Don't Try this at Home

This was a fun week. We went to the zoo with friends, had friends over to play, went to the circus, and worked very hard on converting BB's room into a room for the girls. We also learned the first four lines of the Guy Fawkes poem because we have a friend named Guy and CC's new Nesbit book references the Gunpowder Plot. So we've spent the week walking around prompting each other to Remember, remember the fifth of November. Gunpowder, Treason, and Plot.

We've packed up BB's stuff (sniff, sniff) that he didn't take to Tokyo with him, moved the furniture, purchased new paint (and watched how they mix the colors), and removed the carpet and padding. In the process, the girls learned how to use hammers to remove things with a lever and remove nails using the claw end as a fulcrum. We also removed lots of staples from where the padding had been, and have lots of staples left to remove. We have started working to remove the texture (popcorn) from the ceiling. Lots more work still to be done before we can start putting the room back in order.

At the circus, the girls spent two hours staring with giant eyes at amazing things. There was just too much to be amazed at. I think one of the favorites - besides the animal acts - was the people being shot from cannons. I thought they only did that in cartoons. I was glad that it was during the week so that I could be there to see the looks on the girls' faces. I love that wide-eyed look of wonder.

Week 34 - Thunderbird

This week we spent a lovely afternoon watching the Thunderbirds . I love how a little thing like an air show at a graduation can lead to so many discussions. Hubby and I shared about tossing our caps at our graduations. We discussed what is so special about the Air Force Academy that their graduates get their own fly over and air show. We talked about the speed of sound and why the planes seem to drag their roar behind them - is it so they can sneak up on enemies? We even spent a good deal of time with LB going over the number 6. "There are two, where are the other 4? Oh there is one, and there is another one, where are the others? Look, there are 5, where is that last one? Look they are flying 3 in the front and 3 behind. " We talked about why the sound from the plane over us made our tummies rumble.



The rest of the week, we watched a lot of science shows - we love Mythbusters around here and the sun didn't shine for several days. CC is more than halfway finished memorizing The Tiger, and we have been using that for copywork and cursive practice. We also worked on multiplication over breakfast with me reading word problems from Ray's. I like the problems that have prices for things. Here are some prices: apples, 8 cents a pound; watermelon, 5 cents each; opium $8 per pound. Gulp. That is an interesting breakfast conversation. "Mommy, what is opium?" And the problem in question was asking how much 7 pounds is. Well, "That is enough to get you put in prison for a very long time honey."

We have postponed reading the rest of SOTW2 for a while. I didn't want to leave the Middle Ages, without reading more King Aurthur and at least one more Robin Hood book. The Renaissance can wait a little while longer.

And LB has now read 5 of her BOB books. I love watching new readers read. She sounds out the word, then blends it, then gives a little jump, her face lights up and she repeats the word. Then she rereads the whole sentence so far. She also does something that neither of the other two did. When she sees a word that she has read before, she flips back to where it was, then keeps one finger on the previous copy of the word and sounds out the new copy of the word, then flips back to the other page and seems to almost verify that that word said the same thing last time she read it. It is interesting to watch how her mind works.

Reading! - and so it begins

Last night we went to the bookstore after dinner, and hubby pulled out the box 1 of Bob's for LB. Well, she read the first book with no trouble.

She sounds out the words and then blends like a champ. I think my strategy of not teaching her to read is working great! Now we are once again, the proud owners of boxes and boxes of Bob's books that will be read and read until the reader finds them easy.

Week 33 - Tatami mats, Thirsty 6's and Giants

This is the new apartment in Tokyo for the Big Brother in college. His space is eight tatami mats large or 12 x 12. That's a big step up from the 9 x 9 (4 1/2 mats) dorm room he just moved from; he even has a bed long enough for his 6'6" self to sleep in. He ended up sharing an apartment with two girls that are from our home state. The world often turns out to be smaller and more connected than you think.

This week at school we started bumping against those multiplication tables again.

