Mommy, watch this!

15 Miles on the Erie Canal!

2012-01-29T22:14:00.000-05:00

Our TruthQuest History studies brought us to the amazing Erie Canal this week. At 363 miles long, it was the longest in the world, built in the least amount of time, for the least money. It also seems to have had quite a few folk songs written about it, some more colorful than others. But that's what the "fast forward" button is for, right?

We read some great books:

The Erie Canal by Peter Spier - filled with those wonderful, see-something-new-every-time-you-look-at-them illustrations;

The Amazing, Impossible Erie Canal by Cheryl Harness;

The Erie Canal by Samuel Hopkins Adams - a wonderful gem in the old Landmark series.

Then we decided to go to the Erie Canal Museum in Syracuse, NY and take a little ride on an authentic packet boat!

Well, OK, the boat was stationary, but we used our imaginations.

Captain Z

We're not exactly sure where people slept if they were taller than a five-year-old.

Probably the floor.

The museum is housed in the only surviving "weigh lock" building in the world. Boats were put into the lock, the water was pumped out and the boat was lowered onto a wooden cradle suspended by spring arms. Once it was weighed, water was pumped back in and the boat was on it's way. All of this was done in 15 minutes!

This interactive display allowed you to drag the boats in, weigh them and collect the tolls.

It was a great way to wrap up our study of the Erie Canal!

We're still here!

2012-01-11T21:32:00.000-05:00

Please forgive the very long blog break! Here's a quick look at what we've been up to:

Skiing! Thank you, Grandma and Grandpa!!

Post-Christmas Lego building. We're thinking of trying out the weekly LEGO Quest Kids building challenge too. Looks like lots of fun!

Wow - playing with our new iPad. Thank you, Grandma!

Winding up another fun season of fantasy football.

Upwards Basketball! We LOVE this organization. Both boys are playing this year and having a wonderful time. We almost don't mind leaving the house at 7:30 every Saturday morning.

On the academic front:

Continuing with anatomy studies - I'll try to post soon on this.
We're loving TruthQuest History - we're studying pioneers at the moment.
Chalk pastels using the tutorials here - messy, but fun!
Institute for Excellence in Writing - Z-Man still balks, but I see a marked improvement in his writing so we'll continue.

Thanks for stopping by!

Merry Christmas!!

2011-12-25T11:24:00.000-05:00

Christmas school plans!

2011-11-24T22:38:00.002-05:00

I hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving! Ours was just wonderful from start to finish. Mark is a little sore from a morning football game with the boys and friends and we all ate a tad too much pie, but I think we'll recover nicely. And tomorrow, Christmas decorations!

I thought I'd put up a quick post about our Christmas school plans, because they start next week, and if you want to join in, you might want to print them out before that.

Each year, we try to do a special study for Christmas. One year, we studied the names of Christ. One year, we studied the symbolism of the twelve days of Christmas. This year, we plan to make a Jesse tree. If you're not familiar with that, it's a series of readings that start in Genesis and go right through the Old Testament, showing how everything points to Jesus. Each day, you hang a little ornament with a picture that reminds you of the story. There are many versions online, but we chose this one, from A Holy Experience, which has beautiful ornaments to print out and laminate. Ann's writing is just beautiful too, although since it isn't the way I normally talk, I'll kind of put it in my own words for the kids.

Of course we'll be listening to Christmas music until we can sing it in our sleep and we'll be reading all of our favorite Christmas books, along with some new finds, which I will list here very soon!

Happy Thanksgiving, all!

Our Week with Ping

2011-11-16T19:29:00.000-05:00

Ping holds a special place in my heart because this Five in a Row unit was the very first thing that Z-Man and I ever did in the way of "official" homeschooling. This week, I was so happy to re-visit it with Little Man!

Some of the things we did:

Found China on our huge, shower curtain map from Target. That was a great purchase.
Read about China in our atlas and found the Yangtze River.

Tried our own colored pencil sunsets, using one of the pictures in the book as a guide.

Read the book, Ducks by Gail Gibbons and learned about different types of ducks.
Learned how preening makes the duck's feathers waterproof and did an experiment where we tried to mix oil and water.

Read the book, Floating and Sinking by Franklyn Branley, and did our own buoyancy experiments, using this chart from Homeschoolshare.com. We discussed what a hypothesis is and I taught Z-Man, who couldn't resist tagging along, how to calculate percentages.

