Weekly Report - October 8-12

(A slideshow with pictures is at the end of this post.)

Science

After having the kids work on a lapbook for the past few weeks, and listening to the grumbling, I have given them up. As much as I would love for my children to be interested in making those cute mini-books and assembling them into one overview of our science study, it's not going to happen. It was time for me to let go of the fantasy and return to what works - notebook pages. They actually like making these, so that's a good thing.

We made our first ocean animals for the ocean boxes. It was our first time using Sculpey clay and I helped them with shaping the animals. I plan on being more hands-off next time.

Robert made a killer whale and Ruth made a dolphin. Unfortunately, our dolphin had a tragic accident (AKA Robert dropping it) and lost its nose. We will be making a new dolphin soon.

Language Arts

I blogged in my previous post about switching to using the Arrow for our grammar, dictation, and writing. Grammar and dictation went well, but I'm not so sure about the writing. I may need something with more step-by-step instructions that I am getting with this. I'm going to stick with it through the month, so I'll have to see what the final result is.

History

We read about monks in history this week. For a project, we made illuminated letters. I have seen several versions of this project, but I liked the instructions in Hands-on History the best.

We also checked out the Leaves of Gold web-site. They have a lot of information about illuminated manuscripts and how they were made. When the kids made comments about how long it was taking to color their letters and borders, we talked about how their work compared to the work done in the middle ages. We also discussed that only the wealthy owned books, and even they only owned a few. Ruth mentioned that she can't imagine a home not filled with books. Nor can I, my dear.

Fine Arts

We listened to Polovtsian Dances by Borodin. This is a favorite piece of Griff's so we've heard it before, but I am trying to teach the kids the names of pieces and composers.

We have a new picture from our Cassatt study - Children Playing at the Beach. I've also seen it titled Two Children at the Seashore. Can I say again how much I love this artist?

Hymn and folk song didn't happen... again. I need to get all the music on one CD. I think that will make it easier.

Books Read

Robert

• Matilda by Roald Dahl
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
• Viking Adventure by Clyde Robert Bulla

Ruth

• Matilda by Roald Dahl
• She's also about half-way through Heidi. I loved that book as a child.

(Can anybody tell me how to underline text in html?)

Latin

We are on lesson 3 of Prima Latina. Ruth is especially loving this. I'm not sure why, but she gets a real thrill out of it. They are also really picking up on the whole concept of Latin roots in our language. They are usually able to think of at least a couple of English words for each Latin word we learn. Since I want them to learn Latin for vocabulary purposes, I'm very happy about that.

A New Schedule

When we began this school year, we moved to a more Charlotte Mason approach. We are using a schedule combining Year 1 and 2 of Ambleside Online. However, even that schedule was not enough for me. I looked at the list of books we would be missing and started adding more to the schedule. Well, that has led to overload. So, I am letting go of my obsession with checking all the boxes and making some changes.

The biggest change (to me, at least) is dropping Rod and Staff English. It was taking too much time and I am not convinced we need to be hitting grammar that hard at this age. It was a difficult decision (I just love that program), but I finally decided to try something else for awhile. We will be using the sample lesson from Bravewriter's Arrow. It covers some grammar, literary elements, dictation, and a writing exercise. It is 4 weeks long. At the end of the lesson, I will decide what to do from there. We may stay with the Arrow or we may go back to Rod and Staff, but at a much more relaxed pace. We may try something else. I don't know yet.

I have also dropped Fifty Famous Stories Retold (an AO selection I added in) and Our Island Story (which is scheduled). Doing history 4 days a week (sometimes 5) was too much. We are enjoying both of these books, but I decided they weren't crucial to our school day. A Child's History of the World covers the parts of OIS that I don't want to miss (King Harald, William the Conqueror, etc.) at a much faster pace. Both of these books have been added to our book basket and I am pretty sure the kids will keep reading them on their own.

With everything that we dropped, I have been able to put aside a whole day each week for projects. Scheduling things in the morning makes it much more likely that it's going to be done. As much as I want the afternoons to be spent in projects and other enrichment activities, it doesn't usually happen. It always seems that we are either running behind, or something has come up (doctor appointments etc.).

Now that I have probably explained way too much about my thought processes, here's the unveiling. Ta-da!


(A big "thank you" to Tami for all her help and advice as I worked through this. She's a true gem.)

Mosaic Boxes

We finished our mosaic boxes this weekend and I wanted to show them off. I think the kids did a great job on them. (Please keep in mind that none of us have ever done any type of mosaic work before, unless you count construction paper.)

