Our Homeschool Fun

Homeschool Around Here Lately

noreply@blogger.com (Susana) — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 05:41:00 +0000

The last few weeks in our homeschool…

We just completed week 26. We’ve schooled 130 days and have 50 more to go.
We are still loving Sonlight and will use it next year and hopefully the next and the next, etc. Sonlight is a homeschooler’s and homeschool mama’s dream!
The two little boys have recently started joining Joe and I in our Sonlight readings each day. All of them. Even the chapter read alouds. Jesse may wander off after a bit, but Jack is all ears for the entire time. This is wonderful! Makes me so happy!
Hanna is halfway through her computer course and I like seeing all that she’s learned with different programs.
Hanna just completed her art course at our local homeschool academy and made some extraordinary things! I plan to share them soon.
Joe still loves to learn and is never happier than when he has a huge daily workload of school assignments. He’s having a great school year.
Joe started taking piano in January and has found something he adores and is learning FAST. He loves his sweet teacher, loves lessons and enjoys playing. He practices off and on all day. I love listening to him play. I am impressed and feel that he’s found one of his talents. I’m excited for him.
Jesse is into everything while we school and is a busy, cuddly, chubby legged, snuggly three year old. His favorite things are puzzles, singing and being read to.
We made a weather station and it works! Joe spent a week recording the weather each day.
Jack started to write! On his own! All of a sudden one day he was writing on the dry erase board and Hanna noticed he had written Joe’s name. We all looked and he had! He knew what he’d written and I can’t tell you how proud and excited I was. He wants to learn to read—he informed me of this week before last.
Firefly Phonics (ordered from Amazon, suggested in Happy Phonics) is the best thing ever! Jack went from knowing only several letters of the alphabet by recognition to knowing all but several in less than two weeks using it! I am starting Happy Phonics with him on Monday along with the ETC books and I cannot wait!!!!
Joe has learned a lot in Singapore Math…division, multiplication, renaming and carrying and he’s about to start on fractions. Math is still his favorite subject and he learns so quickly.
Hanna is working hard this year. She is learning a lot in the way of writing—research papers, essays, creative writing, poetry. She’s doing so good and I love seeing her grow.

Here are pictures of all mentioned above. These pictures of Jack writing, doing his Happy Phonics—they make my heart so happy. Jack has grown emotionally, intellectually and in maturity by leaps and bounds the last couple months. To see him doing these things is the best ever! I am so excited to start teaching him how to read and write. What a blessing to know what my kids are learning, how they are learning it and the fact that we are learning together. Some of the days are challenging, but aren’t they for all of us? My homeschooling has nothing to do with my days being hard sometimes. We all have hard days no matter what we are doing. What matters most and what determines our happiness is within our hearts, how we think about what we are doing, our attitudes and our decision to change our mindset from “I have to do”, to “I am blessed to do”. And, I am blessed to homeschool my four healthy, intelligent, creative, sweet, fun children every.single.day.

Our New School Room

noreply@blogger.com (Susana) — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 02:48:00 +0000

We are moved, settling in and have been back at school for two weeks in our new home. I wanted to share our new school room because I am just so excited about it!

Jamie and I went to Ikea back near the end of February to get the furniture I’d picked out for it. We measured the room, made a list online, printed it, dropped the kids off and set out for Ikea! Many hours later and with a totally loaded down mini van we headed back with our goods.

Over the next couple weeks Jamie put it all together for me—and he had the blisters to show for it :). Hanna still prefers to work in her room a lot of the time. It gets a little too loud in the school room sometimes for things like Algebra and higher level science :). When she does join us she sits at the big table in the middle.

We love schooling in this room! It is bright and happy. Everything has a place and that makes school time much more efficient. Spreading the boys out in different work spaces instead of around one large table helps so much with teasing, snatching papers, supplies, etc. I am just so grateful for this space and blessed to spend time schooling my children in it each day.

When I Was Young in the Mountains, FIAR

noreply@blogger.com (Susana) — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 04:45:00 +0000

We rowed this book several weeks ago, but I am just getting around to sharing it. Once again, another Five in a Row selection that we all enjoyed reading and one that will always have a special place in my heart because of the fun we had learning together.

When I Was Young in the Mountains, by Cynthia Rylant is set in the Appalachian Mountains. It is about a young boy and girl living with their grandparents (from what I gather) in the mountain country. They live such a simple life, but it is so full of love, a close knit family, pure happiness and contentment—what matters most. It is a sweet book and a beautiful story.

We talked about what contentment means and how we can be more content in our own daily lives individually and as a family.

We looked through the book specifically at the illustrations after one of our readings. I asked the boys what was different about the way they lived versus our life. They were quick to point out the old timey things like bathing in a washtub, hauling water from a well, the stove, etc.

In one illustration of the store you can see a set of scales. Joe was learning about weight in his Singapore math at the time of this row so I thought it would be fun to tie his math in with our FIAR study. I got out our bucket balance and food scale and had the boys do some weighing and balance activities that were age appropriate for each of them. There’s some mention of snakes in the book, so I decided we’d focus on snakes a bit in Science (as suggested in the FIAR manual). We read about different types of snakes in an Apologia Elementary book, read several other snake books and had a hands-on activity about snake eggs. We talked about their soft, leathery feel versus the hard, smooth feel of a bird’s egg. We made our own snake egg using vinegar and a chicken egg. We submerged the egg in vinegar overnight and the next day we had a ‘snake egg’. The boys thought it was really neat. After we looked at it and felt it, I cracked it and took the yolk out to show them how a snake egg looks after the baby hatches out. This was fun. We combined Science and Art and did a fun color palette and mixing activity using M&M’s. This was such a hit for my chocolate lovin’ Jesse. He was grinning from ear to ear and pretty much shaking with excitement when he saw me pull out chocolate :).

