said, "I like the other words better!" - referring to Beethoven's Wig. I had read somewhere that Beethoven's Wig was less educational because it only had *silly lyrics* but to tell you the truth, I find the Themes to Remember lyrics sillier. For the most part, they just repeat the composer's name and the title of the piece over and over and over. Beethoven's Wig tells a story and usually gives some history or something as well. Take Schuman's The Happy Farmer for example. T2R lyrics are something to the effect of "I'm so happy happy happy but I need new shoes. What man can make my shoes?" That's not silly? BW has this great little story about the Schumans and how they all played music together as a family. Anyway, if you are considering Themes to Remember for a music appreciation curriculum, consider just using the Classical Magic website as a spine and the library and downloaded mp3s as your resources. Skip the silly lyrics.

ANYWAY (wow, was that a rant, lol) we had a fabulous time at the park. Not too many people were there, just MomG and DadR, but the dynamics of our little group was just right. Three 5 or 6 year old boys, two 3 or 4 year old girls and a 4 year old boy. They played in the sand, on the play structure, Duck-Duck-Goose, Red Rover, tag, Knights in the Castle, etc, etc, etc. We could not get them to leave. I always love that (after the fact, lol). The next time our preschooler group meets it will be at a new park. I'm sad about that, but I guess life is full of changes and many of the ones that I've experienced over the past year have been very positive - even though they aren't ones that I would have chosen for myself.

When we got home from the park, Greyson and Cassia were asleep and Cameron headed right for Story of the Orchestra. I put in the CD and told him to feel free to just flip through it however he wanted. He started at the beginning of the instrument section and had me read every single page to him. We listened intently to every musical selection, picking out the elements that we were directed to in the book. He particularly liked the low instruments (double bass, contra-bassoon, tuba) but said, several times, that he wanted to play all of them. Yes, all of them. And he doesn't just want to play all of them, he wants to own all of them. Even DH saw how excited he was about this and agreed to get him violin lessons. Did I tell you that my (former) step-mother bought him a violin?? She was going to give him her old one, but realized that it would be too big for him... so she bought him a brand new one! And then she gave me her original one, lol. Looks like we'll be needing double lessons! Anyway, DH said that we could spring for a lesson a week pretty soon. :) Coincidentally, a woman just advertised private lessons in our homeschool newsletter this last month!

And so we didn't get our spelling worksheets done again. Ooops. Nor did we do phonics or math or science. Oh well. I'm not too worried about it... though I am starting to wonder again whether we are Classical or Unschooling. Funny how that matters so much to me. I guess all that really matters is that Cameron drew a picture yesterday of a little boy and his dog and the sun and all three had the BIGGEST smile you have ever seen in your life. DH said that that was a really good sign, psychologically speaking. :)

Art school

Nothing that I would have previously called "school" happened here today, but a lot of learning certainly went on. (I'm thinking that I've said that more than a few times, lol.) All morning the kids were playing Rainbow. This involved singing the colors of the rainbow and arguing about whether or not indigo was a color of the rainbow and if it really mattered whether you said "purple" or "violet." Do public school 3 and 5 year olds play like that? I'm thinking not, lol.

I finally managed to get everyone fed, dressed, and (somewhat) combed and we headed off to run some errands. We dropped off our money for the 4-H fundraiser that we were supposed to bring to the meeting Tuesday - you know, the one we ditched - and then we spent over an hour and over a hundred, lol, in WalMart. DH had budgeted a decent chunk of our tax refund for new clothes and school supplies. I blew the school supply money the second it hit my account on art & music curricula, so I today I decided to spend a little on some clothes that actually fit the baby. The poor guy can't straighten his legs in most of his jammies, lol. Anyway, I had just gotten some new clothes for myself over Thanksgiving so I decided to donate a portion of my share to the school supply fund.

While I looking at pencils and erasers and sharpeners, Cameron and Cassia kept bringing me every nature of sidewalk chalk, paint, and marker you could imagine. But the thing Cameron wanted the most was a set of 50 multi-tip markers. He's never picked that particular item up before, yet coincidentally, Drawing with Children suggests using a large assortment of fine and broad tip markers for your work. Of course they suggest using a better quality brand than Crayola, lol, but I took it as a sign. So I grabbed that and a sketch pad and strengthened my resolve that we would tackle the lessons in Drawing with Children sooner (as in this summer) rather than later. I just have the feeling that alternating drawing instruction with art appreciation, as WTM suggests, will be counter-productive for us. I think that if we can arm ourselves with some drawing skills first, the whole Classical Education & notebooking process will go easier.

As soon as we got home, Cameron dove into the markers. He drew 5 or 6 pictures in record time, lol. I asked them if they wanted to do a "drawing exercise" and they were both eager to do it. We did the Abstract Design Warm-Up from DWC. Isn't it funny the different pictures that come from the exact, same instructions??? They were both surprisingly good at following directions, but Cameron just did NOT want to color anything in. He's never liked to color, so I'm not surprised, but when I said that he should color it in using either solid color or a texture (multicolor or color with a pattern) he just started drawing "patterns" all over his pictures. (The yellow string of shapes on the bottom of his Level 1 design and the blue triangular towers on the Level 2 design.) We'll see if their seeing how I interpreted the instructions will change how they approach it next time. It's interesting however you look at it to see their personality differences come out in their art. These were truly personal works (notice how mine is embarrassingly 80's looking?).

I tried to get some spelling or math or something in, but it just wasn't in the stars. They went from marker art to Play-Doh and have been doing that ever since... hours, literally. It was just an artistic sort of day, I suppose.

Tea & Sympathy

So, somebody hasn't been doing much sleeping lately - last night especially - and Mommy is tttttiiiiiirrrrreeeeeddddddd. Let's just say the morning wasn't as productive as it could have been. ;)

I did get a lovely surprise on the doorstep this morning, The Story of the Orchestra. It was supposed to be one of the books for Music Appreciation next year, but Cameron was SO excited when he saw it that we decided to read/listen to it now. First, I had him catch up on his spelling lesson for the week and then we read about about composers from the Baroque and Classical eras while listening to their music. It was nice to have the book and music cued up together. Very convenient. We decided to stop there but Cameron wanted to peruse the instrument section on his own. He was "just looking" but we ended up listening to the musical pieces that went with every single instrument. We even studied the diagrams of quite a few of them too.

Before we knew it, it was time to go to park day. We had woken up to rain, but the sky had cleared and I knew that if we stayed around the house I would just end up yelling at everyone. Greyson was still in a mood (read: screaming nonstop unless I was holding him, and even then sometimes too) and I was getting more and more exhausted, so honestly, I was looking for someone else to hold him for a few minutes while I rested my brain. It was windy at the park, really windy. And then it started to rain! We had only been there about 10 minutes and everyone packed up to leave. Man, was I disappointed! But thankfully, MomM invited us all over to her house to play instead. So we settled in with with her, MomA (not the one who moved away, but since we're talking about her - she just had a healthy baby girl on Monday!!), and MomC. The kids all ran off with their respective playmates to all corners of the house and the Moms and the babies (Greyson and BabyT) sat in the living room and drank tea. Greyson finally fell asleep and I was able to enjoy something other than the sounds of crying and/or fighting. Ah, bliss. It seriously saved my day and my sanity.

Thank God for friends. :)

Play Ball!

Well, with Easter and all, we haven't gotten much accomplished lately. We did manage to do Cameron's spelling test on Friday (at DH's aunt's house in the back yard, next to her pool, lol) and he got 100% but that's pretty much all we've done. Well, not entirely. DH's aunt is a school teacher who is retiring after next year so she spent the majority of the weekend pawning off all her old classroom supplies on us. Things like books, she went to me first. Things like solar system posters and museum activity sets, she went to Cameron first - before I could say no. ;) No, actually, she gave us some great stuff. I really love the museum.