When I first showed the kids what we would be doing, Robert was not interested. However, when I mentioned he would get to break up the tiles into smaller pieces with a hammer, he was in.

We worked outside because the tile adhesive we were using said that we need to be in an area with cross-ventilation. I didn't want to take a chance, so we worked out on the back porch. This was definitely one of those times I wish we had some sort of table out there.

First, we divided up the tiles. I felt it would be best to decide on colors before beginning. (I'm smart that way.)


Then the hammering began. I think this was one of their favorite parts.


A practice run to get a feel for how many tiles would be needed...


Gluing... With all the warnings on the bottle, I was a little worried about this. No problems were encountered, however.

Both children lost patience with the small pieces after awhile, so we filled in the middle with whole tiles.


Gluing is finished. Now we just have to wait for them to dry before grouting.


I did the grouting. I think that's my own impatience coming through. :)

Here's a picture of the finished boxes. The kids were anxious for me to finish with the picture-taking so they could start using them. I think they are very proud of the work they did. I know I am.

Weekly Report - Oct. 1-5

Math

I just had to share these photos of my children doing their math assignments this week.

Ruthie decided she needed to work under the table one day.


Having a kitty join you makes a torturous subject go much more smoothly.

Grammar

Really, what can you say about grammar that is interesting? (no offense intended if it's the highlight of your day) However, I had to laugh at Ruthie's response to an assignment. She was to write 3 exclamatory sentences that would be said upon receiving a gift from a grandparent. (Don't you just love Rod & Staff?) Ever the quirky child, she wrote:

Grandmother, thank you for the lovely bucket of mud!

For the record, her grandmother has never given her a bucket of mud. She does, in fact, buy my children nice gifts, and too many of them.

History

We studied the Byzantine empire this week. This led very nicely into looking at Byzantine mosaics on the internet. This led to a natural choice of doing mosaics for art this week. I like for the children to do projects that are actually useful and/or decorative and not fodder for the trash can within a couple of weeks. So, I headed to Michael's and got the following supplies. This is still a work in progress, but I will post a picture when it's done. They are turning out great!

Reading

I bought this pretty basket yesterday and set up my book basket. I love how it looks. However, pretty is as pretty does, so let's see how useful it turns out to be. :)

In Other News

Ruthie found a good way to get out of cello practice and lesson this week. Have the fingerboard come off your instrument! It's currently in the shop.

Robert, after two weeks of his best viola lessons ever, was rewarded with 30 minutes of video game time (typically off limits during the school week). You will be happy to know that, after owning the game for 5 years, he has finally beaten Super Mario Sunshine. All is right with the world.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

(Okay, I had to stop and go look up the lyrics because I couldn't remember the next line. For the record, it's "Turn and face the stranger", whatever that means.)

I am in the process of overhauling our schedule. Some things are not working. Others, while they are working, are taking too much time. I'm going to be adding some things and removing others. I'll post the final schedule when it's done.

A Grand Canyon Cake

The day before we left on our trip was Robert's 11th birthday. We were very busy packing and making last minute preparations, but I didn't want the day to go by unnoticed, so I made a cake.

I kept it simple and made a round 2-layer cake - chocolate with cream cheese frosting. Robert picked out orange frosting for the decorations.

My first mistake was not leveling the layers. The second mistake was putting the least-flat layer on the bottom. However, I realized my mistakes too late and just crossed my fingers that it would turn out okay.

I hadn't even finished frosting it when the cracks began. I quickly finished the decorating and took a picture.


By the time we put candles on it and sang "Happy Birthday", it looked like this.


We laughed and called it his "Grand Canyon cake" in honor of our trip to the Grand Canyon. :)

The appearance of the cake in no way interfered with the birthday festivities or the eating of said cake. It was delicious.

Scrapbook Layout

Inspired by Tami at Ambleside Classical Academy, I have been looking into digital scrapbooking. My biggest problem was two-fold.

• I don't have Photoshop
• I'm on an iMac (which I love!) and most digital scrapping software does not run on this platform

We do, however, have GIMP. After looking around the internet, I found instructions for using it with digital scrapping here. Oh, happy day!

So, after an evening spent with the learning curve, I've created this.




I am very happy with it. Now I just need to print it, which is a whole other issue! LOL

(pages created with Shabby Princess Celebrating, which can be found for free here)

Weekly Report - Sept 24-28

This was our week to try to get back in the groove after a week off. It was hard (!), but we still got quite a bit done and we're back on track now.