I've been letting CC use a reference chart of multiplication facts so that she can continue to be challenged in math without waiting for her to memorize those facts. She has been able to do quite a bit that way, including figuring out division with remainders, prime number factorization, and two digit-multiplication with carrying. This week, I gave her a copy of Times Tales to read through to supplement her math. I think she liked it because she was not only giggling while reading it, today in math when factoring 36, she lit up and said, "Oh, Thirsty Sixes! That is 6 x 6!"

I am currently reading the girls a book of Norse Mythology and Knight's Castle . This week the two disparate works both talked about giants. I love it when things like that happen because it give us good literary ideas to discuss. LB woke me up this morning and asked if I would read Jack and the Beanstalk to her. It is one of those great stories for children that not only let them run around with a "Fe Fi Fo Fum. I smell the Blood of and Englishman.", they also reassure children that the giants can be defeated by children.


“Fairy Tales are more than true; not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.” G.K. Chesterton

Week32 - BB goes back to Tokyo

BB left for Tokyo again yesterday morning. It wasn't any easier this time.


Maybe it was even harder. He is just a little bit further away from the boy he was and gradually becoming more comfortable in the path he is choosing. He seems to really love Tokyo so I guess I have to be happy for him even if it means he is so far from me. We went over budgeting and had some discussions about how he is going to move toward being more self-sufficient. We packed his suitcases with food and sent him back to the biggest city in the world.

School this week revolved around BB. He spent time playing board games with the girls and teaching them how to use K'nex. They built a well from the directions in the K'Nex Simple Machines set.

Yesterday, we worked in the yard, and I worked on repairing the sprinklers. We spent time measuring the broken section, sketching the parts we need, and shopping for replacement parts. Then they watched while I cut PVC, and cemented the new section together.

Today, we went for a nice walk on the trail by our house and LB collected wildflowers. She had me look up the names after we returned, then she proceeded to play house with them. They had personalities and became a family.

We are up to the beginning of the Renaissance in history. We read more Norse mythology. CC and BB spent many hours reading Calvin and Hobbes together. CC is also reading The Enchanted Castle by E. Nesbit and Knight's Castle by Edward Eager. She spent a couple of hours working on a comic book for her brother that she will finish next week so we can mail it to his new apartment.

Slowly, we are returning to our rhythm. We miss BB.

Week 31 Summary - Family and Fresh Air

School this week was reduced to its essential - math, spelling, and art plus reading in history, literature and mythology. Hubby's dad was here, and BB is home so hubby took off a few hours every afternoon for some family time.












Outside of book work, our week included some of our favorite places with plenty of sunshine, fresh air, rocks, blue sky, caves, trees, sticks, picnics, mud, and family.


We read a great story about Loki this week, and LB had a cute idea about what kind of lies Loki told. She said that maybe sometimes he would say that he was going upstairs to go potty, and then he would sneak into his room to play. That trickster Loki.

I still love MEP. This week we used symmetry and perimeter in geometry to reinforce multiplication. We also did multiplication and division using Roman numerals. CC thought that this was really cool. Today, I had her work some from the SIngapore CWP3 book just to make sure that all of this different math wasn't changing our wonderful word problems, but after she read the problems, she said that she knew just how to solve them and went on to easily solve word problems that used multiplication, subtraction and division in the same problem without even slowing down. I love it.

I also spent more than two hours on the phone with Sallie Mae, but that is a whole 'nuther discussion.

We have 31 days of school left for 2008-2009 school year.

I don't think I can teach her to read

LB is my last, best hope for teaching a child to read. I have failed miserably with the older two. I was determined to teach this one.

BB learned to read on his own while he was in pre-kindergarten. I had planned to try to teach him to read, but he learned how before I had the chance. CC wanted to learn to read so that she could read to LB after she was born. I tried to teach her, but she wasn't ready at 3 or even early 4 so I put everything away. One day, I found her reading Go, Dog, Go to herself.

Today, LB climbed into my lap while CC was having her spelling test and wanted words to write. After I asked her what she wanted to write, she hopped down and returned with the wooden letters and spelling set. She happily spelled cat, bear, duck, and car with her wooden letters then copied them onto paper. I looked at the remaining letters and spelling words and asked if she would spell frog while I was gone to rotate the laundry. As I came back from downstairs, I heard her telling her sister, "Mommy wants me to spell frog, but I won't do it. She doesn't know that princesses don't like frogs." Of course that was the end of our spelling. I couldn't convince her to spell anything else after insulting her by asking a princess to spell frog. I am not going to be able to teach her to read.