I used a printable, laminated color wheel with primary and secondary colors, cups, warm water and M&M’s. We talked about how artists sometimes use only a few main colors and mix them to get many other colors in their illustrations. Joe was able to tell me what colors we would get as we put our M&M’s in warm water and watched them mix to form new colors. This was different and really fun.

Joe narrated his own brief version of the story to me:

When I Was Young In South Carolina, by Joe, age 7:

When I was young in South Carolina, I played outside in the treehouse.

When I was young in South Carolina, I liked to read funny books.

When I was young in South Carolina, we slept together in Mom’s room on Friday’s for stay up late night.

When I was young in South Carolina, I liked to go to the beach and swim in the ocean.

When I was young in South Carolina, I liked to eat chicken fingers.

When I was young in South Carolina, I could hear dogs barking, birds singing, my brothers yelling and cars driving.

When I was young in South Carolina, I felt happy.

This was a simple, but fun and meaningful row. We all enjoyed it…together. We are taking a short break from rowing and school as we MOVE! No where far, but still a move and we have lots to do to prepare for it. When we are all settled in I’ll be back to share our new school room—I am SO excited about it!—and Mr. Gumpy’s Motor Car.

Ideas and Inspiration for When I Was Young in the Mountains:

Valentine’s Day Fun

noreply@blogger.com (Susana) — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 04:11:00 +0000

The week of Valentine’s Day I planned a few things for the boys that were Valentine’s themed and fun. I thought I’d share the highlights of what they did.

For Joe I used a unit from Teachers Pay Teachers. It consisted of math and literacy centers. He enjoyed all of it and looked forward to it each day.

For the two little boys I printed a preschool pack and let them work on it throughout the week. Jack LOVED it! He did so good! He is making lots of progress and I can tell he is definitely ready to start more academic learning. Jesse wasn’t as interested, but that’s ok, I knew he wouldn’t be. He enjoyed some of the matching games and had fun with play doh, learning toys and arts and crafts. Each of the kids worked on a Valentine’s Day art project. Hanna and Joe made a collage from That Artist Woman that involved painting with different tools, colors and textures, then cutting their papers apart to form a heart bouquet collage. They are so pretty. I made a handprint heart picture with Jack. With Jesse, I made a footprint dump truck. All four kids’ projects are just adorable. It was a fun week! Next up is our row of When I Was Young in the Mountains.

Lentil, Part Two, FIAR

noreply@blogger.com (Susana) — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 06:27:00 +0000

(January 14-18) We had just as much fun rowing Lentil the second week as we did our first. This was a very fun book and provided for lots of learning along the way.

Week two we studied about patriotism and the history of the US flag. We learned about the origin of it, Betsy Ross, George Washington and what the stars and stripes represent. I used lessons from I Love America for this.

Jack and Jesse made watercolor tape resist flags. Here is Jack’s: Jesse’s: Now, I had this awesome art lesson picked out for Joe using charcoals and still life, but we ended up having such a busy week that ended with sick kids so it didn’t happen. We will definitely have to do it in the future. Joe loves to draw and does so often—here is a picture from the week that he drew. He calls it (for what reason I have no idea!) “The Exterminator”.We went to the State House to see historical monuments just like in the book. Hanna and Joe read all of the inscriptions and plaques around the grounds. Hanna learned a few new things, but Joe was in heaven reading and learning all the new facts about the history of our state. He was especially fascinated with the bronze stars placed on the state house walls where cannon balls struck during the Civil War. He was SO excited to find one low enough to actually touch. I’m glad we were able to get this little trip in before the kids got sick. They had such a good time and learned so much. It was a fun. The rest of the week we spent doing our Sonlight lessons and reading lots and lots of books about our state, the flag and America.Next up—When I was Young in the Mountains, Five in a Row, Volume 2.

Our Homeschool Fun’s Inspiration for Rowing Lentil:

Five in a Row Volume 1 manual

The Crafty Classroom

Lentil, Part One, FIAR

noreply@blogger.com (Susana) — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 06:39:00 +0000

We had a super, terrific, SO much fun first week back to school after Christmas break! I had the itch to start rowing again for a while before break and decided to plan some books for the new semester. Our first row is Lentil and we are having a blast with it! My plan is to row when the urge strikes and take our time with the rows. I am spreading Lentil out over two weeks because there’s just so much I want to do with it. So, here’s week one…

Lentil is a sweet book about a boy who can’t sing and wants to so badly. He learns to play the harmonica and his music saves the day at the homecoming of the most respected citizen in town. The boys and I are really enjoying this book. It is sweet, fun and educational all in one. It’s another book I’d never read until Five in a Row and definitely one I’ll always remember now.