Monday, we were expecting a visit from some cousins so DH and I spent the whole day cleaning. Yes, we're lame. I know. But seriously, we're still trying to recover from our last two vacations! I'm just *barely* caught up on laundry. I haven't had time to clean anything else yet! I did do a couple pages with Cassia in her Explode the Code primer. We worked on the letter "n." Nothing too exciting there except that she seemed pretty proud that I was telling Cameron to stop bothering us because her schoolwork was important. He was drawing like crazy trying to get my attention, lol. He finally figured out how to do it - he started drawing butterfly life cycles. This led all of us into another discussion of butterflies and we all spend some time drawing them. Somehow, the colors of the rainbow came up and we ended up discussing indigo. I looked up the Wikipedia entry for them and then spent a good half hour rabbit holing that, lol. Gotta love it. ;)

The big news of the day though is that today was Cameron's first T-Ball practice! I was so proud! I know, I know, I'm just a prejudiced and gushing mom, but he did really good. He was one of the best throwers and definitely in the top 3 or 5 batters. His catching could stand a little work, lol. OK, his catching could stand a lot of work. But he had FUN and was really, really, really into it. All that extra energy that he has (and that usually gets him into trouble) was just focused intently on the game. He was just hopping up and down waiting for that ball to come to him. He would run from left field to first base to get the ball before anyone else, lol. The coaches were really cool about it too. They complimented his enthusiasm and then stressed the strategical reasons why you needed to play *your* position, rather than everyone else's. It really seemed like a great team. He'll be practicing twice a week for the next month and then the games will start in May, again twice a week, I think.

The cousins ended up running late and not being able to make it over so we'll meet them tomorrow. We're going to have to ditch 4-H to do it, but we haven't missed one yet so, hopefully, they'll forgive us.

slacking...

Apparently, it's as hard to get back into the groove of blogging as it is to get back into the groove of school!! So let's see if I can remember what we did...

Tuesday morning we didn't get anything done. Why was that? Some big life altering catastrophe? Nope. We watched Alice in Wonderland. We went on that ride at Disneyland but the kids couldn't remember ever having seen it. I'm not surprised they didn't remember it since they'd only seen it once or twice. So they watched that and then there was just enough time for them to jump in the shower before we headed off to 4-H.

Our first order of business there was a community service meeting. None of the people who actually volunteered to be on the committee showed up, lol, however they all had very good reasons. BUT we did convince a few teens from the previous meeting to stick around and join us which brought some great ideas. We've decided to bake animal treats to donate to an animal shelter as a club project (Note to self: don't forget to call the Animal Shelter!!); to vote on whether or not we should use our club funds to adopt a zoo animal; and to clean up the 4-H center's badly neglected garden over the summer so that someone will be able to use it for a gardening project next year. All in all, it was a productive meeting but I don't feel like I really did anything as far as being the adult coordinator there. The two other (more experienced) adults did most of the work directing the conversation and actually identifying the questions that we needed to get answered during the meeting. I just kind of stood there with a dry erase marker in my hand going, "Uh huh, good point! What do *you* think?" Luckily Cameron can't read well enough to notice that I probably won't be volunteering us for this position next year. ;)

After that was the Arts & Crafts project meeting where we made felt dolls. It was a really fun project because it was easy enough for everyone and yet still interesting enough for them to want to do.

Cassia and I made a snake.


Cameron made a felt man.


And, after the kids were bored and off causing trouble elsewhere in the building, I made a butterfly.


It was a really fun project. I even brought home some extra wool and a felting needle so that I can get nice and addicted to it in my spare time. LOL, yeah, my spare time. (Read: leave supplies sitting unused on counter for a long time and then put them in a box meaning to get back to them soon and suddenly rediscovering them, untouched, 6 years later.) We never did get any actual bookwork done, but learning how to make those felt dolls really was educational on many levels. I don't feel guilty at all about calling that "school" for the day.

Wednesday, we petered the morning away as usual (what happened to our new determination to get things done early in the day?) and then at noon I suddenly remembered that we needed to get something done! So I pulled out the phonics book and we worked our way through "ie" and and "y" as the long /i/ sound. Then Cameron did a page of math where he had to draw pictorial representations of multiplication problems. You should see the one where he had to draw flowers to show 4 x 5 = 20, lol. I suggested that he use flowers in vases but he insisted on drawing a garden with dirt and grass. He worked diligently for a long time and when he proclaimed himself "done" I looked over and had to say, "OK that was *one* group of five. You need four of those." LOL. But the great thing is that he really gets the concept. DH was "quizzing" him over dinner and he was really surprising us with his ability to figure them out.

After his schoolwork was done (and I really need to make an effort to do some with Cassia. I am really neglecting her books.) we rushed off to Park Day. It was a lovely day and most of my favorite people were there. We played for a while and then got ice cream from the ice cream truck and then we had to rush off from there to go to the dentist and *finally* get my permanent crown put on. Thankfully that went off (or on, rather) without a hitch and we were able to then rush off to the ophthalmologist's. Somebody - and I'm not naming names here - hit me in the eye with the corner of a bag and scratched my cornea Tuesday night. OMG that hurt so badly. It was pretty much better by then but everyone insisted that I should have it checked out just in case. It is healing nicely and should be completely better in a couple days. And then we had to rush home so that I could lead a chat for an online playgroup. Busy afternoon!

Thursday is shaping up to be just as unproductive in the morning and then rushed all afternoon as well, lol. We're leaving to go out of town again on Friday for Easter so I have to get caught up on the laundry and the cleaning, etc. I guess I should get started on that or something??

Back to School

As the rest of America gears up for Spring Break, we are trying to get back to work after two weeks off. We spent the morning lazing around catching up on our respective emails, message boards, and games of fantasy and adventure. Finally, around 2:30 (!), I decided that we really better get some schooling done even though no one really felt like it. I busted out the spelling book and we started a new list of words. The only one that confused him was "jar" because he thought it should have an o in it. It makes sense when you think about it.

Next we went outside to plant some things in our side yard. We are slowly clearing away the rocks and plastic ground cloth that the (elderly) previous owners had down and are replacing it with a ground cover of flowering thyme. We (ok, dh) also pulled out some old ugly looking bushes and we're replacing them with rosemary. So anyway, this afternoon I put in about half dozen more moss plugs (I think we need to join the Hair Club for Lawns!) and planted two rosemary bushes while Greyson ate grass and leaves and Cameron and Cassia squirted each other with the hose.

We came back in to do one more subject and Cameron picked science. He usually says that he picks science because it is faster but today he said that it was because you learn more when you're doing science. He said that you "don't learn that much when you are doing math," lol. I guess that's true when you are a natural at it. ;) I remember when I learned how to multiply by multiple places and being depressed because I thought that I had conquered math and that there was nothing left to learn. ROFL.

ANYWAY, we did some more reading on butterflies at Enchanted Learning and did a worksheet comparing caterpillars to butterflies. We also did another page comparing caterpillars and cockroach nymphs. It was a good review since we've been away for so long. I was really impressed with how much he did remember though! We spent a nice long time reading about butterflies online and then in our animal encyclopedias. We both learned a lot, I think. :) It looks like there is only one more days worth of insect life cycle materials - unless of course I want to raise a mealworm pet. :P I have the feeling that I'll have to go buy a big pack of a hundred or so at the pet store to get any, so I think I'll skip it. Really, that's why. The next chapter is the life cycle of plants and it comes right at the perfect time to coincide with this lovely spring weather and the upcoming planting of our vegetable garden.

And that was our highly exciting spring day. For some inexplicable reason, I don't feel like rehashing every detail of our Disneyland trip. Shocking, I know. Just know that it was fabulous and magical and if you ever spend any time at a Disney Resort with small children, you have to do a character breakfast. It is the best way to get your pictures without standing in line. Speaking of pictures...

Sweet!!

Win a Dyson!!!

Go here to find out how! I hope I win, I hope I win, I hope I win!!! :D *grin*

Wish you were here

First off, I just wanted to verify to anyone who may be wondering that, yes, Maria is as wonderful as she appears on her blog. You've gotta love when it's like seeing a long, lost best friend when you meet someone you've only "met" once before. Essie is a doll. You can see the pixie dust sparkle in her eyes. Miguel is all boy, and quite the trooper for putting up with all of Cameron's "affections," lol. He's also quite the Smartie Pants talking about ancient China and Egypt while my brainiac only wants to discuss the latest Pixar flick. ;) Anyway, Happy Birthday, Big Guy! Sorry we're going to miss your big day. Sebastian is, well, hmmmm.... sorry, I can't update you on the wee one. I was denied the pleasure of his company. But let me assure you the the Pixilateds are a genuine delight and a witty bunch, one and all. Next time it's your turn to come visit me, Chica!!