All in all, a great week of fun and learning!

First Snow!

2011-11-11T17:17:00.000-05:00

Remember that post I wrote three days ago, with the temperatures up in the sixties? Well, today it snowed.

It started like this.

It quickly progressed to this.

Naturally, even two or three flakes in the air makes it all but impossible to concentrate on writing one's letters and numbers.

Ah, now that's better.

Notice those lovely, yellow leaves still obstinately hanging on the tree? Their companions have long since been raked to the curb and swept up by the city trucks.

Ah well, maybe in the spring.

A Beautiful Fall

2011-11-07T21:36:00.001-05:00

We've had a gorgeous fall here in New York this year. This week the temperatures are forecast to be up in the sixties. In November! It just makes you want to get out there and soak up every last bit of sunlight before winter hits.

We've had lots of leaf-pile jumping here and some lovely nature walks.

We took a picture of this unusual goose so that we could try to identify it when we got home. It's a juvenile Brant, according to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and it was apparently just resting on it's way from the Arctic tundra to the coast of Virginia or North Carolina.

I hope you're all enjoying a lovely autumn!

Fun and Messy Pastels

2011-10-28T19:41:00.000-04:00

We tried pastels this week for some great, messy, artistic fun. I found 30 pastels tutorials at Hodgepodge. The instructions were easy to follow and I think the results were stunning! The tree reflections tutorial is number 15 in that link if you'd like to try it.

Little Man, hard at work and sporting a green cheek and multi-colored sleeve.

To LM's way of thinking, if it's a picture of trees, then it should have as many trees as he can fit on the page.

Z-Man wasn't quite as into the mess, but we had baby wipes on hand for clean-up.

I think they both did a great job.

And I gave it a shot too.

We'll definitely have to try some more of these great tutorials!

Day at the museum

2011-10-20T19:47:00.002-04:00

To wrap up our study of photographer Ansel Adams, the boys and I went to an exhibit of his work! Thank you, Mom, for financing our field trip!

We couldn't take pictures inside, but the boys were happy to pose on the front steps for me.

Before his death in 1985, Mr. Adams selected a group of photos that he felt best represented his work and this show contained about two thirds of those, in addition to some of the camera equipment that he would have used. It was wonderful to see the prints up close.

Among those we saw were Monolith: The Face of Half Dome and

Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico.

Our favorite biography in this study was Ansel Adams: America's Photographer.

We also watched a nice interview from 1983 on YouTube here. It is in four parts and that link takes you to the first. The other three can be found on the right side of the screen. I can't really recommend the Ric Burns PBS documentary. It seemed to me that they misrepresented him and there were a few things that weren't suitable for younger viewers.

All in all, we have enjoyed this artist study immensely and I think we all have a new appreciation for the art of photography.

The beautiful Adirondacks!

2011-10-13T17:01:00.000-04:00

We are so blessed to live near the Adirondack Park!

The view of Fourth Lake from the top of Rocky Mountain.

Us at the top, having a snack.

The boys climb like mountain goats but they scare me sometimes.

Back in the town, a lovely moon rise to end a perfect Autumn day!

Science Day!

2011-10-08T08:48:00.000-04:00

A state park in our area hosts an amazing, annual science day where groups of students visit different stations to learn about everything from earthworms to acid rain. There are many stations and each group visits six. Our homeschool group visited:

-A station where we tested solutions with cabbage juice to see if they are acid or base.

We then tested the lake to see if it had been affected by acid rain. We were happy to see that our little sample of lake water turned blue/green, which means that it was a base.

And then, of course, we had to mix acid (vinegar) and base (baking soda) because who doesn't love that sudden volcanic eruption!

-A Zoo station where we met Matilda, the eastern box turtle. We learned that her kind are the only turtles able to completely close their shell, transforming themselves into little "turtle rocks." The only thing able to get them open at that point are crows, who pick them up, fly high into the air and - are you ready for this? - look for a parking lot in which to drop them. Ugh.

-An animal CSI station - this one was so clever!

We learned how an animals skull can tell us whether they are prey or predator, and then we visited some "crime scenes" to sift through the evidence and determine who the victim and the attacker were.