Art

First, I want to share our art project for the week. We made these fall banners from a kit I got from Hearts and Trees (who is, by the way, the daughter of Barb at The Heart of Harmony). I tell you, this is a fantastic way of getting art done around here. I don't have to plan or collect supplies. I just pull it out of the bag and go. Easy-peasy and cute, fun (and educational!) projects.

Artist Study

Speaking of art, we have a new Mary Cassatt print - Woman and Child Driving. I read somewhere that the woman is her sister, but now I can't find the reference. I have fallen in love with the artwork of Cassatt. I was thrilled to find out that our local art museum has a couple of pieces of her artwork. I cannot wait for that field trip!

US Geography

As I've blogged before, we are keeping this very simple. We covered Oklahoma and Arizona this week. The coloring sheet with the state bird and flower can be found here.

Science

We continued working on our lapbooks for Apologia Elementary Zoology 2. This week, the kids studied whale moves and made this book. I bought the lapbook instructions from Knowledge Box Central. We also watched the video clips that I mentioned here.


We will be watching Whales: An Unforgettable Journey: IMAX later today.

Reading

Robert, the boy I have to force to read, has discovered Roald Dahl. He read James and the Giant Peach and declared it "the best book ever!" He wants to read Matilda next, so we'll be stopping by the library to get that soon.

Ruth is re-reading Redwall. I think she's read every book in the series. That girl will read anything she can get her hands on. She reminds me a lot of me when I was that age.

Oh, and we finished The Penderwicks while on vacation. What a wonderful, wonderful book. I highly recommend it.

History

Instead of drawing for their notebook this week, I let the kids print off a picture from the internet. For the story of Attila the Hun, we found a painting done by Raphael of the meeting between Pope Leo I and Attila. Perfect! History with a little bit of art appreciation thrown in.

Latin

We finally added this in this week. It's our last subject to make it into the schedule, which means we're finally at our full load. We're using Prima Latina and my children now know the following Latin words:

• ambulo - I walk
• toga - toga (they thought this was funny)
• Deus - God
• luna - moon
  
• via - road
• oremus - let us pray
• salve/salvete - hello
  

All in all, a good week.

Ocean Video Clips

As part of our Elementary Apologia Zoology 2 lesson today, the kids read about whale moves. I decided to see if I could some online video clips of them and found a really neat web-site.

It's called Ocean Footage and you can search for different, short clips to view, for free, on your computer. We were able to easily find videos of whales breaching, spyhopping, lobtailing, and logging.

If you register at their site, you can view the videos at a higher quality. Everything is still free, so I chose to do this.

I think we will be using this web-site quite a bit this year.

Enjoy!

Our Day

This seemed like a busy day, so I thought I would list the happenings to see if it was as much as I thought it was.

• School got off to a late start. I have GOT to stop staying up late watching Heroes on DVD.
• We got history, Latin (our first day!), memory work, and grammar done. Grammar was kind of a cheat. Ruthie made too many mistakes on yesterday's work, so I had her do a supplemental worksheet. Since I'm keeping them together on grammar, Robert pretty much got the day off.
• We headed for the orthodontist for 1:00 appointments. These were initial consultations, recommended by the dentist. Robert needs more work done than Ruthie, but she's ahead of him dentally (fewer baby teeth), so she'll get started in about 6 months. Robert has at least a year before we start with him. I'm glad. He can use the time to learn to sit still in the chair. Sigh.... Kids did math in the car.
• After leaving the orthodontist, we popped into a toy store right next door. I love small toy stores. They seem to have the best stuff. We found Papo figures for the first time and we all fell in love with them. They mainly had medieval figures, which is perfect for us. I caved and let the kids get one each. Robert chose an archer and Ruth got a horse. I see Christmas gift ideas for the grandparents.
  
• We got home and I let the kids have 30 minutes each on the computer while I semi-napped (remember the Heroes DVDs?).
• The kids played with some neighbor kids while I made dinner (baked ziti- requested by Ruth). Not long after it came out of the oven, Robert came home and told me Ruth lost her glasses. Another sigh... I went out and we looked everywhere she had been and couldn't find them. The other kids said they would let us know if they find them. I hope, I hope.
• After dinner, I headed to the store because we were out of dishwasher detergent. I bought myself a York peppermint patty while there. I deserved it. :)
• It is now 10:00 pm. Everyone is in bed. The house is quiet. And I, not having learned my lesson, am going to watch another episode or 2 of Heroes.
  