Secondly, and again directed towards the Pixilateds... sorry if we got you guys sick! Grey woke up with an almost 102 degree fever Tuesday night and then Cameron had the same on Wednesday night. Both boys have spent every evening coughing their little lungs out (not that that kept us from devouring the Magic Kingdom in its entirety and closing the place out every night!) but so far the rest of us have been spared.

And that's my mini update. I will bore you with all the details (and hopefully some pictures) when we return and get back into the swing of things.

Spring Break!

OK, I think I am officially calling this Spring Break. Today, I did laundry and I let the kids do what always filled my school vacations... watch tv all day, lol. Pathetic, I know, but at least they were watching Zoboomafoo and The Magic School Bus instead of The Love Boat. They've also been working on their Walt Disney unit study... by watching classic Mickey Mouse cartoons. That counts, right? Right??

But aside from a little brain melting in front of the tv, our regularly scheduled life-learning is always in session: LEGOs, drawing pictures (that are getting better and better every day!), various Leap Frog toys (Cassia is getting really good at identifying letters and Cameron was typing his spelling lists into the Leap Frog Library), and lots and lots and lots of running around (PE) and games of make-believe. We also have gymnastics and a field trip with the home school group coming up in the next couple days, but since we're leaving on Thursday for our Big Trip, I don't know that I'll be able to blog about it. I'm sure DH will be bringing his laptop, so I may check in with a surprise update or two but officially...

We're on vacation! See you in April!!!

And the countdown begins!

Only 6 more days until we leave on our trip south which includes a fabulous Disney vacation!!! WooHooo!! Yeah Mickey! M-I-C, see you real soon, K-E-Y, why? because we like you, M-O-U-S-E!! Of course, my kids think I'm crazy when I sing that because the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse song goes... MI-CK-EY-MOUSE-that's me! It's the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Come inside; it's fun inside! I never thought I would be old enough for a Generation Gap - especially with me on the Old Fogie side!

We started the day today with Cameron's spelling test. He correctly spelled hot, map, pin, and hop but misspelled hook (huk) and stop (sop). I had him write those words three times on another paper. He was pretty bummed that he didn't get foil stars on all of his words and asked if he could have stars on the wrong words once he wrote them three times. I told him that he had to cover them up and write them correctly from memory and then I would give him stars. It took a small reminder to get hook right, but he finally earned his stars.

Next we did math and the actual multiplication sign (x) was introduced. He did really well with it and we took turns making up multiplication stories. He didn't like mine unless they had his name in them though, lol. One of my stories was "I went to the store and bought five packages of pencils which each had two pencils in them" and he made me make up a new one. I had to change it to "Cameron, Cassia, Greyson, Friend X, and Friend Y each had two pencils. How many pencils did the five friends have?"

I thought about doing science as well, but we opted to go get pizza for lunch instead. We grabbed our pizza and then went to the 4-H LEGO Engineering project. They built these motorized rope rider thingies. They were pretty cool, but not nearly as exciting as some of the other projects. I think part of it may have been that they *had to* work in teams and some team members were better at working together than others. Don't get me wrong, everyone built and had a good time, but the team thing seemed a bit forced. I guess that's a skill though.

On the way home from the 4-H center, we ended up doing science anyway! We were talking about our upcoming trip to Grandma C's house and Disneyland and I was describing what we had planned for each day. Suddenly Cameron said, "Hey that's an icicle!" What? Please remember that we live in California about 30 miles from the coast. We do NOT have icicles... especially when it's 75 degrees out and we are wearing shorts and tank tops! He said again, "An icicle! The days of the week, they're an icicle!" OOOOHHHHHH, a life cycle!! Yes, the days of the week are, indeed, a cycle. And so we spent the next twenty minutes talking about different things that made cycles. Science accomplished.

While we were at the LEGO project, I got to talk to one of the "I Can Never Remember the Title"s from the charter school. I really love her attitude and if I had to go that direction, she is definitely someone I would want to be on my side. The thing is though, I don't have to go in that direction. No one is forcing me to do this under the guidance of another organization. I am not feeling insecure about my abilities to provide adequate tutelage, instruction, and/or educational depth and breadth to my children (discipline maybe, lol, but I wouldn't consider that the school's business either way!). I really have had no urge to have anyone else "help" me - aside from my myriad of friends (internet and *real* life) and resources - so the only thing that is tempting me is the free money. But nothing is really free, is it. To move in this direction would be giving up many of the reasons that I originally chose homeschooling - even if my reasons and principles would not be directly compromised or changed, in my heart they would be tainted.

I did talk to DH about it and he straight up said what my heart has been telling me all along: don't involve the public school system if you don't have to. Don't get involved in their red tape when it isn't necessary. We can provide an education for our children without subjecting them to ridiculous STAR and other tests. We don't need to check in with someone to know that we're making progress. We don't need them to tell us that x must learned at y age and before z can even be attempted. In other words, if it ain't broke, don't fix it! Sure, the extra money would be nice, but we don't need it and it would probably end up causing more stress than it alleviated. Now if my friends who are using this charter school happen to be shelving things that we may want to be borrowing.... ;)

just when I thought I knew what I was doing

Isn't that always how it is? Just when you think you know what you're doing and how you're going to be doing it for a while, someone throws a wrench in the works.

I'm big on chronology lately so I'll start with our morning. We've all been sleeping about an hour later than usual since the time change, gee I wonder why, lol, so our morning started late. I didn't get everyone fed and showered and dressed until about 11:30 so we went with "school lite" for the day. Cameron finished the workbook pages for this week's spelling. He's still having some trouble with a couple of the words. He's pronouncing hot as "hoot" and hook as "who-k." We'll see if he can spell them on Friday - even if he can't read them. ;)

The Writing & Spelling project in this lesson was to write directions for someone to follow to get to your house. He didn't quite get it. His version of directions was to just tell people our city and our street. So I tried to get him to draw a map. He drew a map of the US, lol. I guess he hasn't really looked at a street map? He knows how to read a trail map, but I guess we just don't use street maps too often. At least not on paper. I use Google Maps all the time. Anyway, I suddenly remembered an activity in TOPS Lentil Science where you make a topographical map out of lentils, so I decided to give that a try. We made a lentil map of our neighborhood and the park that we were going to go to that afternoon. We stacked up little paper cylinders and DUPLO slides to represent the park and an empty jar to represent our house. Suddenly Cameron started adding more houses, like Grandma C's and S5's, and more parks and each lentil represented a person in the place, lol. Anyway, we had a good time discussing NSEW direction and scale... we never did get around to giving directions, but we had fun. And that was school. Cassia continued on playing with the lentils (guess I'm going to have to put that job box back on the curriculum list!) and Cameron went back to his Zoobs. (Oh, a side not - we heard from the Zoob people and they are going to add one of Cameron's creations to their online gallery! We're so proud. I'll let you know when it's up.)

We were just about to leave for Park Day when the phone rings. It was my best friend from high school. We're trying to find time to get together at the end of the month, but are having quite the time coordinating! We're going to be in her area for 10 days and we can't find a time to meet! That's pretty bad when even your vacations are overscheduled, lol. (Which reminds me, ahem, MEESH, cye!)

We finally made it to the park, an hour late - and not because of the time change, lol - and it was so worth it! There were lots of our friends there, friends who don't usually come to this park day. The kids and I really had a great time. And my stalker was there. ;) Here is where my world was rocked. StalkerMom and I were having a really nice conversation about this and that and the other thing and I mention that I'm going at the homeschool thing on my own. It turns out that everyone else goes through this local charter school. I knew a lot of people did, but I didn't know that they all get $900 per student per year to spend on curriculum and supplies. And they get reimbursed for art and music classes. And they have horseback riding and karate. And I'm missing out on all these freebies because, basically, I'm being stubborn.