In some cases, samples of "scat" showed us that the victim had themselves eaten another animal that day.

-A paper recycling station where we made our own recycled paper, complete with shredded leaves, flowers and cinnamon. This is one we want to try at home!

-A forest recycling station where we learned about earthworms, bacteria, fungi and the decomposition of leaves and fallen trees.

-At the final station we met several beautiful owls, falcons and a turkey vulture.

All in all, it was a fun and fascinating day made even better by a game of beach football at the end!

Our Ansel Adams Photo Safari

2011-09-26T21:17:00.000-04:00

We're continuing our artist study with Ansel Adams this semester. Our study is very simple - we look at some of the artist's work, discuss it, and read a biography or two. Today we took advantage of the lovely September weather and went out in search of high-contrast nature images to capture in the style of Ansel Adams.

And then we waded in the river to cool off.

I'll leave you with a poem that seemed just perfect for today:

SEPTEMBER
by: Helen Hunt Jackson (1830-1885)

HE golden-rod is yellow;
The corn is turning brown;
The trees in apple orchards
With fruit are bending down.


The gentian's bluest fringes
Are curling in the sun;
In dusty pods the milkweed
Its hidden silk has spun.


The sedges flaunt their harvest,
In every meadow nook;
And asters by the brook-side
Make asters in the brook.


From dewy lanes at morning
The grapes' sweet odors rise;
At noon the roads all flutter
With yellow butterflies.


By all these lovely tokens
September days are here,
With summer's best of weather,
And autumn's best of cheer.

What's working, what isn't

2011-09-24T21:19:00.000-04:00

We've just finished our second week of the new school year and, overall, I'd say it was a great success. As is the case in each new year, however, there are a few adjustments that need to be made.

What's working

Giving Z-Man more control over his day. I've been giving him a daily checklist. He likes to know exactly what's coming. I may even start giving him a list for the whole week.

Seat work for Little Man, but only in small doses with me right by his side.

Short lessons, Charlotte Mason style. It already feels like a more relaxed atmosphere.

Nature Study using the Outdoor Hour Challenge. Last week, we studied milkweed, this week goldenrod. Good fun and I actually learned a lot!

What's not working

Including Little Man in our history reading. He loses interest very quickly when there are no pictures. Since the TruthQuest guide includes book recommendations for all grade levels for each topic that is covered, I'll start ordering more picture books from the library. We'll all read those together and then Little Man can have play time while Z-Man and I read the more advanced books.

Sleeping in - I haven't been getting up before the kids and that is NOT a good way to start the day. The remedy for this is obvious, but painful.

Five in a Row - we just haven't been getting to all of our FIAR studies the way I'd like to. This one just requires a little more effort on my part. The FIAR books are like old friends to Z-Man and I want to make sure that Little Man has all those good memories too.

All in all, I'm very pleased with the way the year is going so far. And now that we're back in our school routine with a little more structure in our days, I hope to blog a little more faithfully. I certainly appreciate you all sticking with me over the summer though! Thanks so much!

Exploring the uncharted wilderness

2011-09-22T20:00:00.001-04:00

We're into our second week of the school year here and knee-deep in Lewis and Clark stories, thanks to TruthQuest History.

Today was a lovely day so we filled our packs with supplies, grabbed our (cap) guns and headed out to explore the wild, uncharted territory of the Louisiana Purchase.

The guns remained loaded at all times in case we had any run-ins with grizzly bears like Lewis and Clark did.

Thankfully, this guy was about the most menacing thing we saw.

We gathered specimens for President Jefferson - mostly pressed flowers, although Z-Man did get within arms reach of this turtle before it dove. I couldn't take a picture because I was preparing to pull him out of the water and mentally calculating how far he'd have to walk in wet clothes before we got to the car. Thankfully, the kid has pretty good balance and managed to stay dry. Speaking of specimens, did you know Lewis and Clark actually sent a live prairie dog to the president?

The funniest thing that happened was our trading with the Indians. We had brought some beaded bracelets to trade and, when we saw a young couple on a hike, Z-Man chased them down and asked if they'd like to trade their Yankees hat for our trinkets. I explained what we were doing and asked if they'd mind playing the part of the friendly Indians. They didn't skip a beat and happily traded the hat! No kidding! They didn't even want it back. Z-Man was delighted with his successful trade. And you can never have too many Yankees hats.