WR27 - Sand in the house?

What you see pictured here is a real look at my school table. I didn't clean it up for the picture. The little one is still in her pj's, and the middle one is supposed to be writing her spelling word (yeah word) in the sand. Doesn't writing spelling words in sand sound like a nice, multi-sensory activity? It does. Now quit laughing. My hubby even laughed - he asked who on earth suggested giving sand to kids? It was of course the end of school. It wasn't the planned end of school, but I couldn't get anyone's attention back after somebody found a tiny seashell in the sand left over from last time we used it for a craft. So I just gave in, brought out my box of ocean-themed stuff and poured myself a cup of coffee. A long, hot shower helped too. The girls had fun then we cleaned up. Most of the sand really stayed on the plates - I was surprised.


We started last week in MEP math at lesson 84, this week we finished lesson 99. I am still loving it. We had a minor victory Wednesday when CC had to figure out what number times 3 plus 18 equals 75. Once she got the answer she was a little disappointed because it was "just like easy math but with bigger numbers." She was very proud of her work this week.

She started her new art class. Its another pottery class - she loves pottery and is waiting to be old enough to use the wheels. She also took a field trip to a local pioneer center. Her favorite parts were scrubbing clothes on a washboard, drawing water from the well, making corn bread, and panning for gold. She loves history that she can see and touch.

All that and we took Monday off because we needed a day off, went to the park on Tuesday after we finished our work, found two tiny, baby bunnies in our back yard, spent over an hour at the library reading the first chapters of books looking for a good mystery for CC, had a great day on Wednesday at the park with our friends, and colored eggs today.

LB is starting to get very independent. At the library this week, while I was looking for books for CC, she was supposed to be looking at books or playing in the children's area. I turned to check on her and she was gone. I looked behind me and there she was walking back from the water fountain with a big smile. She had been thirsty and gone for a drink. "Mommy, this is a small library and I walked right by you to get the water. I know the way there and I could see you, but thanks for looking for me." Why did my 4 year-old give me such a good defense of her water fountain trip? Maybe, she is bigger than I thought she was, and the reason I leave her in the children's area while I look in the bigger kids area has a lot to do with the size and layout of the library. She's my little devious child. She had anticipated my objections and had an answer for them.

WR25 - I knew this wasn't Spring Break

Since we had delightful 70's last week, it is only right that we had a blizzard this week. And if you don't know blizzards, that is what they call it when the winds are 30mph gusting to 50mph pushing a foot of snow. It is a great time to be inside and call off school. Everything gets closed and we stay inside and enjoy each other.


When it clears and the sun comes out, we spend an hour or two with the shovels finding the driveway and sidewalks. I think we are getting better at bundling the kids because after an hour sitting in the snow in 18 degree weather, they were starting to get hot but still welcomed homemade hot cocoa.


This week we only did 4 days of school and only did art and math. After two days of working on multiplication tables, CC discovered that multiplication will help her do her division faster. Well, of all things!

They loved art school - too bad it was cut short by the blizzard. It was LB's first experience in a classroom without me. After the first day, she exclaimed she wanted to go everyday, forever. When we arrived on the second day, she decided that she didn't want to be there. But I asked her to try the class for a little bit. She of course loved it again. The same was repeated the next day. Her teacher remarked that she is a very happy child and always smiling. I just nodded that "Yes, she is delightful." She's one of those hot-and-cold kids. Either everything is wonderful or the world is falling apart. She really has no middle ground, but happily for us, she is sunny most of the time.

I need to get myself together and get CC signed up for her next pottery class which is supposed to start in April. Hopefully they will have some nice summer classes that I can get the girls in that are at the same time. I like the results from having professional art teachers. I'll post some pictures, right after I take them.