I don't want anyone to tell me how to run my little homeschool. I love the idea of us being a very exclusive private school. I love that what we do is my business and my business alone. I love that I can get a whole curriculum going based on a children's encyclopedia or two and a whole bunch of library books. I don't love that I can't really afford piano lessons. I'm dreading the future costs of Latin and Spanish. I'm wishing I could afford a really great art program and the supplies that go with it. It would be nice to be able to get full color reprints of some masterpieces, but I'm probably going to rely on internet viewing instead. It is a total DREAM to be able to give the children riding lessons. Hmmm. Decisions, decisions.

I've got a lot of people to start hounding. The few I've talked to so far say that the paperwork is minimal and lenient. They say that if you get the right coordinator, they will totally let you call the shots on your educational goals. But several people I know are not continuing with this school next year and I need to find out why. I tried to look at their website last night but a guest login won't allow you to see much - not sure if I like that. Anyone have any experience or advice about charter schools? Anyone?

PS, I'm just kidding about having a stalker. I think. ;)

insert clever title here

No clever title today, sorry. Nothing very interesting going on either.

We went to the 4-H business meeting today. It was a pretty long one full of trying to get our county's annual fundraiser organized. Cameron, of course, volunteered for things that put us there ALL day. Since he's a Sergeant at Arms he has to be in a parade at 11 and then he volunteered for this trash pick up duty in the late afternoon. I don't mind too much, but DH doesn't like having to be somewhere like that all day, especially since we're probably bringing my mom. If worse comes to worse, we can take two cars and he can leave early with Cassia and Grammie and I'll stay with Cam and the baby.

They also gave us a list of jobs for next year. We are supposed to "nominate" ourselves for the jobs we want and then I guess a committee votes on it? Cameron pretty much wants to do everything he's doing this year (although I'm trying to talk him out of the sweeping and garbage detail) and then we decided to add one new thing - which I'm not telling, just in case there are spies reading! ;)

Then we came home and did a little bit of school. We continued on in the math chapter about grouping things in such a way as to introduce multiplication. Cameron is really getting the fact that you need to learn to "count by __s" to do these problems easier. He mentioned something about knowing a song for 2s. It's something he saw on tv and I have no idea what he is talking about, but it gave me a great opportunity to bring out my favorite Schoolhouse Rock DVD and force him to watch all of the math ones, lol. He said, "but I don't like those" and I said, "if you watch them all I will count it as your second subject today" and he said, "oh, ok." LOL. He ended up watching all the math ones (some of those are much weirder than I remember!!) and then we watched most of the science ones too.

And that was our day. I told you it wasn't very exciting. :)

Spring Forward

The time change may have come early this year, but it sure feels like springtime here! It was 85 degrees today and I felt perfectly comfortable in capris and a tank top (my favorite uniform). We spent Saturday using up some tickets to Train Town that our neighbor had given us for Christmas. We only spent about an hour and a half there, but all the kids really had a blast. We rode the train. Cameron rode the Ferris Wheel all by himself. Greyson put his feet into a cold stream. Cassia rode the Merry-Go-Round with her Daddy. It was a nice day. Sunday we were supposed to go hiking with 4-H but, um, well... we got delayed. OK, I'll admit it - we forgot about the time change and showed up an hour late. D'OH! I have never done that before. I feel so stupid. Oh well. At least it wasn't just me... DH forgot too. He's actually a bigger dufus than I am because he knew it was last weekend but thought that "Sunday at 2 am" meant the night in between Sunday and Monday, not the one between Saturday and Sunday. Anyway, we're both idiots, I suppose. *blush*

Monday the plan was to get school done nice and early, go grocery shopping, have lunch, and then take my mom to a doctor's appointment. Cameron ended up with a debilitating stomach ache all morning instead. So we skipped all that other stuff and just read a Star Wars book, had lunch (once he was finally feeling better), and then took my mom to her doctor. My secondary plan was to do schoolwork in the car while we waited for her, but two words into the phonics lesson Mom comes out and says that she had written her appointment down wrong and it was really next week instead. Looks like everyone is having a bad week with times and dates! So we dropped her off, went to the store and then FINALLY came home and did schoolwork.

Cameron did a phonics review on vowel pairs that make the long /e/ sound. He did good with it and only complained once or twice. All day long he had been pretending that he was 17 years old and his version of 17 is VERY mature, responsible, and helpful. His 17 year old self also already knows how to read, so there was no point in him saying that it was too hard. I really liked his 17. Next he did half a spelling lesson. Remind me never to do spelling right after phonics again. Bad mix. He was way too tired out from reading his phonics lesson to even read the word "hot" correctly. But he struggled through it, like a 17-yr old trooper should, lol. I was going to have him do math too, but I let him be done. He had spent all more learning science anyway (read: watching Magic School Bus, lol).

Now I'm off to see if I can book myself a Disney vacation... WOO HOO!!! :)

I have a dream...

I dreamt about blogging last night. The plot of my dream, which I cannot remember now, unfolded via blog entries and comments. I am, apparently, obsessed.

Butterflies!

Before we get to the butterflies, I just have to brag about Cameron's first spelling test... 100%!! He sat down with his spelling book open to the blank pages in the back and I dictated the words to him: tub, bat, bus, see, sit, us. He didn't even hesitate. I thought, for sure, he would get stuck on see, but when I said it he got a huge smile on his face and said, "I remember that one!" I celebrated his success by putting a foil star next to every word. He added a bunch of other stickers to help celebrate too. I wanted to make a big deal about his success. I hope I'm not putting too much stress/importance on this whole "test" thing though. Hmmm. I guess I'll find out when it's too much.

Next we moved on to science. We did a page in the activity book on the chicken life cycle. First we cracked a raw egg into a bowl and then he washed his hands. We examined the different parts. He washed his hands. We talked about the special properties of egg shell and how it is strong enough to withstand a chicken sitting on it, but fragile enough for the chick to be able to break himself out. We talked about the membrane and felt its unique texture. Then he washed his hands again. We talked about the white and the yolk - it was funny, he didn't recognize the uncooked egg white. I stuck my finger in and talked about the consistency (and tried not to think about fertility, lol). He wouldn't touch it though - said it was gross and he had already washed his hands enough. Funny how some people are like that. I just wiped my hands on a towel and never thought twice about it! Anyway, then we labeled the parts of the egg in the book and numbered the growth stages.

The next page in the activity book was on the life cycle of a butterfly. We rearranged the different stages, which were labeled with letters, to form the word "changes." And then we made these.
Cameron had so much fun that he made two of them (and then washed his hands again, lol). I think the best part was that I let them glue googly eyes on them. As you can see, they really liked the eyes. (OK, you can't really see very well, but all those dots on the yellow one are eyes!) I'm sure we will end up reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar soon.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention how we started our school day today. We read! We just sat on the couch and read about 10 different fairy tales from this old 1944 book of "Nursery Tales" that I have. It started just because Cassia wanted me to read her a story and I refused to read Dora's Super Silly Fiesta one more time. But Cameron rushed over and eagerly listened to every word. We read The Country Mouse and the City Mouse; The Lion and the Mouse; The Gingerbread Boy; Chicken Licken; The Straw, the Coal, and the Bean (odd story); The Tortoise and the Hare; and The Pot That Would Not Stop Boiling (another strange one). I think I have been putting too much stock in asking the kids before we do something. I seem to have much better luck when I just say, "We're going to do X now" or just start reading a story or making some project by myself than if I ask them if they want to do something.

So there was our Friday. Nowhere special to be. Fun schooling. And I even managed to clean the kitchen and get a couple loads of laundry done.

Google rocks!

Gosh, I miss one day of blogging and I feel so irresponsible! LOL, I really take this seriously. ;)

Wednesday: I can't believe that I already can't remember what we did yesterday. Umm, umm...oh yeah! Duh, we had the best day ever. We toured yet another local gem that I had never been to before: Mrs. Grossman's Sticker Factory. It was way up there as one of, if not the, best tours ever. It was cool, kid-friendly, and full of fun freebies. At the end of the tour they gave everyone baggies of stickers and a post card to decorate. Then, of course, the tour drops you off in the factory store...OMG, let's just say I'm thankful that I only had $10 on me. Where was this place when I was 8 years old??? We decided that we are definitely going back to this one at least once a year. I let the kids each pick out one pack of stickers and one little discount grab bag. That totaled about a million stickers once we got home. They fulfilled their stereotypical roles as Cameron got pirate stickers and Cassia picked out the princess/castle/unicorn set. Personally, I wanted the camping ones and the Klutz book of Art History (and the fancy letters and the laser-cut flowers and the birthday decorations and the endangered species and, and, and...). You should've seen our dining room table when we got home, lol. I should've taken a picture.