We saw the monarchs!

2011-09-21T21:24:00.000-04:00

This evening was just beautiful and we decided to spend it at a local beach.

As we watched the geese and the sunset and threw the football, we started noticing monarch butterflies.

They were all flying in the same path, in the same direction, at roughly the same height.

We realized that we had wandered into their migration path! We were so excited! The boys cheered them on and yelled, "have fun in Mexico!"

By the time the sun set, we had counted 97 monarchs.

This is number 61. He needed to take a little rest. Or maybe he just likes the camera.

Two years ago, when we did our "around the world" study, we discovered the monarch's over-wintering grounds while studying Mexico. You can read about that here. Monarchs born over the summer live 6-8 weeks, but the last generation to be born in a season lives 6-8 MONTHS so that they can fly thousands of miles, sometimes crossing the Great Lakes (think no place to land) to go dormant in one small patch of woods in the mountains of Mexico. They are so thick there that they sometimes break tree limbs! Can you imagine how many butterflies that would take? They wake up in the spring, mate and start the trip back, laying eggs all the way. Scientists have tagged butterflies, taken them hundreds of miles off course and they still find their way! God's creation is just astounding and I'm so thankful that He allowed us to see this tonight.

Some school-year kickoff inspiration

2011-08-24T19:41:00.002-04:00

How fun is this?!

Next week, you can listen to interviews with homeschool mom and author, Sally Clarkson; The Old Schoolhouse Magazine editor, Gina Suarez and quite a few others, just in time for a little "first week of school" shot in the arm. All the interviews will be free and streamed live. Like going to the homeschool convention, only free! Love that!

Click on the above button to register. See you there!

Plans for the 2011-2012 school year

2011-07-27T21:03:00.003-04:00

If you're a homeschooling family, 'tis the season for planning. Or rather, finalizing the plans that you started back in March when the planning bug usually hits. Or is that just me?

Anyway, Little Man will officially be a kindergartener this year and Z-Man will be in fifth grade. Which means he'll be in junior high next year. How is that possible?!

Here are our plans, more or less:

(Click on any of the pictures or links for more information.)

Subjects we'll do all together:

Bible

This is technically not a school subject. I tell my kids that it's way more important than school.

As a family, we're currently reading through the kid's Bible story book illustrated by Tomie DePaola.

It's a good one to read at night because the pictures aren't scary.

Z-Man and Mark have been getting up early to work through one of the Kay Arthur Bible study books for kids.

We'll also continue our Bible memory using the Seeds Family Worship CDs. Love those! And we'll hopefully continue to learn some great old hymns.

Science

We plan to use some really fun books that I found at the convention this year:

Forces and Motion, which explores physics with fun experiments like figuring the speed of various wind-up toys,

and The Earth: Its Structure and Changes

I'm also planning a rather lengthy study of the human body with TONS of hands-on projects using primarily these three books:

My Body - Trace your kid and paste on all their body systems!

Considering God's Creation - which is just a wonderful natural science program all by itself, and

Reader's Digest How The Body Works - this book is just staggering. There are so many cool projects and experiments that you could easily work on it for a full year.

History

We'll be continuing with TruthQuest History, which made history my absolute favorite part of the day last year. We read so many great books! Z-Man will be in the second American history book which goes from the Constitution through the Civil War. There are some new products available this year on the TruthQuest site: a series of notebooking pages, lapbook pages, maps and timelines that correspond exactly with the guides. The end product should be a nice book of our history studies for the year. Little Man will be encouraged to listen in!

Art

We'll try to work through Evan-Moor's How to Teach Art to Children

and also Drawing With Children.

We'll continue with our artist studies, focusing on two artists per semester.

Music

We'll continue our composer studies, focusing one two to three composers per semester. We listen to their work, listen to shows on Classics for Kids, and read a biography like the series by Mike Venezia or Opal Wheeler.

Separate Subjects:

Math

Z-Man will continue to work independently through Saxon 65. Little Man will do "living math" from our FIAR studies and real life problems that we make up for him.

Language Arts

Little Man would like to continue to learn to read. He seems to progress in spurts. We use a plethora of things to help him, including letter magnets, Bob books, Starfall, Leapfrog videos and more. He will also start Explode the Code this year.