Another Piece in the Narration Puzzle

I blogged here about my daughter's struggle with oral narrations. We've had some successes, but her skills are still not where I feel they could be.

A couple of weeks ago, I asked her if she wanted to try writing her narrations, rather than doing them orally. She readily agreed, but I didn't pursue it. Today, when she was balking at narrating the chapter she read from Our Island Story, I asked her if she wanted to type it on the computer. She eagerly agreed and got to it.

Here is the result. (click on image if you want to see it larger)



!!!!! Unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable. The same child who can't remember basic facts when giving an oral narration gives me this as a written one.

I don't really understand it, but I'll take it. If anyone has any insight on this, I would appreciate it.

If It's Monday, This Must Be Albuquerque

I'm back! Actually, we're back. We all went on a week-long road trip and had a fantastic time. We've never traveled so far, or done so much at one time, as a family, before. In fact, the last long vacation we went on was a trip to Disney World back in 2000!

Here's what we did:

Saturday - drove to Carlsbad, New Mexico

This was a long day and through a part of Texas none of us had ever seen. We had expected desolation, but found it has its own beauty.

Sunday - went to Carlsbad Caverns, then drove to Ruidoso

Carlsbad Caverns are incredible! We went on a guided tour through what is called the "Left Hand Tunnel". We only had candle lanterns for our lighting. Fun! I took a lot of pictures, but often had no idea what I was taking a picture of until after the flash went off. It was very dark in there.

After our guided tour, we went to the Big Room, which is lit and has a paved trail with hand rails. There were some amazing formations.

The drive to Ruidoso was gorgeous. Griff is ready to move there. :)

Monday - a lazy morning in Ruidoso, then off to Albuquerque

Tuesday - dropped Griff's double bass off at Robertson's Violin Ship for work to be done to it (the impetus behind this whole trip), then on to Flagstaff, AZ

Wednesday - drove to Williams to ride the Grand Canyon Railway to the Grand Canyon.

We had a few hours at the Grand Canyon, which was not enough. What can you say about the Grand Canyon? Beautiful, amazing, awe-inspiring... Words just cannot express it.

The train trip was fantastic. We all thoroughly enjoyed it.

Thursday - left Flagstaff for a quick trip down to Sedona.

Those red rock formations are just beautiful. In some ways, just as beautiful as the Grand Canyon. The city of Sedona is very tourist-y, but beautiful, as well.

After leaving Sedona, we headed up to Meteor Crater, which was a highlight for Robert.

We then headed back to Albuquerque.

Friday - Griff picked up his bass and we left for home. 17 hours later (including stopping in Amarillo to see a family friend), we arrived. Home, sweet home. It's good to be here again.

We are already talking about a longer trip next summer. I think that's a sign that this trip went well.

I'll be Back

I'm going to be without internet access for about a week, so I won't be posting. I'll miss everyone! Enjoy your week.

Beginning the Day the Right Way

We have always done Bible as part of our school day. However, it has been treated as "just another subject". This isn't altogether bad. My focus for for that particular subject is for my children to learn the stories in the Bible thoroughly. A curriculum (Rod and Staff for us) helps do this.

However, I have realized recently that it's not giving us the spiritual emphasis that I want. We are not beginning our days centered on God. Prayers are haphazard. We hit the ground running and never stop to really focus on our Creator.

So today I began something new. Before our morning read-aloud, we had a short devotional. I read a chapter from Proverbs, we sang the hymn we're learning, and we had a prayer. It was very simple, but a great way to start the day.

If you are struggling to find the time to spend together every day, centered on our Lord, give this a try.

Writing Styles

I was grading papers the other night. Robert and Ruth had the same grammar assignment that day - write 2 sentences, using pronouns as the subject. Both gave me correct answers, but the sentences are quite different.

Robert's sentences:

I am leaving.
They are gone.

Ruth's sentences:

She leapt into the air, her blue eyes shining.
We whispered secrets into each other's ears, giggling.

Do you see why picking a writing program that will work for both of them is very difficult for me? :)

A Weekend in Review

I apologize for not posting for a couple of days. To be honest, nothing very exciting has happened. Don't believe me? Well, this is what I did this weekend.

Friday night:

Dinner was catch-as-catch-can. Griff stopped off at his parents' to help his dad with his computer. After he got home, we just kind of hung out. Bo-ring.

Saturday:

My dad is selling his house, so I went over to help get it ready. I spent most of time cleaning and going through stacks of books and just stuff. 38 years worth of stuff. It made me want to come home and throw out at least half of my possessions.