I know I had Cameron do some schoolwork too. I think it was phonics, "ie" as long /e/ and... I guess that was it. See? This is why I have to blog every day. I would not remember a darn thing we did if I didn't blog it! Thank God we don't have to do any sort of record-keeping to homeschool here.

Thursday I had to go get my temporary crown replaced. Yes, the one that I just got on Tuesday. It wasn't as badly cracked as I thought, but a piece of the top had broken off making the tooth sensitive. Anyway, I had to rearrange gymnastics classes and drag all the kiddos down to the dentist's with me, but they were perfect. Yay! C&C just watched a video in the waiting room and Greyson sat on my lap the whole time pulling the dentist's hair, lol. Luckily she has a good sense of humor about the whole thing.

When we got home, I wasn't much in the mood to struggle through phonics so I just pulled out the science text and we read a chapter on life cycles. We learned about the life cycles of chickens, butterflies, and cockroaches. Interesting mix, I know. The kids were both very interested in learning the life cycles and Cameron even read the titles of the butterfly cycle diagram: egg, larva, pupa, adult. Even more impressive is that he remembered that the pupa casing is called a chrysalis. Next we did the one and only workbook exercise for the chapter which mostly involved a lot of remembering and comparing the different life cycles. The activity book has a ton of activities for this chapter though. Lots of dissecting chicken eggs and looking up butterflies on Enchanted Learning. I can't wait to do some of those. We did learn in the workbook that the beetle has a similarly staged life cycle as a butterfly and that a grasshopper's is similar to a cockroach's. This prompted us to try and look up what a beetle pupa looked like, since we didn't even know that they went through that stage!

And this brings me to my title. First we looked in the Kingfisher First Animal Encyclopedia. We found some butterfly pupa. Then we looked in the DK First Animal Encyclopedia and found several pages on insect life cycles and butterflies and moths and another couple on beetles, but no beetle pupa. Then it was time for my friend and yours, Google. Go ahead and Google an image search for "beetle life cycle" and you will not be disappointed. Cam was so into it. After we finished the workbook exercise he started asking if he could play video games but I made him wait to see if we could find a beetle pupa first. Once he found out that we were going to search via internet, he stuck to me like glue through the whole investigation. We looked at just about every link on that first page and he would've sat through more, I'm sure.

So let me just say again, the Information Age is awesome and Google rocks. Maybe we should call this the Google Age. Back in the Google Age, students could find information on any random concept that happened to enter their little minds, and it was good. Knowledge is Power. Rock on, my little nymphs. Rock. On.

It's the little things...

I started the day off with trip to the dentist to have an old crown replaced. Yippee. I don't have a big fear of dentists or anything, but it's not really my favorite place to be. They offered something new this time that did make it a little nicer. No, not laughing gas, lol. It was just a pair of headphones with some Mozart. First they started me off with some new age cd named Spa but that didn't relax me, it just annoyed me. ;) I requested anything classical instead and so she brought my good friend, Amadeus. I did frequently find myself annoyed that they were interrupting my music with Please turn your head this way, Jennifer, or Open wider, please, and it was a bit hard to hear over the whine of the drill, but it did make it an overall nicer experience. And with no kids to worry about, I almost fell asleep a few times...

I got home and Greyson was crying. Sitting on the couch, by himself, crying. Gotta love that particular "parenting" technique... leave the room. *roll eyes* Apparently though, he wanted milk and nothing else was going to do. I guess Daddies are at a disadvantage there. Anyway, after he was fed and happily asleep we got down to schoolwork.

Cameron insisted on doing Spelling again, even though I had wanted to wait until Wednesday to do it again. We did some exercises with the ending sounds of the words and then he designed a sign that would be appropriate to hang in a bus. The assignment was to write a rule that would be good for a bus. He said, "sit down," and Cassia said, "stay in your seat." He wanted both of them on his sign until he realized that he was going to have to write it himself. Suddenly, "Sit down" was enough. LOL. After he wrote it in the workbook, I decided to go a little Hands On on him and told him to make a real sign that we could hang in the minivan, since that was our bus. First he just wrote "SIT DOWN" in yellow pen, but then I encouraged him to make it a little more readable and embellish a little. I'm happy with the result. Of course, not so happy that I actually remembered to put it in the car, but you know.

Next came math and that was just another two page exercise on grouping. There are x groups of y pencils. He did a great job counting by 2s and 3s though. I wanted to do science also, but it was time to go to 4-H.

Today was Arts & Crafts day at 4-H and they were making books. We used some paper that they made last month in tie dye class (which we were unfortunately sick for) for the covers and then accordion-folded pages to fit within. Cameron was a little concerned that his pages weren't folding quite exactly to the cover size, but the group leader graciously told him that it was perfect and that that was what made his homemade book unique. I love that. There turned out to be some extra supplies so Cassia was also able to make a book, with another mom's help. I didn't even ask her to help us; she just jumped in and made a book for Cassia, letting Cassia help just enough so that she felt it was her own. I love that too. Do public school moms do that? I hope so (for their sake), but it is that attitude which will keep me homeschooling for as long as humanly possible.

Anyway, we lingered there for a long time coloring in our new books and playing with our friends. The leader was really happy to see Cameron and his friend C.O. filling up their books with drawings right away. I guess older kids tend to save their special works for special writings - poems or drawings - and sometimes they never even get used. I find that happening with my "special" books and journals... you just never want to "ruin" them with something unworthy. Anyway, it was a refreshing change to see children just using them and making them beautiful NOW.

And the final treat - which I could NOT leave unmentioned - CUPCAKES!!! Our friend C.J. from preschool park day, brought cupcakes to yet another activity to celebrate her birthday this past weekend. Sadly, there were a lot of kids this time and we had to suffer with only one each. I wasn't even sure I would get mine, but they seemed to save the last one for me... which I did truly appreciate. ;) But like I said in my title, it's the little things that make a day good.

Isn't it Just Ducky?

We were at Arby's yesterday for lunch (shhh!) and this elderly lady came up to our table and starts cooing at Greyson. Then she pushes my food out of the way, lol, and tells the kids that she wants to show them something. She then goes into this huge production about how to draw a ducky from a number two. She's obviously given this demonstration to more than a couple kids. She's having a blast. The kids are enthralled. Life is good. This morning, the first thing Cameron did was draw an entire page full of duckies. I wish I had some way of letting her know that, but she was just a random stranger committing a random act of kindness. I have no idea who she is or if we will ever see her again, but I think I will always remember her. :)

Today for school, Cassia insisted that we start out with music. It had been a while since we did Poco a Poco, but they remembered it all. We learned about the dotted half note and read a story about the neighbors who live on Beat Street. Cameron played his recorder to the beat and Cassia strummed the guitar.

Afterward, Cameron got out his slot car track, Greyson took a nap, and Cassia got comfortable in front of Starfall while I took a shower. The rest of the morning was filled with playing and a couple chores and some errands and some general life stuff. We watched Fern Gully: The Last Rainforest. I always wondered why that movie never hit it big - it sounded so good - now I know, lol. Then Cameron went on a gigantic slot-car race track building frenzy. I finally stopped him so that we could do some schoolwork and he was quite cooperative with the whole thing! In fact, he was downright happy to oblige.

So we sat on the floor in the dining room - because the table was covered in race track - and started his first official spelling list. We read the words and did a page and a half of related activities (half the lesson) and then I had him write the words in his new Spelling Notebook. I bought him a little 4-1/2" x 3-1/4" notebook to write all his words in that he can carry around with him for quick reference and study. Like that's going to happen, lol, but really, you never know! If nothing else, it made the words "special." In case you are curious, here are the words: tub, bus, bat, see, sit, and us.