Z-Man will work on the book, All Things Fun and Fascinating, from the Institute for Excelling in Writing.

Five in a Row

Little Man will have his own special time to read all the great FIAR books! I am SO glad that I get to go through them all again! What a wonderful program. Z-Man has such fond memories of all these books that I probably should have included this in the "subjects we'll do together" section of this post. I'm sure he'll want to sit in on it.

So there you have it! I think it's going to be a great year!

If you're like me and you love seeing what others are doing, hop over to the "Not Back to School" Blog Hop at Heart of the Matter! The button doesn't seem to bring you to the right place, so click the words instead.

Why does summer go so fast?

2011-07-12T10:25:00.001-04:00

Oh my! The summer is flying by! Please forgive my extended absence from this blog. The weather has been lovely and we've been out having fun.

Some of the things we've been up to:

Baseball!

Picnics and water gun fights

Enjoying the fruits of summer

Weddings!

Meeting new friends

I'll certainly try to get back here a little more frequently in the next few weeks! I hope you are all enjoying your summer as much as we are!

General Herkimer's Home

2011-06-10T23:16:00.000-04:00

As you may remember, we visited the Oriskany Battlefield a few weeks ago, site of the bloodiest battle of the Revolution, and also a major turning point, contributing to the eventual victory at Saratoga. In the battle of Oriskany, General Herkimer was shot in the leg (his horse died under him) and, refusing to leave the battlefield, directed his troops from his position under a tree. He was then carried the roughly 40 miles back to his home, where he later died as a result of a poorly executed amputation of the wounded leg.

He died reading Psalm 38 from his huge German bible and feeling that he had failed in his mission. Tragically sad.

But we needn't dwell on that. We visited his home yesterday and focused on what life was like before that.

His house was beautiful and has been meticulously restored by the good state of New York.

Apparently, he was quite enterprising and made a nice living running a portage business, taking boats, their contents and passengers around the (small) waterfalls.

We toured the house, admired the grounds and the views and even went on a scavenger hunt for information in the family cemetery.

We learned about trading, making fire with steel and a flint and hunting.

Z-Man even got to hold the musket!

And, since it was 97 degrees(!!!), we visited the nice, cool, root cellar more than once. Loved the root cellar.

It was a wonderful trip and well worth a visit if you ever find yourself near Little Falls, NY.

Fencing

2011-05-28T19:14:00.000-04:00

We've been trying out a new sport here: fencing. I question the sanity of putting a sword in the hands of a five-year-old who has been known to throw some pretty colossal fits of temper, but so far it's worked out. It turns out it's not a sharp sword and they do wear a helmet.

Plus I figure I'd better let them try it before it's outlawed. Better read this before you let your kids play tag or kickball this summer!

Anyway... back to cute pictures of my kids before I get myself all worked up.

Little Man looking determined.

Z-Man fencing his coach. The coach really loves what he does and seems to genuinely enjoy the kids.

And just for fun, here is the sword fight scene from Princess Bride. Enjoy!

Some Revolutionary trips!

2011-05-26T19:12:00.000-04:00

We're just finishing up our first year of TruthQuest History (AHYS 1) and I have to say that it has been a resounding success. We've gone from the early explorers through the Revolution and have met fascinating spies, heroes, traitors, generals - it's been great.

And now, since it is spring and we live in NY, we are finally getting outside!! On Friday, we joined several families in a trip to the Old Stone Fort, a church-turned-fort that saw a little action in the Revolutionary War.

Yes, that's the actual cannon ball hole - from 1780! Pretty amazing.

There were several other buildings on the grounds, one of them a one-room schoolhouse where the kids each had their own little slate to write their lessons.

Over the weekend, we visited the Oriskany battlefield, site of the bloodiest battle of the Revolution. There is a monument with names of the dead and many signs giving a play-by-play of the battle. Please excuse the iPod photo - we forgot our camera again.

One sign reads: "British and Indians here ambushed the Tryon County Militia as they were marching to the relief of Fort Stanwix (Rome.) General Nicholas Herkimer, though wounded, rallied his forces and directed the fighting until the enemy fled. Defeated at Oriskany and unable to force the surrender of Fort Stanwix, the British retreated to Canada. These reverses, with their defeat at Saratoga, thwarted Burgoyne's plan to divide the colonies by conquering New York." Herkimer later died at his home following an unskilled amputation of his leg. We are actually scheduled to go to his home for another field trip in two weeks!