The book is set in Alto, Ohio. We found Ohio on the map, read key facts about the state, learned about several famous people from history that were born there—Joe chose to read and learn more about the Wright brothers and Annie Oakley. And, last but not least…we made delicious Ohio Buckeyes! We made a healthy version of buckeyes and dipped them in 100% cacao. They are SO good! I will never make the sugared up version again. These are worth trying…promise!Joe taught his brothers about fractions using lemons. We learned all about our taste buds, how many we have, how they are replaced, where we taste different things on our tongue, etc. The boys had a sour lemon taste test and a mystery taste test game. They thought this was SO much fun! I loved looking at the expressions they made as they tasted the lemons. Joe actually liked them, Jack was iffy and Jesse managed a couple licks—that was enough for him :). Of course we made lemonade! The boys juiced a dozen lemons. They were patient and did a great job! I gave each of the boys a harmonica and they had such a fun time playing them. They’ve played them everyday since. Jack the most. They thought it was really neat to have a harmonica just like Lentil. Before I gave them their harmonicas I showed them a YouTube video of the national anthem being played by harmonica. Here’s a video of my silly boys making music.

We also talked about not being jealous of others, how we can change our feelings of others from negative to positive and appreciating/discovering our own talents. These were topics for discussion after our book readings each day.

We started week two of Lentil today and I am so excited to do and share all that I have planned to wrap up our row the end of this week!

Our Homeschool Fun’s Inspiration for rowing Lentil:

Five in a Row Volume 1 manual
Delightful Learning
Confessions of a Slacker Mom
Organic Matters
YouTube video of harmonica playing
The following Usborne books: Flip Flap Body Book, Usborne Science Activities Volume 2, Usborne First Encyclopedia of the Human Body

Reindeer and the Water Cycle

noreply@blogger.com (Susana) — Sat, 22 Dec 2012 07:01:00 +0000

(12/17 – 12/21) This week for our Christmas fun we focused on reindeer, with our main book being The Wild Christmas Reindeer by Jan Brett. I’d never read this book. It ended up being just what we all needed the particular morning we read it together. We’d had a grumpy morning—all of us. Not pulling together, tired and not being as nice to one another as we should have been. Halfway through this book the main character decides instead of being harsh and unkind to the reindeer she is going to teach them with love and guidance, all working together. It worked and before long the reindeer and the girl, Teeka, were getting their jobs done and learning just as they should. This book moved me to tears. It was just what we I needed to hear and do at that moment and I didn’t even realize it till we were sitting together reading. This book will always have a special place in my heart.

I printed another preschool pack for Jack. This one reindeer themed and he enjoyed working on it just as much as the one from last week. He and Jesse also asked to do puzzle after puzzle after puzzle. Joe completed a reindeer drawing lesson using oil pastels and watercolor paints. I love it! I made reindeer sandwiches one day for lunch. One of our Christmas traditions. I made reindeer cookies for our FHE treat. We attempted to make Perler Bead ornaments one afternoon using some patterns I found online. It ended in a bust. About 3 minutes into it Jesse decided he was done and about 20 minutes into it the rest of us gave in too. I have one huge tub of Perler Beads and it was not fun digging through the tiny beads to find the colors we needed. Some called for like 90 beads of one color. Next year maybe I’ll buy individual color packs and we’ll give it another shot. This week’s Sonlight science for Joe was centered around the Magic School Bus at the Water Works. We watched a YouTube video of a water plant in operation and I found several hands-on activities about the water cycle. We had SO much fun!

I printed some graphics of the water cycle. Joe put the labels/pictures in the proper places and learned what the terms mean. We did an activity on the different types of clouds. I made a batch of puff paint for this because I know it’s Jack’s favorite thing in the world to use! The two little boys painted clouds—they’ve done this activity before, but neither remembered that and had just as much fun as when they did it last year :).

Jack said he painted a puppy. Jesse told me his cloud was a kitty cat. We used Hanna’s Apologia Physical Science book to learn about four types of clouds—cirrus, stratus, cumulus and cumulonimbus. Joe drew each one on a piece of paper—cirrus using chalk, stratus using white paint, cumulus using our puff paint and cumulonimbus using our puff paint with a little black mixed in to make it gray.

Would you believe today while we were eating lunch Jack said, “I see a cumulus cloud.” And, he was right! There were lots in the sky that he could see from his seat at the table. Joe and I were both tickled pink! The two boys spent the next little while spotting stratus and cirrus clouds—which were both visible—in the sky. Loved listening to this! We made a water cycle in a bag. It was starting to work today.I demonstrated how when clouds get really heavy the water pours out and it rains using water, shaving cream and blue food coloring in a mason jar. How-to *here*.It is my goal to work hard on math with Joe—even on our breaks from school—over the next couple months to catch him up. I know we can and will do it! He is 10 weeks behind due to Teaching Textbooks and I am not happy about it. He isn’t either. Bless his heart. This was an awesome week with his math though! He told me more than once, “I love you teaching me my math, Mom”. And, I am loving it too. We blew through 21 pages in the workbook—3 weeks worth in one week—very encouraging! Joe didn’t complain one bit and even asked for more :).

By the end of the week he was carrying just fine and adding numbers in the hundreds. Next week we will work on renaming with subtraction. He’s already got a lot of the multiplication facts/tables memorized, so I think we’ll move pretty quickly through that after the unit on renaming. At that point, we will be caught up! In Language Arts he reviewed alphabetizing and synonyms, learned the importance of bar graphs and then made his own. Hanna moved along in Algebra 1, completed Module 8 in Science, finished up her last lesson in Basic Winston Grammar and is completing a novel log and character diagram in Language Arts to go along with a report she wrote last week.