Next we started Chapter 4 in math... multiplication! I never would have thought to teach my 5 year old multiplication, but there it is. At this point, it is just illustrating the concept that 4+4+4 is 3 fours. He seems to get it. Cassia was very interested too. She was laying on the ground with us, counting all the apples and bananas right along with him. It was SO nice to just have her there watching and joining in rather than fighting for attention. Perhaps my little girl is finally gaining a little bit of maturity? (*knock on wood*)

And that brings us to now. Greyson is happily strumming/thumping away on the guitar. Cameron and Cassia are out in the backyard enjoying an unseasonably beautiful day. (We're actually wearing shorts and sundresses today! It's supposed to rain again on Wednesday though so we are taking advantage of it while we can.) The house is reasonably clean and for some reason I feel like we got an extra couple hours today. How did that happen?? :)

Sunny Days

The sun did, in fact, come out today for our park day. It was GORGEOUS! Warm, sunny, not a cloud in the sky! This meant that we were able to share cupcakes with one of our park friends to celebrate her 4th birthday. Yippee!! We love cupcakes, as I've mentioned more than once. ;) Unfortunately, only a couple other families were there so that meant that each kid ended up eating like 4 cupcakes each! :O Yes, you read that right. Four EACH. I think we might need to do a unit study on moderation, lol.

I didn't manage to get us organized enough to get any schoolwork done before we left, but I did manage to print out a Basic Facts Worksheet for Cameron to do in the car. I even remembered to bring it, a clipboard, and a pencil along! He did pretty well on it too. At one point he asked me what six plus six was and I answered him by asking what five plus five was. He said, "Well, five plus five is ten so one more on each makes it twelve, right?" By George, I think he's got it.

After we got home from the park, I had him do some reading. It was a little rough going, since it was so late and everyone was so tired (everyone fell asleep on the way home!) but we got through an entire two page lesson reviewing the different sounds for "ea" and then learning the sight words "to," "do," and "who."

And that makes two weeks in a row where we've done school all five days in the week. Yay us!

Is it bedtime yet?

Ah, the vicious cycle of sleep-deprivation. Not enough sleep = more coffee = more awake at night = not enough sleep because the kids are still waking up at 6:30 = even more coffee = wanting a nap in the middle of gymnastics = caffeinated tea in the late afternoon = probably up late again tonight because I've gotta finish the book I'm reading too. (Oh so "Greyson" comes up on my spell check but not "gotta"? LOL)

Yeah, so, I dawdled the morning away while the kids played and then we went to gymnastics. Cassia made a friend in class and they were so sweet together.

Girl poke-tickles Cassia out of the blue. Cassia giggles. Cassia poke-tickles back. Girl giggles.
Cassia: Guess what? I'm three and a half!
Girl:REALLY??? Wow! I'm three too!
Cassia:No, I'm three and a half.
Girl:I'm three and three... quarters.
Cassia:Yeah? Well, I'm three and a half quarters.
Girl:Oh. OK!
Both girls start jumping up and down over and over and over and over and giggling and jumping and giggling and jumping. I think they were MFEO. ;) (That's "made for each other" just in case you don't speak girly-girl.)

She got pretty whiny during Cameron's class though and I chalked it up to tiredness and trying to fight off dh's cold. I must've been right because she fell asleep on the way home - and it's less than 10 minutes away! - and then slept for almost 3 hours. During that time Cameron did his schoolwork.

He did a spelling lesson on ending sounds. Easy cheesy. The next lesson is the first one with an actual word list! I tried to hype it a bit and we glanced through it and he proved to himself that he could really read all the words already. Next he did science (not in the mood for reading and 'rithmetic today) and I was very sorry to discover that the workbook lesson for this chapter was only one page long! Usually the workbook sections are like 6 and I have to break them up into a couple days. This we had done in about 3 minutes and barely counted as a subject in my book. We really should've done it the other day when we did science so we could start a new chapter today. Oh well. I was too tired to care too much so I just had him practice the recorder for about 15 minutes to make up the time instead. He really liked having that as make up work. Now that I think about it, I probably should've had him play the geography game, but I think I needed a light day today.

Hopefully I will be able to go to sleep early tonight and sleep ALL NIGHT without all my strange assorted kicking, coughing, nursing, and nightmaring bedfellows keeping me up. Hopefully we have a park date tomorrow, if the weather holds up, and we'll have to get school done BEFORE we go.

The Un-Meeting

Cameron is the chair of the Community Service committee for 4-H. Until a couple weeks ago, he was also the sole member of the committee. At our last business meeting, however, several other people volunteered to be on the committee as well. WooHoo! Well, I had been trying to schedule a planning meeting (since his being the Chairboy pretty much automatically made me the Adult Coordinator) for a couple weeks and no one could agree on a time. This is the *exact* same problem I had when trying to organize the Preschool co-op last year - no one could meet at the same time! Maybe I'm just too accommodating? Maybe if I just say, it's at X time, be there or be square? Well, I sort of tried that approach last week and said, how about Wednesday around 11 at the library? One person said, how about 12. One person said, we and another family on your list have a class at that time. Another person had a death in the family and couldn't meet at all. I pretty much gave up on the idea of a meeting.

Fast forward to last night when I get an email from the one family that I hadn't heard a thing from that said See you tomorrow! So I quick sent out a reminder email to everyone else and figured that at least one person was better than nothing. Well, by the next morning I had emails from everyone and no one was able to make it, lol. But we said, what the heck, and went and had the meeting by ourselves. ;) We found a book on 500 Service Projects for kids and went through and picked out some of our favorites. Then we came home and emailed some suggestions out to our committee members and asked for their ideas and said that we could discuss it all next time we see them. I am done with formal meetings. :P

While we were reading the Service Project book, I had Cameron write out our list of potential projects. He totally did NOT want to do that but I told him that I would count the whole process as his Language Arts for the day. Next I read a Max & Ruby book to Cassia. Then I read The Star Wars Visual Dictionary to Cameron - wasn't it just yesterday that I was complaining that they never wanted to read their library books?? Then he did Review 1 in his math book. He did pretty good, but had to use Cuisenaire Rods to do a 38 = ___ + 30, which I thought was pretty bad. But, I suppose the concepts are still pretty liquidy in that little head of his. Next Cassia did three pages in her Explode the Code primer. I am really impressed with how well she is retaining that stuff. She still doesn't know all the letter names, but she sure does know which words begin with which letters! While she was working on that, Cameron pulled out another library book Playing & Composing on the Recorder. He learned how to play a G. Sort of. He definitely learned that playing music takes lots of practice, lol. I wasn't planning on trying to formally teach him how to play right now, but we happened across the book, so there you go. Even better if he's motivated to learn all by himself!

I'm still slowly working on a Master Plan for next year. I've been looking into art & music timelines to see if it will be worthwhile to try to approach things in parallel with history. Another approach would be to go chronologically, because I do see that as having great benefit, but not worry about it coordinating... just start with Raphael (or whomever) and move through to Picasso. A third method that I've seen in several curricula is to spend the first year, when there are artifacts but not artists to study, just doing a general overview of "the masters" to give a conversational edge to overall art knowledge. I was thinking of, rather than that, doing an overview of techniques and styles so that when we enter the Renaissance, he will already know the difference between an oil painting and a fresco. Similarly, we could spend our music appreciation looking at different instruments and types of work (symphony, sonata, etc). I don't know. Maybe we should just be thankful that there are fewer art pieces during the Ancients and take advantage of the slower pace. Can't do it all, right?

It's true, I'm a food snob.

I admit it! I freely admit that I am a food snob, but not even I suspected how deeply those feelings run. I was in Safeway tonight buying diet soda and ice cream for my sick husband (gotta feed those cravings, right?) and I was just overcome. Aisles and aisles of chemical concoctions. Row after row of different varieties of the exact same item. I don't even mean rows and rows of ice cream. I mean rows and rows of Dreyer's Ice Cream. Lots of variety in flavor, but pretty much only Dryer's Ice Cream on the shelves. I finally found the Breyer's All Natural that we prefer but there was only a sixth of the shelf space given to it and most of those rows were empty.

Main stream grocery stores give the impression of abundance and variety but every time I go into one I am simply overcome by the sheer amount of sameness. They very definitely want you to buy from one specific supplier and they are not shy about shoving that product in your face. Even Cokes... I went in to buy a six-pack of Diet Pepsi. I couldn't find one!! I found 30 packs. I found 6-packs of 6-oz cans - for the kids (that's another rant altogether!). I found 6-packs of the store brand. But my DH very specifically wanted a six-pack of Diet Pepsi and they wanted me to buy 30 instead. No thanks. I did finally end up buying a 6-pack of 20-oz bottles, which was more than I wanted, but I would NOT buy that 30-pack of cans. Sheesh.