I then went and met a couple of friends for dinner and a movie. We saw Becoming Jane. I liked it, but I did feel that it tried a little too hard.

I then came home and watched one episode of Heroes before heading to bed.

Sunday:

We went to church this morning, then out to lunch with friends. We came home and Griff and I slept for almost 3 hours!! This, of course, meant the kids spent too much time on the computer and playing video games. Ah, well.

Sunday evening church and dinner out rounded out the evening.

Like I said, not much going on. There are a few changes I want to make to our school day, but those really need to wait a couple of weeks. More about why later.

Hopefully my next post will be more substantial.

Weekly Report

This was a short week (Labor Day), and I spent a lot of time planning a vacation we're going on soon, so we didn't get as much done this week as I would have liked.

My personal accomplishment this week was getting copywork notebooks made. I had originally planned to have the kids pick out copywork phrases and use my Educational Fontware fonts to make up copywork sheets for them. Operating on the fly like that doesn't work for me, though. And, since handwriting is a big problem here, it cannot be skipped. So, I used copywork selections from the Ambleside Online copywork yahoo group and made up the notebooks. The kids will spend 5 minutes each day on copywork, just working through the book. I'm also going to make one for literature eventually. There's a picture of the notebooks down below.

Robert finished the book Follow My Leader. He resists longer chapter books, even though he's perfectly capable of reading them, so this is a big deal. I took the advice of someone on the Well-Trained message boards and set up some "rules" for reading time. He must read for 20 minutes, but can choose any book from our book basket. If he doesn't like a book, he can choose a different one, but that one then has to be finished. (Thanks, Tami! It seems to be working.)

We got our ocean boxes made for science. They're not much to look at now, but they will eventually be filled with clay creations of different ocean animals. I can't wait!

Check out Trivium Academy's list of Weekly Reporters for more show-and-tell.

My Latest Trip to Wal-Mart

I have a love-hate relationship with Super Wal-Mart. I love the prices. I hate the fact that I cannot get out of that store in less than an hour. And lately, the love of the prices is being drowned out by the other side.

I did venture to Wal-Mart on Tuesday evening. This is a recap of my experience.

Griff wanted Listerine - original flavor. The only bottles they had of that were the small ones, on the top shelf, pushed all the way to the back. There is no way my 5'3" self was going to be able to reach them. So, I asked the employee at the pharmacy for some help (bwa! ha! ha! - oh, I crack myself up). She paged for customer assistance. I waited patiently for almost 15 minutes and saw 2 employees 3 or 4 aisles away that made absolutely never effort to help me. I finally asked a different pharmacy employee for help. She actually came out, found a small ladder, and got it down for me. She was actually very nice and cheerful about it, even, so that was good.

After a couple of other items on that side of the store, I traipsed all the way over to the grocery section. First stop - milk. I have recently started buying organic milk. I don't know if you've ever looked at organic milk, but it typically has expiration dates that are weeks away. Weird, but there you go. First of all, they did not have skim milk. And the milk would expire in less than a week. Okay, so I got a gallon of 2% and headed off for the rest of my shopping.

I needed bread flour. Nope. They apparently don't believe in bread flour.

Griff eats oatmeal for breakfast most days. He likes the old-fashioned oats, not the 1-minute variety. Since he eats them so often, I always buy the 42 oz. container. They only had the 18 oz. container. What's up with that?! I bought it, but I wasn't happy.

After a few more items (and an unsuccessful attempt to find ham of all things!), I headed to the checkout. When I got in line, I noticed an employee cleaning up one lane over. Apparently a glass bottle of something like grape juice had broken on the floor. I know it was glass because I could see big pieces of it on the floor. The lane was blocked off and he was cleaning the whole thing up with paper towels!! I stood in line for at least 10 minutes and never saw anybody show up with a mop.

You know, I think could excuse the empty shelves part of my experience if it had been on a Sunday night. But this was a Tuesday night! They should have been restocked by then.

I think I'm pretty much done with Wal-Mart. It's just not worth it anymore.

NOTE: I wrote this post months ago and forgot to post it. After a couple more bad experiences at WM (including being basically accused of lying when I tried to return something without a receipt), I no longer shop there. My budget is sad, but the rest of me is rejoicing. :)

On My Bookshelf

I love bookstores. I especially love used bookstores. And a SALE at a used bookstore is just more temptation than I can handle. So... when I found out that Half-Price Books was having a 20% off sale this past weekend, I just had to go. I got some good stuff and my to-read pile has just really grown.