For fun she made an angel ornament for our Christmas tree and continued sewing the stockings she’s making for each of the cats. This week I loved every second of our homeschool and couldn’t get enough. It was a good feeling. I’ve missed documenting the things we do each week here on my blog. I’ve also missed the hands-on activities on a regular basis. The boys ate up all that we did. They were so happy and eager to see what was planned each day. I want to do better, put forth more effort the rest of this school year to make each day—or most of them—be special and to document our weeks again too.

We are taking a two week break from all but math around here. When we start back up in January we will be studying about the human body and all things winter. I’m hoping we have some cold weather to go along with our winter studies!

All About Gingerbread, Week 2

noreply@blogger.com (Susana) — Sat, 22 Dec 2012 04:43:00 +0000

(12/10- 12/14) This week we had a gingerbread theme. We read lots of gingerbread books—of course a favorite being The Gingerbread Man. We learned about the history of gingerbread, where it originated, etc.

I tried my hand at baking gingerbread men cookies for the first time ever. Although we weren’t too keen on the spicy gingerbread taste, we had fun decorating them for sure. The boys made gingerbread ‘houses’ using paper bags I helped them cut apart. They glued them together to make a house, then decorated them with puff paint, glitter glue, stickers, dot markers and scrapbook paper. They turned out really cute.

Joe is concentrating so hard in this first picture. It is exactly how Jesse looks when he is working hard on something. I just noticed in the bottom middle of this picture you can barely see Jesse’s little fingers reaching out to try and ‘help’ Joe, I’m sure :). Jack’s: Jesse’s: Joe’s: I printed out a gingerbread themed preschool pack for Jack from Homeschool Creations. Look at this first picture of him completing one of the pages…notice anything a-m-a-z-i-n-g about it?! He is holding the marker with a perfect grip and look closely at how awesome his tracing is—and he is concentrating SO hard, being SO patient! This is one of the sweetest moments I’ve had in homeschool ever. Jack worked on tracing pages with lines and actual letters off and on all week, by his choice, and did so good! He worked slowly and wanted them to look perfect. He is making big progress and I’m so excited for him! He and Jesse both enjoyed working the puzzles and playing the games from the preschool pack. They also enjoyed dot marker pages, dot to dots, mazes and homemade gingerbread playdoh. Hanna and Joe completed all their regular lessons in Sonlight, Math, etc. for the week.

Myself, Hanna and Joe did an art lesson from Hodgepodge using chalk pastels. I love it when I can sit down and do the art with them. I have got to do this on a regular basis. It’s relaxing, fun and they really enjoy me working with them—so do I. Joe and I made Christmas trees in snow. Mine: Joe’s:Hanna drew a snowman with winter animals. We had such a fun week! The weeks just pass by so fast. Next up we are learning about reindeer and the water cycle.

Hanna’s 2012-2013 Reading Log

noreply@blogger.com (Susana) — Sat, 22 Dec 2012 04:08:00 +0000

Archimedes and the Door of Science, by Jeanne Bendick
Augustus Caesar's World, by Genevieve Foster
D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths, by Ingri and Edgar Parin d'Aulaire
Eagle of the Ninth, by Rosemary Sutcliff
Favorite Poems Old and New, by Helen Ferris
Mara, Daughter of the Nile, by Eloise Jarvis Mcgraw
Otto of the Silver Hand, by Howard Pyle
The Beduins’ Gazelle, by Frances Temple
The Bronze Bow, by Elizabeth George Speare
The Golden Goblet, by Eloise Jarvis McGraw
The Great and Terrible Quest, by Margaret Lovett
The Ides of April, by Mary Ray
The Mystery of the Roman Ransom, by Henry Winterfeld
Child’s History of the World, by V.M. Hillyer
Usborne Book of World History, by Anne Millard

Mid Year Check In, Curriculum, etc

noreply@blogger.com (Susana) — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 06:01:00 +0000

Half of the school year is already over. It’s definitely passed really fast. It’s been a good first half. I am still happy with the curriculum choices I made for our year—with the exception of one and I’ll get to that later. In a nutshell, I have felt dramatically less stressed this year and I truly owe it to Sonlight. I want to write a brief summary on where each child is currently at in their subjects to have for reference later.

Before I get to each child, I want to add that I’m still using the six weeks pocket folders for all school work. (Original idea from Homeschool Creations.) Each child has a color—Hanna is yellow, Joe is red, Jack is blue and Jesse will be green. I have six for each six weeks of the school year. They are labeled with name, school year, grade and what six weeks it is. Left side holds current week’s work and right side holds completed weeks’ work stapled together one week at a time. I love this method. This is the second year I’ve used it and it makes planning and saving work a breeze! I like being able to look back if I need to and all of the work is neatly organized, stapled together by weeks, etc. As I have since year one of homeschool, I’m still using a Banker’s Box to hold all of the year’s completed work. Hanna—all is going so well for her this year. She is doing good in all of her work, each subject. There have been a few bumps along the way with math, but Jamie has taken over that instruction since he is the math minded one and that has been a life saver for both myself and Hanna. I am so thankful that he is able to and willing to help out with teaching the higher maths for the long haul. Physical science is going fine. Apologia is such a good science and she enjoys it. Sonlight History and Language Arts are super! She has read lots and lots of good books so far in history and there have only been two she didn’t care for. If you were to ask her I’m sure she’d tell you her Language Arts is hard this year. And, it is—challenging, not hard. She has learned tons! Her writing has improved by leaps and bounds and I am so proud of her! I love Sonlight Language Arts! She is reading and analyzing poetry, writing many different sorts of essays, reports, etc and it is wonderful! This will be her last year of Grammar. She finally knows it inside and out! She will complete Advanced Winston the second half of this year. Keyboarding went well and she will complete the second half of this—computer applications—beginning in January. If all goes as planned she will have several high school credits at the end of this school year. Hanna has been very self-disciplined, scheduled and motivated in getting her work done. She is a pleasure and such a blessing to have at home each day.