We also read a different version of the Three Little Pigs. It is The Pig Who Went Home on Sunday by Donald Davis. I was afraid the girls would be bothered by the first two pigs getting eaten by the fox, but they were more amused by the third pig getting the best of the fox. I love reading different versions of stories that they know because it gives us a good opportunity to talk about the story - the characters, the setting, plot, how it is different and how the differences changed the story. Literary analysis can start young and doesn't have to ruin a story (or scare the parent). You can teach simple little lessons like this and start giving kids tools to enhance their enjoyment of and understanding of literature.

Next Week is Spring Break - NOT

This week our county public schools are on Spring Break which is probably good for them. I bet they need a break because the warm weather has been giving us spring fever. Now of course the bad news is that the weather is turning cold next week. The good news for us is that all over the county, there are wonderful programs setup to entice parents to drop off their little darlings for enrichment.


I plan to take full advantage of these enrichments, add a little math and writing and call it school.

The big plan for next week if for both girls to be in art classes all week for 2 hours a day in the afternoon while I sit nearby and read a book. I might even bring along a big cup of coffee. Before our strenuous time in class each day, each girl will be working on her own math book creations. LB will be making a book of numbers, and CC will be making a book of multiplication tables.


Whew - I think this is going to be a hard week of school or NOT.

Learning New Ways to Play

After being a mom for more than 19 years, you would think that I have played every variation of Hide-n-Seek that there is. Guess what? Apparently there is still a lot for me to learn. LB taught me a new way to play hide-n-seek tonight. It was sweet and fun.


The "finder" puts on a buff ( like one of those round stretchy bandannas they use in Survivor,  but much cooler), while the "hider" goes to another room and hides in an easy place to walk past. Once hidden, the hider calls "READY", and the finder goes to find her using her other senses. If the finder is having trouble, she asks "Are you here?" and the hider makes a noise. This continues until the finder finds the hider. I've played lots of hide-n-seek in my days, but it is a treat to be taught a new way to play.

I love playing games like this with kids. They end with everyone giggling and help us to enjoy the simple joys of life.

WR20 - Potential Energy, Poetry, and Favorite Things

Steady progress with math, learning limericks, and writing about our favorite things. How is that for a week? We started the week with a discussion of how to get a flow back into days, and ended with art, a cold, and shopping for two birthday parties which are both tomorrow.

We made a list of all the things we do in a day and tried to organize it into a nice flow with quiet and active alternated. Tuesday, we reorganized the list and Wednesday, we decided that it just might work for us. Our days went smoother this week. I finally realized that we are all suffering from BB moving to the other side of the world for college and Grandma going to FL for a few months. Our little house seems empty without them so we are working on it and making sure to have plenty of fresh air and sunshine to help us.

We chose to do limericks for our copywork this week. I included a sample of CC's work. She loves limericks, and we both had fun with them this week. It took her two days figure out what makes a limerick a limerick, but it was a nice revelation.

The big words in science this week are potential and friction. CC made a frictionless car - a balloon is the key. She also realized the she learned to spell both words by writing them in her science journal many times. And did you know that rocks stacked at the top of a ravine have a lot of potential energy? Avalanche is a nice word too. The kids played in the open space near our house with their friends this week and spent a lot of time carry rocks to the top of the ravine and then creating avalanches.

In math this week, CC moved up to 5 digit subtraction which she thought was amazing. She also started adding three three-digit numbers. Our math has a great routine that is working for us. Monday and Tuesday, we do calculations. Wednesday, we do one addition and one subtraction plus some word problems which I mix between the different operations (I comb through the books and rewrite the problems onto a piece of paper for her). Thursday, she is at cottage school and gets a pass on math. Friday, she does one addition and one subtraction, and two pages of multiplication coloring which appeal to her artistic side and her love of order and patterns.

We also worked on learning about Asia in geography and Australian history - I never knew that the Maori didn't get to New Zealand until the Middle Ages.

At Girl Scouts this week, the girls had to make a list of their favorite things. Okay - most did not know how to spell their middle names or know the color of their hair or eyes. CC had a terrible time deciding on her favorite book - in the end she chose four favorite sets - all of Edward Eager books, all of the Little House books, anything by E. Nesbit, and The Sisters Grimm series. She also said that her favorite day of the week is any weekday because she doesn't like weekends. It was interesting to watch her answer these questions.