I know you guys think I'm nuts, but I seriously was on the verge of some kind of weird attack in there. I usually shop in Whole Foods. There's lots of variety. Milk free options. Gluten free options. Soy free options. Low fat. Full fat. Expeller-pressed fat. You may not get the specific brand you were looking for but you will find a myriad of choices. I've heard that they have been or will soon be bought out by Safeway, but I don't care as long as they don't take away my choices. I WANT TO CHOOSE FOR MYSELF! I guess that's why I homeschool, isn't it? That's funny. I actually had this exact same conversation with Cameron earlier today. He was saying something to the effect of how kids with two parents that work have to go to school instead of homeschooling. I was trying to explain that it's more than the work factor. It's that most people just don't think to question the norm. Not with their schooling. Not with the food they eat. Not with the tv they watch. Not with anything. Dullsville, USA. Send in the clones.

So there's my rant for the day. Ironically, I was going to rant about people who think that the rules don't apply to them - like the woman at the play place today who refused to make her kids follow the huge "NO RUUNING" sign or the other huge "No children over 3 in this area" sign in the area where my baby was almost trampled by them. But being the mother of the children that I am... I'm not going to throw stones just yet. ;)

So what's this blog supposed to be about? Oh yeah, school! LOL. Well, school went marvelously today. First off we went to homeschool day at this play place on the other side of the county. I had to drop something off to someone in that town, so it was serendipitous that homeschool day at this place was today too. Unfortunately, there were no other homeschoolers there, but we had a great time anyway. Cameron played trains and built with blocks. Cassia cooked pretend food and put all the dollies to bed. Greyson chewed on stuff and shook maracas. Just as we were about to leave, a homeschool family that we just met at the park last Friday happened in and we had a nice time chatting with them. We basically spent all day there.

We got home around 2:30 and I immediately got Cameron started on his schoolwork. He did a phonics lesson on "ea" as the long /e/ sound. He read well. We played a game where he had to read cards with "ea" words on them and there were four cards mixed in that said "eat a treat." I had put a mysterious plate of cheese and crackers on the table. He was so excited when he came across those "eat a treat" cards, lol. It's great to see that "click" when words actually mean something. Next he did a one page math exercise on adding three numbers. The next section in the workbook is a review section and then we move on to multiplication! Yikes! We finished off our school day with a science activity about patterns and cycles. It was a simple "complete the pattern" thing followed by rewriting they patterns that were cyclic with a recycling type notation. You know, the three arrows thing.

I've been thinking so much about next year and wondering if I'm going to be attempting and/or expecting too much out of Cam. But then with days like today, days when we spend all day out playing and then still get all of the intended work done, I know that we can do it. We can do it. We can do it. We can do it. Say it with me! We can do it.

What have I gotten myself into?

I started making my plans for History next year. It all seemed so simple in my mind. Follow the Ancient History timelines in a history encyclopedia or two. Read Story of the World. Check out a few books and movies from the library. Color a few maps. Do a few craft projects. Simple, right? Wrong! There's so much stuff out there! There is no way we could do it all, even if we tried.

Now the challenge seems to be figuring out what is worth spending the time on and what is not. I'm starting with Susan Wise Bauer's recommendations in the Story of the World Activity Guide and then narrowing that down by what my library actually has. (I'm thinking I should get together with all the other WTMers in my area and make a schedule because I know we're all going to want the same books, lol! I'm actually planning on starting in July, so hopefully I can get a jump on the competition.) Then I'm looking at what my library has that "looks interesting" by the online catalog. I'll order those in a week or two ahead of time and look them over. Then I'll just go look at what our library has in stock. And here, is actually one of my major panics about my plan... do you hear how many library books that is? We generally check out about 10 to 20 library books a month now. Embarrassingly, we actually read very few of those. Sometimes the kids love to be read to but frequently they just sit there collecting dust... the books, that is, not the kids. I'm just afraid that I'm going to have all these great, painstakingly laid out plans that are just going to sit on our "library table" going to waste.

I've also been planning out the activities and crafts that I think sound like fun to coincide with our studies. Things like cave paintings and flooding the Nile. (I'm going to hold off on the mummified chicken until our second pass though!) Hopefully these will go over well, if I plan them out and remember to do them! I tend to say that the kids don't like crafts, but the truth is that I don't like the mess for the 10 minutes of occupation that they provide, lol. But for real, honest-to-goodness school, hopefully I can make myself follow through.

Netflix and TiVo'ing the History Channel are also on my list for multimedia learning opportunities. Those I *know* the kids will like, but again, will I follow through past the first week or two? I think this homeschooling adventure of ours is going to be as much as a learning and Mind-Training experience for me as it will be for them. I hope I pass.

Now on to the log portion of the blog... Sunday, Cameron did another homemade math worksheet - mixed addition and subtraction. They must've done their job because Monday he said that he wanted to go back to working in the book. He did one exercise on adding three numbers and didn't take too horribly long to do it. He also did one lesson in phonics on "ee" as the long /e/ sound. He did really fantastic on that! Finally, we finished up with Lesson 4 in Spelling Workout - more beginning sound matching. He dragged and complained a bit because it was four pages long, but it was such easy work. I told him we could skip it and move on to Lesson 5, Ending Sounds, but he didn't want to. He finished it with ease and we were done with school before noon.

It's days like today, when with just a little gentle nudge we breeze through multiple subjects with most of the day to spare, that I think that we can really pull off a real Classical Education. I hope we can. It really is the ideal education in my mind. It's a little overwhelming at times, to see all I want to accomplish at once, but I think if we just continue on as we are we'll be fine. I plan to keep moving ahead with phonics, math, spelling, and eventually grammar *most* everyday, and the occasional science lesson like we have been, and then add on history three times a week and art/music once a week. Schedule the history and art appreciation. Keep the three R's flowing at his speed. Classical and child led, right?

Death and Marriage

I was talking to a friend at the park the other day and mentioning how everything is about "dead" now. "I made him dead!" or "If you don't obey Darth Vader, he is going to make you dead!" Morbid, yes, but I'm sure it's just developmental. As I said, I was discussing this phenomenon with her and she said that her two, also 5-1/2 and almost 4, were similarly obsessed. Well, with that and marriage. Death and marriage, what a pair!

At dinner tonight, Cameron brings up marriage. He says he's going to marry Cassia's friend Cassia (because I won't let him marry his sister). We were talking about how old you have to be and I was clarifying that there is more to the ceremony than just "a kiss" and then Cassia's fork starts dancing around and saying it wants to marry Cameron's fork. His fork tells hers that they can't because she's old enough. She has to be 18 first. She says, "Oh yeah, then take that!" and her fork starts attacking his. Meanwhile, I'm still trying to explain how you pledge to love someone forever and then exchange rings and suddenly Cameron butts in with, "Don't worry, we're not going to get married. We're just going to fight!" and then they break out into a sword fight with their forks.

Death and marriage - what a pair!

Outed!

I've been outed! Turns out that someone I don't really know (but have met once or twice) was reading my blog (where she came across it, I have no idea) and mentioned it to someone I *do* know. Well, she mentioned it to a couple other people I know and now I feel like the Fabrege girl, She'll tell two friends, and she'll tell two friends, and so on, and so on, and so on! I feel like I was just caught dancing naked in my living room with the blinds open, lol.

Yeah, so, um....

OK, now I've got to try to once again pretend that I'm only talking to Maria, Meesh, Mary, G, and occasionally Kris instead of the whole freakin' Western World. Gah. Who would've thought you could get stage fright from a blog? Gee thanks, Sandy!! ;)

So let's try moving into the more mundane. Thursday was gymnastics day. For school, we played a phonics game to review all the long /a/ sounds we've been learning. I would read part of a sentence like "Put this card on top of your..." and then hold up a card with a word for him to read, like "brain" and then he would put the card where instructed. We had a lot of fun with that one. It's amazing how easy it is for him to read when he's not stressed over a sentence or a paragraph. When does that skill come? He reads single words so well, but the sight of a paragraph sends him into an anxiety attack. Anyway, it was a lot of fun and we still have word cards stuck all over the house.