**All of these pictures of the work samples are dark. I was so ready to have them taken, forgot for days and just ended up taking them at night without the flash.** Joe—here is where the one curriculum change comes in…Joe will be going back to Singapore math in January and not continuing on with Teaching Textbooks. It’s just not working and I don’t feel good about it for several reasons—email me if you’d like to know more on this. I’ve actually already started back on the Singapore. All of his other subjects are moving along smoothly. He, like Hanna, is learning SO much in his Language Arts. I really feel confident in the foundation he is building with his writing skills through Sonlight. He absolutely loves all of the books and projects we have completed. He is so bright and so eager to learn. He is so easy to teach and always has such a good attitude. Jack—I am letting Jack set his own pace, as I did Joe and will Jesse. He tends to move forward in spurts. This is very different for me. I didn’t teach Hanna from the beginning up, so I can’t compare how she learned to Jack, but with Joe it was forward, forward, forward never looking back or reaching a plateau. I often doubt myself because with Jack there are lots of plateaus and lots of times he just doesn’t show progress for weeks, months. But, just because he doesn’t show progress academically, he is showing so much progress emotionally. To me, this is just as important, more so maybe. He is such a helper now, a friend to his siblings, part of the ‘group’ instead of hanging in the back alone, speaks out even in public much more often. He has the biggest imagination I’ve ever seen! He is a deep thinker. He retains so much info in that sweet, little head of his. He’s one of those kids that you think isn’t listening, but he is not only listening, but remembering it all and he lets me know out of the blue. Listening to his stories, seeing the way he is forming friendships with his siblings, watching him do his own chores, seeing him try and cheer up someone or help turn a sad/negative situation into a happy one, having him spurt off facts from books we read months ago—these are special moments, ‘wake up’ moments for me with my Jack. He is the sweetest boy and I love him so much.

Jack and I are slowly working our way through the Early Learner books, doing mazes, dot-to-dots, cutting practice, tracing, learning the ABC’s, crafting, playing and reading, reading, reading together with his brothers. Jesse—is having fun, learning, bossing us around, keeping us on our toes, snuggling me everyday, weaving tales, playing imaginatively, loves to cook, is my little helper, is the best three year old boy ever!I am so blessed to spend each day taking care of and teaching these four special spirits. I love them and love our homeschool with all my heart. I am so thankful for our days together.

December Week 1

noreply@blogger.com (Susana) — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 06:09:00 +0000

The first week of December Hanna and Joe kept to their regular school work routines/work load. I wanted to do something Christmas themed with the little boys. We read a few books each morning and then completed a fun craft, activity or treat to go along with it. They thought it was the best week ever since Mama has slacked in the department of hands-on extras this school year. I have to do better this New Year because they were seriously just so happy. Made my heart feel good.

We made Christmas trees from egg cartons. Joe joined in—I knew he’d end up wanting to do all of what his brothers did :). We read some books about snow and snowmen and I made snowmen on a stick. I made homemade peppermint play doh and got together cookie cutters and other Christmas themed play doh supplies for caddies for each of the boys. We read Cobweb Christmas and made sugar cone Christmas trees afterward. Somehow we missed this last year. The kids loved doing it again! This is one of our favorite Christmas books. Jack and Jesse got to hear it for the first time this year and it held each of their attention the whole book through. As you can see in the pictures above, Jesse and Jack (from the look of Jack’s green lips) did quite the tasting while they decorated!

We had such a fun week. All the extras were so much fun again. They are a lot of extra work, but make such special memories and I realize I have missed them a whole lot. I have grown to know and love many books through our homeschool journey. Books have taken on a new meaning and have a special place in my heart now due to the memories we’ve made as we read them together.

I am looking forward to more memories this month and in the New Year. I think I am ready to row some books again too, we’ll see :).

Next week I’m planning a unit with some gingerbread books. We’ll see if I keep up my steam to do all that I planned!

Yes, We Are Still Homeschooling :), October and November Wrap-Up

noreply@blogger.com (Susana) — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 06:11:00 +0000

Wow! Guess it’s been a while since I posted anything, huh?? School is still going really well this year. The kids and I both are still loving Sonlight and I’m still pleased with the decision to use it this year. I will definitely continue on with it next year and already know what I’ll be ordering for each of the kids as far as Cores go.

We haven’t done nearly the amount of hands-on crafts this year. We’ve spent the time out and about instead. The kids don’t seem to mind at all and I have really liked the time it’s given me to stay a tiny bit more caught up on housework, but mainly I’ve used the extra time on my Project Life album and to bake with my sweet Jesse :). That boy wants to make sumthin’ every.single.day!