Want to see what I bought? Of course you do!



Messie No More by Sandra Felton - I actually read this years ago, but it's very inspiring and I need to be inspired. :)







Answers to Distraction by Edward Hallowell and John Ratey - part of the endless quest to help my child with his ADD (not to mention me with mine)






Raising a Thinking Child by Myrna Shure - This is a book on how to teach your child how to resolve conflicts and get along with other people. It's actually written for younger children but Robert still struggles in this area, so I think it will be of benefit.




The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman - This has been around a long time, but I've never read it. Pure impulse purchase.





Whew! This should keep me busy for quite awhile.

Geography via YouTube

I was looking for a YouTube video of the song "Fifty Nifty United States" and found that plus a couple of other things.

Here's the Fifty Nifty song. (lyrics)



Then I found a couple of Animaniacs videos. They are fast and kind of frantic, but fun, and I thought they might still be helpful.

The first is a song of all the states and capitols. (lyrics)



This one is all the nations of the world. (I know this is from several years ago and I haven't checked the accuracy.) (lyrics)



They also had one of the US Presidents, but I found a few things that I felt are objectionable, so we won't be watching that one. (call me old-fashioned, but I don't let my kids use the word "butt")

Narration by Trial and Error

I am trying to incorporate more narration into our school day. We spent last year narrating from Aesop's Fables - one each week. That was a good beginning, but we really needed to expand on it.

This year, I have the children narrating the following:

history reading - daily
Bible reading - Mon - Thurs

Both of these subjects are books they read on their own.

I finally started our literature readings this week. I read aloud from a different book each day, then ask them to narrate.

Here's what I have found:

Robert - If he reads the book to himself, he can narrate beautifully. He uses words and phrasing from the reading and hits most of the important parts. I am very happy with how that is progressing.

On the other hand, read-aloud narrations are not going well at all. He cannot give me the simplest narration from an oral reading and I'm not quite sure how to handle this. I know it is part of his auditory processing difficulties, but I would still like him to do better at this. I plan on investigating further and finding things to help him.

Ruthie - She has a hard time with narrations all around. Reading to herself, read-alouds - all of it. I am currently having her read single pages and narrate after that. I am also trying to stop more frequently during read-aloud time and have her narrate. She is doing better, and I believe she will eventually conquer this difficulty, but it is slow going right now.

Today, though, she gave a wonderful narration (actually, 2 of them) from Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare reading. Let me show you what made the difference.


This is a chart showing the major characters of the story we were reading. I got this idea from Higher Up and Further In. With the help of the names written down (and my detailed drawings -ha!), Ruthie was able to tell the story back with no difficulty. She even used some of the phrasing from the story, which she never does. I was so very, very proud of her. And relieved. :)

I need to figure out exactly why this worked. Was it because the names were written down and she didn't have to remember them? Was it the combination of hearing the story and being able to look at the chart at the same time? I'm going to have to play around with it some and figure out how to apply it to our other narration subjects.

(P.S. Can you tell what Shakespeare story we read? Post the answer in the comments. I don't have a prize other than the personal satisfaction you will get from knowing the correct answer. :) )

Wrong Answer. Thank You for Playing. Please Try Again.

Other than a year in Colorado when I was 2, I have lived in Texas my whole life. However, I have been told that I do not have a Texas accent. Some say I do not have an accent at all. This obviously says that I don't.

Oh, and about reason (d) listed below, I was NOT born after 1980. Not even close.

What American accent do you have?
Created by Xavier on Memegen.net

Western. Like Midland, Western is another accent that people consider neutral. So, you might not actually be from the Western half of the country, but you definitely sound like it.

And if you're not from the West, you are probably one of the following:
(a) A Pittsburgher - the quiz can't tell the difference;
(b) Someone from Canada (probably southern Ontario) who doesn't have a Canadian accent;
(c) Someone from northern New England who doesn't have a New England accent; or
(d) Someone from Texas or the Heartland who was born after 1980.
You are definitely not from New York, New Jersey, Chicago, Detroit, the Deep South, etc.</font>

Take this quiz now - it's easy!

We're going to start with "cot" and "caught." When you say those words do they sound the same or different?

Different Same, no wait I mean different, maybe, a little bit different... Same

HT: By Sun and Candlelight

Simplification is the Name of the Game

I went to Starbucks the other night with a fellow homeschooling mom. I don't have many friends here that homeschool so getting to really talk about struggles, successes, tips, and tricks was a treat. Whenever we get together we stay 'til they kick us out (who heard of a Starbucks that closes at 9:00, anyway?), then stand outside and talk for at least another hour. Total bliss!