In an effort to stem the tide of what has been appropriately called "Me Too School", I moved the big wooden dollhouse into the living room so that it is in plain view of the dining room/school table. LB happily played all week instead of sitting down to school. She did make some lovely art with us, enjoy a great retelling of Jack and the Beanstalk which had us all Fe Fi Fo Fumming all week, and figure out that Tony, tapping, and Tokyo all start with T. She sounded out lion and a few other amazing feats all without any me-too-school.

What else, we had a pot luck and a performance at the cottage school and got to enjoy meeting with other homeschoolers. LB caught a little cold that has her eyes a little less sparkly than usual. We talked to BB who is in the middle of his first real mid-terms. I remember those. I think we made some good progress toward getting our groove back.

Beginning Readers and Little Sisters

Last week, CC helped LB sound out her first words while we were driving. LB has been learning the letter sounds and has been learning to spell. She is on verge of starting to read.

This morning, CC wrote and illustrated a beginning reader for her sister. She wanted only words that her sister could sound out, and she wanted to make sure there weren't many blends in it and that it wasn't too complex but was still interesting. She decided that she likes sentences that build up from words so that her sister can get confidence reading words she has already sounded out. Once she finishes adding color to the pictures, I'll upload pictures of the book. Here is the Story:

Cats and Dogs
Cats and Dogs run.
Cats and Dogs run fast.
Cats and Dogs sit.
The End.

It is simple and sweet. It is also the perfect first reader.

WR18 - This doesn't make any sense

I finally started two-digit multiplication this week with CC and LB has worked her way up to the number 6. I am now convinced that I have no idea what I am doing.

This week, I read the Gingerbread Man to LB, and we even made homemade playdough. It is funny considering how much we do art that we now have to cycle back to the beginning again.

Since it was Ground Hog day and Imbolc this week, we read a story about the Cailleach and the Bride. We also read some legends that said that if the weather was fair, the Cailleach had made it that way so that she could gather a lot of wood for a long winter and if the weather was cold or wet that she didn't need much wood because the winter wouldn't last much longer. We of course had a beautiful, clear day so we were concerned about a long winter. The 70's the following day cleared away much of that worry.

We read about Medieval China and started Medieval Japan in SOTW2. We also read some really good stories in 1001 Arabian Nights. The Story of the Little Beggar is the funniest story we have read in a long time. It had us laughing for days.

We are working on our Robert Frost poem and it is going well. I think we should have the whole thing memorized next week or the week after. I couldn't find the spelling book this week so we skipped it. IEW is still going well. We are enjoying the lessons and CC likes the rule I made that if the IEW lesson covers a grammar topic that we don't have to do GWG that day so she feels like she is getting something.

CC made rubber balls for science, learned about hand building clay, and saw some Chinese acrobats. LB started ballet. We had a great time at the park with our friends. LB sounded out words with her sister yesterday in the car - she sounded out AND, CAN, and HAT. We even met another homeschooling family that lives in town.

I have been putting off starting double-digit multiplication, but found that CC had worked every problem in the textbook, workbook and IP book that comes before the double digit multiplication so I could find no more excuses. We started it, and she found it easy. Very easy. Too easy. She even liked it. Now my problem is that while she can do a two-digit multiplication problem and get the right answer, I think that she has no idea how it works. For example, a problem was 54 x 3 . She thought about it a few moments then wrote 162. I was amazed. She didn't understand why I thought it was hard so I started wondering how she was doing the problems. I asked her to explain it to me. I thought she would start with 3 x 4 is 12 or something like that. She just looked blankly at me and said - "It just is." So I tried showing her how I worked them and she didn't understand. I even gave her 50 x 3 and 4 x 3 and showed her - she just looked blankly at me and asked why I would do it that way. I just don't understand math the same way she does.