During the month of October we did craft some for Fall and Halloween. We read some apple books and Jesse just had to make an apple pie. Jack helped too. Some Halloween crafts. This is Jack’s. I love this sweet wreath we made.Jesse’s. I never get enough of hand and footprint treasures. I took Jesse to Mad Platter and had him make a Halloween platter for me. I LOVE it! While we were there I figured I may as well go ahead and have the kids all make a handprint turkey platter. I absolutely adore it! I opted for these handprint turkeys this year instead of making them on paper.Hanna made a pinch pot that I forgot to take pictures of finished! Joe and Jack made some cool self-portraits at their museum art class in October. They turned out great and look so sweet. Joe was thrilled that his previous month’s piece was chosen to be put on display in the foyer of the museum. I was really proud of him. The project was an illuminated manuscript. Joe chose the letter ‘O’ and wrote about Octopuses—I googled and, yes, Octopuses is a real word :). That about wraps it up as far as fun stuff goes for the months of October and November. We enjoyed lots of day trips, trick or treating and an awesome Thanksgiving week beach trip.

I have more to document in the way of school work and academics for the last two months and our first week of Christmas activities too. I’ll save those for separate posts in the next couple days.

Stay tuned, catching up slowly, but surely!

Highlights from our First Six Wks of the School Year

noreply@blogger.com (Susana) — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 01:50:00 +0000

We wrapped up our first six weeks of school for the 2012-2013 school year last week. We are on break this week. I’m doing our scheduling a bit different this year than in the past two years. Rather than school year round with a pattern of 3 months on/1 month off, we are still schooling year round, but with a pattern of 6 wks on/1 wk off. I needed a shorter time in between our work vs break times and I think I’ll like this much better.

I can’t even begin to explain how much easier this school year is for me than last year was. It has nothing to do with the kids…they are each still just the same—Hanna and Joe are awesome at getting their work done and Jack and Jesse are into everything 24/7! The difference is all in the curriculum change I made. Choosing Sonlight was the best thing I could have ever done. If I’d known making this switch would have helped me so much I would have long ago. But, in retrospect I’m glad to have something to compare it to so I will hopefully appreciate it more than if I hadn’t gone the harder route first and had the struggles and challenges I had.

Kind of like how I’m thankful that Hanna went to school for the years she did…I know how it is to have children in school—how it is to do the carpool thing, the ‘keeping up with other kids thing’, the homework after they’ve been in school all day thing, the social drama that never ends, all the worldy influences they are not yet ready to process and just the fast pace rat race…I could add more...I think having mainstream school experiences to compare to our homeschool experiences has greatly helped me not to take the hard days/times for granted. I love homeschool and can honestly say without a doubt I wouldn’t want it any other way because I’ve had it both.

This year Hanna is taking an outside art class downtown and she loves it. She brought home her first completed project yesterday. It’s a peace dove surrounded by musical notes. She made it using individual pieces of colored yarn glued down onto cardboard. It was created using a technique that is a Mexican art form called yarn painting. It turned out pretty and she did such a great job! I want to matte and frame it for her room. While Hanna is at this art class the boys and I go to a nearby park for a bit, then head to our big library downtown. They really look forward to this and so do I. They love getting a big load of new books each week, lots that they pick out on their own vs me just requesting them and picking them up as I’ve done the last several years. Joe got help the first couple times from a librarian as to where his favorite authors and the paperback section is located, and now he is able to look for his books all by himself. I got him his own library card too and he thinks he’s big stuff for sure :-). We are getting the bulk of our work done in four days (and all by a late lunch time) this year instead of a five day school week. I wanted to make sure we had one day a week free for meeting with our homeschool group, doing field trips, day trips, etc. We did this with ease our 1st 6 wks and it’s awesome! We are free to go outdoors/relax each afternoon too as a result of being done by lunch and it makes such a big difference in everyone’s attitude.

So far we’ve enjoyed park play dates, field trips to the BMW factory (Hanna) and police training center (the boys) with our homeschool group; an art class for Joe and Jack that meets once a month at our state art museum (that several families from our homeschool group also attend); day trips to a nearby children’s museum and a day trip to the beach. It’s been so much fun and I can’t wait to do all that we have planned for the remainder of this year leading up to Christmas! I pray we will all stay healthy and well so we can do the majority of these things.

Our workload with Sonlight is great. I love the books we read each week and love the fact that a lot of our time learning is done reading aloud (with the boys). I was doing way too much with Joe last year, but just didn’t realize it. Bless his heart, he never even complained. He has told me more than once this last month and a half though that he really likes his ‘new’ school.

The lessened work load for myself and the boys has freed me up to give more time to Hanna and to make sure we get stuff done for her schooling like Science experiments that were so hard to get done last year due to time constraints.We’ve gotten outside to have picnic lunches and the boys have enjoyed playing together while Hanna sits nearby finishing the rest of her daily lessons. She told me that she loves packing her work up and doing it outside some days. Hanna had an assignment to write a poem the second week of school that I want to record here so I can look back on it. It really touched me that she has these sorts of deep and sweet thoughts about herself. I thought it was beautiful.

I am a princess with a large imagination.

I wonder if it has no end.

I hear dragons roaring.

I see golden castles.

I want more ideas.

I am a princess with a large imagination.

I pretend my bedroom is a magical land.

I feel valleys under my feet.

I touch mountains with my hands.