Anyway, one of the things we discussed is the need to keep it simple. I believe that as homeschoolers we get so caught up in the "neat" stuff we could do that we lose sight of our goals. Since one of the things Stephanie and I talked about that night was learning US Geography, I'm going to use that as an example.

I'm ashamed to admit how many different US Geography curriculums I've bought. It's at least 3. Maybe 4. My current process is to spend time every Friday on US Geography. I read from a book about the state (stories from its history, etc.), then we fill out maps and information sheets. 6 sheets for each state. 6!!! It took us 2 Fridays to do Rhode Island! Am I absolutely nuts?!

After my night at Starbucks, I started thinking about my goals for studying the 50 states. For each state, I'd like for the kids to know name, location, and capital. That's it. The rest is gravy. Neat gravy, but time-consuming-making-this-way-too-complicated gravy. Do I really care what the highest recorded temperature in North Dakota is? NO! (Sincerest apologies if you're from North Dakota. To be honest, I don't care what the highest recorded temperature is in Texas, either.)

So, I'm simplifying. Tomorrow is Friday. We are going to cover 1-2 states, depending on how long it takes. We'll need 2 maps for each state - a map of the US with that state marked and a map of the state with its capital and surrounding states marked. We might (might!) do a color sheet of the state bird and flower just because that would expose the kids to the names of more bird and flowers. Each week we will cover the names of all the states and the capitals of the ones we've learned. We will work our 50 states puzzle. They'll play with their Leap Pad that has a US geography game. That's it!

Ahhhh.... I feel better already.

And it's a wonderful thing.

There Are Different Kind of Intelligence

My son is pretty smart. Really. I'm not just a proud mama. Sometimes, though...

Saturday night, on the way out to dinner.

Robert: Hey, Mom. Hey, Dad.

Me: Hey, Robert.

Robert: What?

Then, again, Sunday morning...

Robert: Uh, Mom?

Me: Uh, Robert?

Robert: What?

He's a smart kid. I promise. Really, he is.

A Couple of Links

After a not-so-great day yesterday, we've got to get focused around here. I have a couple of post ideas brewing, but they will have to wait until later. So, I'm sending you off to visit other, more wiser blogs than mine. I hope you find something you enjoy!

The Homeschooling Carnival is up at The Common Room (one of my favorites!). Don't miss it!

Do you ever feel invisible as a mother? Then don't miss this. (HT: Real Learning)

That's all I have for now. And I just realized I only posted a link yesterday, too. Ugh.

I apologize from the depths of my heart. I'll do better in the future. I promise there won't be a single link in the next post. Wait. Is that good or not?

Online Watercolor Painting Lessons

I have wanted us all to learn how to paint with watercolors, but haven't wanted to spend the money on books (or lessons!). I did find some books at the library and have requested them. However, a few nights ago I had the brilliant idea to google it (duh!) and came across this web-site. It seems to be just what I was looking for.

You just gotta love google. When you remember to actually use it, that is.

Video

Have you seen this? I originally saw it over at Our Journey With Him. It's just wonderful.

Watching the Mailbox

I am a member of Paperback Swap. I love, love, love this site. If you're not familiar with PBS, be sure to check it out. I also love used bookstores, and frequent them often, but I have found quite a few books through PBS that I can never find used around here.

I have gotten a lot of great books through there, but I still have a wish list a mile long. For some reason, several of my wish list books have come available recently. Here's what's currently heading to our house, and the reason I'm stalking the mailman.



Animal Habitats -- On Land, Ponds, Rivers, Oceans (Draw Write Now, Book 6)




I thought this would be great to have for our science studies this year (ocean creatures).


Celebrate America: Learning About the U.S.A. Through Craft Activities



I originally put this on my list when were doing Sonlight Core 3 last year. I thought about not requesting it when it became available, but I figure we can use it for American holiday celebrations this year, and we'll get back to American History next year. I'm always in need of art/hands-on projects.




Say Goodbye to Whining, Complaining, and Bad Attitudes... in You and Your Kids




ahem... No comment.

Our School Schedule

I blogged here about using Ambleside Online this year. I showed examples of our first week's work here. I thought I would share how we break up and schedule the work from AO. Keep in mind that we are doing a combination of Year 1 and Year 2.

This is our first term's schedule (12 weeks). Some books change after that, so I will post the next term's schedule when we get there (and I've actually set it!).