Next I tried getting Cameron to move on in his math book. The next lesson was adding three numbers, like 3 + 4 + 4. Not what I would call a success, lol. Three plus four? Seven. Plus four more? Forty-four? Um, no. Seventy-nine? Now you're just guessing. Oh... is it thirty-six? No, it's eleven! Oh, what was three plus four again? I gave up fairly quickly and printed out a worksheet from that worksheet generator I downloaded a while back. (There's a joke on each page! What does a cow read in the morning? The Mooospaper!) He stared at it for ten minutes and then I just gathered it up and brought it to gymnastics with us. Once he finally decided that he was just going to have to do it - without my telling him the answers - he finished the whole thing in less than 10 minutes. Twenty problems in 10 minutes! I think that's pretty good.

Friday we spent most of the day at the park with our preschool friends. The weather was odd. One minute it would be sunny and about 65 and the next minute the sky would cloud over, the wind would start blowing, and then it would rain for all of 5 minutes. And then it would be sunny again. We had a great time though. It had been way too long since we made it to this park day.

On the way home, Cameron said, "Hey we haven't done my schoolwork yet today!" Heheh, looks like my new 5-Days-of-Schoolwork=Free-Video-Games-on-the-Weekend rule is working! So we came home and he did another math worksheet. This time I made it a little harder and the only problem he gave me grief on was 8 + 8. He said that one was too hard. *Roll eyes* He still finished the whole sheet in about 10 minutes though.

I was going to have him do Spelling or something too, but for some reason I decided to make homemade tortillas to go with dinner so I had just enough time while those were resting to read the first chapter in MPH Science 3B. The Theme is about cycles and this particular chapter was defining the life cycle. I didn't really think he was paying much attention because he was playing with LEGOs and watching Cassia play on Starfall.com at the same time, but it turns out that he really was. While I was reading he kept putting his LEGOs into color patterns (that was how they introduced the concept of a cycle) and then during dinner he just kept popping up with random things he could call a cycle, like mother-father-baby and baby-child-teenager-adult. I'm willing to bet that he will bring it up again tomorrow too. I really like the topics in these MPH books. They're just detailed enough to give them real knowledge and pique a greater interest.

The entire time, from when we got home from the park until dinnertime, Cassia was playing on Starfall. She is obsessed. I think it's all the songs and sound effects appealing to her auditory nature. Cameron always liked the "Who am I?" game. He likes the games where you get to *do* something. It really is a site that has something for everyone. If she keeps this pace up, she'll know all her letters and their sounds by the end of the month.

That's about it from here. There were a couple carnival rides being set up at the fair grounds on Thursday, so we'll probably cruise by there tomorrow and see if they're running. Last year around this time, I promised the kids that we could go and ride a couple rides one day but when we got there, the rides were gone. Cameron was crushed. I was crushed. It was so sad. It was so sad that Cameron actually remembered and told me that we better not wait too long this time. I'm going to be in trouble if they've packed up already by tomorrow. Have a nice weekend. :)

Fire house!

We got to tour the Fire House today! It was really a great tour - much better than the other "open houses" that we've been to before. We got to see the laundry room and the kitchen and even our tour guide's bed with his dirty laundry on it, lol. They had one of the fire fighters slide down the pole for us! He told us that they used to let people slide down it until one year, at a Christmas party, they let Santa slide down the pole. His costume and padding were just too slippery and he had zero traction. He basically just fell from the second story and broke his leg. Poor Santa. I bet those firemen got lumps of coal in their stockings that year! They let the kids climb all over the truck and touch the fire suit. We learned the difference between a fire truck and a fire engine (the truck has the ladder!) and we learned that of the 4000 calls they took last year, about 200 of them were actual fires.

So what subject does that count as? Is that Social Studies? Or perhaps Health & Safety? I only ask because I was counting it as one of Cameron's two to three required subjects to earn his video games, lol. About 45 minutes before we had to leave for the tour I quick shoved his math book at him and told him that he had to hurry up and do his math now since I had something that I had to do after the tour and wouldn't be able to help him later. He fussed and fretted and sighed and slowly made it through one of two pages in the exercise. So rather than let him off easy, I told him to bring it along in the car to finish on the way! And guess what... it worked! He did it!! And he did it with much less fuss and less "help" than he usually needs! I guess it was just the novelty of doing it in the car, but man that was so painless! I may have to find somewhere far to drive every day so that he can do his math in the car. Maybe it's just the fact that he's strapped down? Somehow, I get the feeling that it wouldn't work as well to strap him down in his dining room chair. LOL!

And that was it for school today but here is my big news.... our new history encyclopedias came in the mail today!!!!!! I am so stinkin' excited! I cannot wait to sit down with them and plan out the next 8 years, lol. I got The Usborne Book of World History and The Kingfisher History Encyclopedia. I actually hugged them when I took them out of the box. Yes, I am a dork. I know. The best part is that I got them for free! My dad have given each of the kids a $15 gift card to Barnes & Noble for Christmas. I had been debating whether or not to use them for the encyclopedias because the prices at B&N are so much more than Amazon or Rainbow Resources, but they sent me a coupon for 15% off and I got free shipping so I was able to get both books that I wanted with 65 cents to spare. :) Yippee!! OK, off to invoke the "do as I say, not as I do" rule and go read during dinner. ;)

What is 4-H?

OK, I've had more than a few comments lately asking about 4-H and what it is. I admit, it is starting to take over our lives, lol, so let me explain a little.

4-H did start out as an agricultural thingamajingy - yes, that's the technical term ;) - but as modern communities started moving away from the country and into the cities, 4-H started changing their focus from agriculture to community. The four H's stand for head, heart, hands, and health. The pledge surrounds these things which are the heart of a worthwhile life: I pledge my head to clearer thinking, my heart to greater loyalty, my hands to larger service, and my health to better living for my club, my community, my country, and my world.

While there are agricultural projects available to participate in at the county level, the main focus of 4-H is to learn by doing. There are all sorts of random categories into which you can fit your project (project= group activity totaling at least 6 hours of time in which the kids learn something), but basically a project can be anything of interest. Right now, Cameron is in Arts & Crafts, Hiking, and LEGO Engineering. Our club also has projects on Carnivorous Plants, Cooking, Polymer Clay, Geocaching, and Digital Photography.

Our club is unique though because it is comprised solely of homeschoolers. Because of that, we tend to do things a little differently. Our meetings are during the day instead of afterschool. Our projects tend to be more hands on and less schoolish. The organization does publish curricula but we generally choose not to use it. We also have a lot more parental involvement than some of the other clubs. A friend of mine went to a project from another club in our county and was sorely disappointed because all they did, she said, was sit and read to the kids from a book. LOL. There were all these "optional activites" listed in the book, but the project leader told her that those were for them to do on their own. I guess they just didn't have the kind of parental involvement necessary to do a lot of extras.

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you know that at one point I was attempting to get a pre-schooler's co-op going. My attempts got me nothing except a couple of good friends, but I've discovered that 4-H is the co-op that I had been searching for. Next year I'm going to lead a project on Ancient Technologies to coincide with our Ancient History studies. Why? Because I can. ;) One of the leaders even said that she has a friend who could give a demonstration on fire making for us! I may even do a cooking one for younger kids - the current one is for ages 8 and up. There are lots of opportunities for the taking.

Speaking of opportunities, and the other reason that 4-H is such a great thing for homeschoolers, is that the meetings are completely member led. The kids run the meeting, give the reports, can lead the projects, etc. They get practice in leading, following, giving speeches and reports, sitting still (lol, yeah right), and respecting others. All the group/public issues that homeschoolers may be lacking in can be addressed. There are also optional record books which (besides giving practice in reporting) can be used as part of your child's transcripts.

OK, have I gushed enough? I can't believe I ever doubted joining, lol. I hope I have cleared up a few questions and haven't just confused you all more. ;) Here's the state's info page - it's pretty vague. I think the best quote I've heard is that 4-H is what you make of it. If you're active and involved it is a wonderfully enriching experience. :)