I worry my imagination will go away.

I cry when I must end my play.

I am a princess with a large imagination.

I understand imagining won’t make it real.

I say “No harm in dreaming”.

I dream of heroic quests.

I try to be original.

I hope I’ll be creative forever.

I am a princess with a large imagination.

I hope Hanna realizes that she really is a princess—a daughter of God. She is truly creative and imaginative and these are some of her most precious qualities. I thought it was so wonderful that she sees these things in herself and embraces them. She is so special and I love her so much.

I took a few pictures when we were on our field trip at the police training center. The boys thought the dogs and the robot were really cool. It was an interesting trip and I learned a lot!It was really sweet to look up at one point in front of me during the presentation and see Jack and Joe sitting together like this: The two of them are becoming great buddies and friends lately. They spend a lot of time playing together, reading together and just hanging out together. It’s wonderful to watch.

In the art class I took the boys to at the museum last Friday we looked at and learned about some pieces done in a ‘monkish’ fashion using illuminations. All the kids were to make their own illumination style manuscript using a letter of their choice and then add some sort of story to it. Joe chose the letter ‘O’ and wrote about octopuses. He was tickled pink when the teacher chose his to keep and put on display at the museum for the next month. It will be on display with pieces done by local artists, college art students and students from classes at the museum. It should be up next time we go to class and I can’t wait for him to see it. Jack chose the letter ‘C’ for Silver Cat, who of course was at the class with us. I wrote the C and he traced it and then drew a picture of his silver cat. He also drew a brother for Silver Cat :-).

Our family and homeschool life are not all happy, perfect, get along the best ever moments. There are plenty of hard days, long days, days where dinner doesn’t get cooked and the laundry is hardly ever folded in our house these last couple years. There is also whining, fighting and a lot of tears to wipe too…but, when all is said and done there is so much love and happiness that it far outweighs the bad. I’m thankful to be home with my children and thankful for all I get to do with them, teach them and learn along with them. I think this school year has the potential to be such a happy one and I am looking forward to it more than ever!

Snapshots of Our Homeschool Fun, Week 4

noreply@blogger.com (Susana) — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 03:31:00 +0000

1-3. Middle school field trip to the BMW manufacturing facility. It was pretty amazing as to how efficient this plant is run and the extent they go to recycle and reuse. It’s really high tech—I was blown away by all of the robot technology and so forth used to make the cars.

4. Jack’s first dot-to-dot he did all by himself! He and I were both proud :-).

5. Hanna outside one night catching fireflies in a mason jar. Love my sweet girl.

6. The biggest caterpillar I’ve ever seen!

7. Weekly trip to the library with the boys while Hanna is at class. Joe was awesome finding his books by himself and the little boys behaved, *gasp*, I know, right?? I was surprised too! Best trip in a very long time. There was no running, jumping on the furniture, lining up stools to use for leap frog and then dive bombing from the stools to the cushions on the floor—I’ll stop there…

8. Fun at the park after the library. Joe ruled the monkey bars with his mad skills!

9. Jesse, sweet, Jesse…Found him like this late one morning. He was serving up a whole container of cat food, among other things. Luckily, this was fairly easy to clean up compared to food coloring and cake tint as we’ve had fun with in the past.

10-12. Sonlight Science B and Apologia Physical Science

13. Getting back at it after lunch…a long day this week, but we got a lot done.

14. Keyboarding

15. Jack has time with Mighty Minds—he loves these puzzles!

16. Sonlight selection that Joe just loves to read. He’s been telling me all about how things are made this week.

17-18. We celebrated a very special birthday. My sweet girl turned 13! I still can’t believe this time has come so quickly.

Happy Birthday, Hanna!

This was the best week of our school year yet. We are all used to the rhythm and pattern of Sonlight now and I just can’t say enough about how much it’s lightened my load as a teacher. It is such a blessing to our homeschool and family. So thankful things are going smoothly thus far!

*I am linking this post to Collage Friday and Weekly Wrap-Up.

Snapshots of Our Homeschool Fun, Week 3

noreply@blogger.com (Susana) — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 04:00:00 +0000

1-3. Trip to museum—cool model of Earth; sweet Jesse playing at the museum; awesome pic of jellyfish!

4. Jack making words in a matching fashion with Boggle Jr.

5. Joe’s dragon drawing. He named him Charlocke.

6. The boys had some fun with Magic Nuudles.

7. We read Itsy Bitsy Spider a lot this week! It’s one of Jack’s favorites. These socks of mine remind me of this book every time I put them on.

8. It was a good week. School is going well. (picture is of a bottle top of Hungry Jack pancake syrup, always loved the happy face inside it)

9. Laundry—always there for me, just waiting and I let it wait.

**Notes**All of the kids are doing great with Sonlight. The weeks are so much easier than last year. I needed this so badly. I’m thankful for the ease of planning and prep and the lighter load I am carrying thus far. It’s making school time so much more enjoyable and memorable for me with the kids because I’m not as stressed. All of the boys are enjoying our reading time together each day. We read covered up on the couch together a lot and I like it. It’s one of my favorite times of the day. Jack is making lots of progress with holding a pencil, developing a desire to write and learn the alphabet. Bless his heart, he’s really got that desire inside him and it’s starting to blossom. It’s made me so happy to watch him the last few weeks as I realize all that’s inside that sweet, little head of his. Teaching Textbooks is working out great for Joe. He really, really enjoys it, looks forward to it each day. Sonlight LA is going well for both Joe and Hanna. There is a flow to it each week, a pattern and we’re all getting used to it. I love that their writing assignments build upon the previous one each day of the week. I finally feel like there won’t be gaps and it’s wonderful not wondering if I’m teaching it all/enough/in the right order, etc. Hanna’s school is all going good with the exception of Math. Life of Fred is just not cutting it for her right now. She’s having some problems understanding the instructional part/picking out the how-to in the story of each lesson. I ordered Teaching Textbooks Algebra 1 for her and we’ll be doing that from here on out again with Life of Fred as a supplement/extra credit, so to speak. I’m a bit disappointed, but whatever it takes to help her understand I’ll do it.