I have highlighted the the things we do together. I try to alternate things that will require individual attention. So, while I help Robert with math, Ruth works on Bible and copywork. I also alternate things that require them to read the same book. Believe me, having them read the same book at the same time would not work. :)

I have found as we work through the schedule that some of these things don't take as long as I have scheduled. However, I like having the wriggle room for things that end up taking longer, so I'm just leaving it as is for now. Any changes eventually made will not be drastic.

Afternoons are for physical activity, reading, chores, instrument practice, any art projects we may do, and other things along that line.

Word Problems for the Morbid

We are using Christian Light math this year and really liking it. One interesting thing about their curriculum is that all the word problems for a particular Light Unit (17 lessons, including 2 quizzes and a test) are centered around a theme.

I was grading Ruth's math yesterday and came across the following two word problems. The theme is the ocean.

• A shark is not a good mother. After giving birth, she may eat some of her babies. If 9 mother sharks had 50 babies each, how many baby sharks is that?

Ohh - kayy... But then, even better...

• Those hungry mother sharks gobbled up 27 of the babies before they could escape. How many baby sharks were left?

I'm probably weird, but this just cracks me up. It must appeal to the slightly-macabre sense of humor I have. Where is that ROFL smiley, anyway?

Movie

I received Jane Eyre in the mail from Netflix today. I liked Ciaran Hinds in Persuasion, so I can't wait to watch it. It may be a few days, though. I have a meeting tonight and church tomorrow night. Maybe Thursday night...

Even More Wildlife

You may be tired of the wildlife posts, but just bear with me. I'm a city girl, so seeing this kind of thing in my yard just astounds me.

Typically, the only wildlife we see (aside from when we are actively trying to catch them) is this variety. Some people think they're a big pain, but I think they're adorable.




Imagine my shock at seeing THIS outside my window this week.


I know they're around (as evidenced by the above referenced post), but seeing one roaming freely through our backyard was just weird. I feel like I'm living in Over the Hedge.

Changes

Ta-da!

I'd love to take the credit for the changes here, but it is totally the work of my new best friend at Life With My 3 Boybarians. Isn't it wonderful? Isn't she wonderful? She's having a contest right now, too. She's volunteering to do a blog makeover for someone. Read about it here.

Well, I've got to hurry and post this so I can sit and stare at my pretty blog for awhile.

Small P.S. - I do claim the picture. I took it while on a cruise in February.

Pardon My Dust

I'm messing around with the template, and since I'm pretty clueless, this could be a dangerous thing.

School Days, School Days

Good old golden rule days...

I think that song goes through my head at the beginning of every school year.

This was our first official week of school. I am very, very pleased with how it went. We are not up to a full load yet (we still need to add in science and Latin, and I need to add in some art projects), but we still did quite a bit. I thought I'd do a show-and-tell of our first week. (Click on any image to see it larger.)

I chose a "just for fun" read-aloud - The Penderwicks. It is a wonderful book and we are all loving it.

For history, I made a notebook with sections for all of our AO books. When the kids read a chapter, they will narrate to me, then write a few sentences and draw a picture. I got the idea for the notebooks here. I already had a comb binder, but mine isn't nearly as nice as hers. It works, though.

Here's a page from Robert's notebook for Our Island Story. Yes, those are palm trees on the island of Great Britain. I have yet to convince him that even though it's an island, it's not tropical. We'll keep working on that. :)


Ruth wanted to share her page from the book Trial and Triumph. It's also a very good example of her drawing style - very Anime.


For our music portion of Fine Arts, we are using these CDs. I can give more details if you would like. Basically, they are a CD of Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherezade, an a capella CD of hymns, and Wee Sing America for folk songs (which I confess we did not do this week). Obviously we are studying Rimsky-Korsakov for our composer. I couldn't find a biography, so we read about him on Wikipedia. Our hymn was "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross".


For our artist study, we are learning about Mary Cassatt. We read this biography and studied the picture "Woman in Black at the Opera". The kids looked at the picture for a while, then took turns describing it without looking. You can see that it's a 4x6 picture. I plan on making them artwork albums as described here.


We also got math and grammar done on assigned days. Yea!

For fun, Robert did a science expirement involving water, oil, and food coloring.


Things to improve on:

literature readings - they didn't get done this week
folk song - also didn't get done
art projects - figure out a way to make this work for us

For a break down of what we did each day, check out my other blog Our School Days. It is nothing fancy. It's just an easy way for me to track what gets done.