And speaking of not understanding..... Today I gave LB seven little cups with the numbers 0-6 marked in them and a pile of beans and a die. I instructed her to roll the die, the put that number of beans in the cup with that number on it. Simple. She had lots of fun trying to roll each of the numbers so that she could fill each cup. However, she exclaimed "Mommy, this zero just doesn't make any sense." I asked her what the problem was, and she said she couldn't get zero on the die. CC said she had tried to explain it to her. I walked her through a couple of numbers then asked her to give me zero beans, and she obligingly handed me nothing which I put in the zero cup then I asked her how many beans were in the cup and she said zero. But her problem was that the die didn't roll a zero for her. I asked her if it would be easier if I just took the 0 away and she said "Yes, please. It doesn't make any sense." I was trying to reinforce the number recognition and the idea of zero at the same time. I guess I should have just stuck to the number recognition and saved zero for a day when I was available to sit with her.

Even though we were busy this week, it was a very good week. BUT I just don't know. Sometimes I don't feel like I know what I am doing even when everything is going according to plan.

WR15 - Unexpected nature

Monday, we had an unexpected snowstorm, so of course Tuesday we went sledding.

It also happened to be a great day for a nature walk.

We followed these tracks through the snow.

And we saw many of these out enjoying the weather too. I love our local park and trail.

Now, for the rest of our week. It went mostly as planned except I found a new simile for homeschooling - Homeschooling is like Windsurfing. I'll explain that later this weekend.

CC - Second Grade.
Math - Great this week. We stuck to addition squares and multiplication practice the entire week. (daily)
Grammar - She claims that it is torture. She complains when it is time. She asks for explanation as to why she must do it and pleads for something more fun. She whizzes through each lesson everyday and even giggles at some of the exercises. Growing with Grammar seems to be working. I am gradually transitioning her to reading the assignments herself and figuring out what needs to be done. (daily)
Copywork - I used Worksheetworks.com to create the copywork this week from her chosen poem "After the Party." She is copying 10 lines of poetry a day this week instead of 4. (daily)
History - We are still reading SOTW2 nightly so this is great. (daily)
Science - We had a great nature walk which was unplanned. The RS4K Physics lesson went pretty well, but when we were out in the field throwing the tennis ball, I couldn't remember what the point was. I need to prepare better next time. having the experiment materials isn't enough. (twice)
Literature - We are reading One Thousand and One Arabian Nights - by Geraldine McCaughrean. CC is loving it. We are having some great discussions about veiled women, people as property, Baghdad being the center of the world and different belief systems. (daily)

LB - Preschool? K4? Something
She still only comes to the table voluntarily. Somedays she has a lot of trouble with the concept that she can't play with CC or Me during "school time."
Math - We worked on the number 3. She wrote the number three, repeated patterns with three things in them, divided up three things into groups of 1,1,1 and 1,2 and 2,1 and 0,3. She also played with triangle shapes and did the 3 page in Singapore EB.
Reading - While we were playing with letters one day, she sat with us and spelled words - cat, hat, dat (she knows it is a made-up word. It is what you get when you cross a dog and a cat), dad, mad, sad, tad (a person's name), mom and then she starting lining up the letters and had mommy and daddy letters. Gotta love that short attention span.
Geography - We worked on learning where North America is on our big floor map. She insisted it is easier to find on the globe and doesn't like the idea that we live there. She would prefer that we live in Africa because she likes giraffes.

BB seems to be settling in at college. He found out that his Japanese class is taught completely in Japanese so that is exciting for him. He already wrote an essay for English. He is bored in College Algebra, and the comparative government systems class looks like it is going to be very challenging and will require lots of classroom discussion. He also found that cheese costs about a dollar a slice, bread is sold by the slice, and although butter was $4 for a big square of it, he bought some so that he could get a more familiar taste for his eggs and rice which is now his staple meal (he is cooking most of his own meals now).

I started using the Motivated Moms checklist for chores this week. Monday, the kids thought I was trying to kill they by making them clean toilets. By the end of the week, we learned that LB is great at cleaning sinks, and CC discovered that she loves cleaning the mirrors, and we were all glad that I finally got rid of that big cobweb. My motto for the week was "You Live here - You work Here." I usually make them do chores, but I am rather sporadic about it. I do love checklists so I think MM will be a good structure for us.