I'll keep you posted!

Mrs. Katz and the Passover

2011-04-13T08:14:00.001-04:00

Last week, we learned all about Passover with a sweet Five in a Row book, Mrs. Katz and Tush. In the book, an elderly Jewish lady is befriended by a neighbor family and eventually adopted as their "Bubee." She tells the boy the story of the Israelites' exodus from Egypt as they share the Passover Seder together.

We covered many of the FIAR lessons, including:

"Love your neighbor as yourself." - we memorized Luke 10:27 and used it as copywork and cursive practice.
We read the story of the Exodus and made really cute (I know that just seems wrong, but they really are cute) little books of the 10 plagues that I found at Homeschoolshare.com
A yeast experiment - mix yeast and sugar in a bottle of warm water and put a balloon over the top. That worked so well that we had to secure our balloon with electrical tape.
We talked about patterns, tried drawing our own and looked at these National Geographic patterns in nature.
We learned all about Passover with The Matzah That Papa Brought Home.
We learned about Warsaw, Poland during WWII and why Mrs. Katz left in The Cats in Krasinski Square.
We learned quite a few yiddish words, ate bagels and attempted to polka. :)

I like to have a picture of the books to show you. However, Amazon apparently no longer supports just the picture of the books without the purchase information. I am not trying to sell anything here. Of course, I'm not against anyone using these links, because I will get a commission, but that isn't my reason for putting them there.

What we've been up to

2011-04-11T21:58:00.000-04:00

Tapping our 2 (yes, two) maple trees. The buds are just starting to open so the season is over, but we had enough sap to make almost 2 quarts of maple syrup and we shared some sap with another homeschool family who had fun making their own syrup too!

Little Man has been a heart-making machine. He strings the pony beads onto pipe cleaners and I twist them together for him.

Classifying animals. I believe the cars, being metal quadrupeds, are in their own category.

Reading about the Revolution! We're all learning so much! Did you ever hear of Sybil Ludington? I know I never did. She was a 16 year old Paul Revere and, apparently, has just had a movie made about her daring ride. We're enjoying TruthQuest History so much that we will probably just continue it all summer.

Learning to read!! Yes, Little Man is putting his letter sounds together and reading 3-letter words! He's enjoyed playing games on Starfall and this week, we'll be getting out the beloved Bob Books.

Learning about Passover - but that will have to wait for another post.

Z-Man doing his math in his pj's. Life is good.

Good Reads

2011-03-25T08:25:00.000-04:00

We do quite a bit of reading in our homeschool. We read books all together in the morning - FIAR, science, history, biographies, books on whatever we happen to be studying. Then, in the afternoon, while Little Man takes a short quiet time, Z-Man and I read more advanced books (or "books without pictures" according to LM) from our TruthQuest History guide. Z-Man usually has something he's reading on his own as well.

In my planning notebook, I keep a list of all the books we read throughout the year. Recently, I came across Goodreads.com, a more high-tech version that I can keep online, complete with pictures of each book. There are many other features that we haven't used yet, such as to-be-read lists and even an option to email interested friends and family each time you finish a book.

Z-Man has his own account, but I sign in and enter the books for him because they advertise books on the main page and also show what others are reading. There have been a couple of times that there were some inappropriate images there. Once you get into your own list, though, there are no ads or other images and he can scroll through all the pictures of the books he's read, rate them with one to five stars and even write a review. I think he was kind of surprised to see how much we've covered this year.

Now if I could just get to my own reading...

Summer, maybe?

Little Man is the octopus

2011-03-19T20:57:00.000-04:00

Little Man is The Octopus. Remember Paul the oracle octopus that accurately predicted the World Cup soccer games last summer? Here is Little Man filling out his NCAA basketball tournament bracket.

The octopus worked very diligently on this for about half an hour. Since the lines were a little too small for him to write the whole team name, he wrote the first two letters of his picks. As of 8:45 Saturday evening, the octopus has picked completely accurately for three out of the four regions. The rest of us have not been so successful. I suppose more than one psychic invertebrate mollusk per family is too much to hope for.

In case you're wondering, our five year old says Duke is going all the way.