All in all a really good start to our school year. I couldn’t ask for more. I’m so thankful for this time each day with my sweet children. The days can be long and challenging sometimes and lots of things go undone around my house, but I know in my heart this is time I’ll never have with them again and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

I’m linking this post to: Collage Friday, iPhone Photo Dump, Weekly Wrap-Up

Snapshots of Our Homeschool Fun

noreply@blogger.com (Susana) — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 18:52:00 +0000

1-3. Color mixing fun with paints as we read the books Mouse Paint and Warthog Paints.

4-6. Fun with Angus Lost and some awesome cardboard doghouses Daddy made for the boys.

7-12. Pinterest inspired volcanoes with baking soda, food coloring tinted vinegar and droppers. The boys LOVED this!

13. Jack has been writing letters at random the last couple weeks. I am so excited at his interest in writing! He had no idea he wrote the word ‘Hi’, but he was happy to find out he actually made a word when he asked me what letters he wrote and I explained it. So proud of him!

14. ABC perception puzzles for the little boys.

Inspiration: Pinterest and Delightful Learning

Linking up to Collage Friday, Preschool Corner and 5K Too and Weekly Wrap-Up

Homeschool Happenings

noreply@blogger.com (Susana) — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 23:10:00 +0000

(8/6 – 8/10) In our homeschool this week…It was our first official week of the new school year for me and the boys. Hanna just finished up her year and standardized testing the end of July so she is taking a breather. It was also our first week using Sonlight. It’s way too early for me to go on and on about how much I love our new curriculum, but I’ll just say it was a very, very good week. One I needed badly to give me hope and encouragement for our year ahead and I’m so grateful for this bright spot right now.

In preschool the little boys and I read lots and lots of books each morning. Jack worked on dot-to-dots, cutting and learning the ABC song with me. We used our flannel board for storytelling and counting with our felt numbers and objects.

My favorite thing this week was making sun bread with Jack and Jesse…We read Sun Bread and then made our own together. They were SO good for this and it was FUN! Made me so happy inside.

Tuesday we read Little Blue and Little Yellow and then had some color mixing fun with homemade play doh. We read Big Bear Small Bear and then did an activity with the bucket balance and our counting bears family. While Jack did this, Jesse used the tongs and a small ladle to transfer little rocks into an ice cube tray. Joe and I read about cave people—what they wore, ate, how they obtained their food and lived, and dinosaurs in history. He made a cave painting using crumpled brown paper and chalks. In Science we read about different animals and also learned about magnets. Joe did a stick/not stick experiment with magnets. Now, I thought he would think this was way too simple to be fun, but he LOVED it! Even though it’s something he’s done before, he really acted like it was super :-). In my life this week…I’m thankful for a wonderful first week of school and time to work on things like this: …de-cluttering my entire home. It’s going pretty well. Got a great start and going to make myself keep plugging away at it. It’s the closets and drawers. They are exploding.

A photo I’d like to share…rocking my sweet Jesse to sleep each night. This is the most peaceful time of day for me. Lately my days have just seemed so chaotic, busy, out of sorts, but at the end of each day when I sit down and hold Jesse, watch him fall asleep snuggled into me, listen to his breathing, I am reminded of just how blessed I am and everything seems ok.

Inspiration:

I’m linking up to: The Homeschool Mother’s Journal, Collage Friday, Preschool Corner {& 5K too} and Weekly Wrap-Up.

2012-2013 Curriculum

noreply@blogger.com (Susana) — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 22:59:00 +0000

We began our new school year Monday. I was really nervous about the start of a new year. I haven’t been nervous in years past. This will be our fourth year homeschooling. Last year was by far the hardest year I’ve encountered yet as a homeschool mom. I came to the conclusion that it was due to several factors—using a very teacher intensive curriculum with my oldest son (Five in a Row) and having two very, very busy, curious, get into everything under the sun as fast as you can blink your eyes little ones. Things sailed along smoothly with Hanna, thankfully.

There was no way I could face another year that I thought would be anywhere near as hard for me as last year and with the level of burnout I experienced. Around January I started looking for other curriculums to use. I knew I could not continue on with Five in a Row even though we all loved our time with it. It just involved too much for a mama like me with an all or nothing personality! I had looked at Sonlight several times since I began homeschool, but never heavily considered it, honestly, because of it’s cost. After lots of looking and lots of thinking, I finally decided to give Sonlight a try for all of the kids this year. I will say though, I did not purchase full Cores/packages. I am using our public library system as much as possible. I was able to get almost every book for Hanna (Core W) from our library, and I’ve already looked ahead to next year for her (Core 100) and see that I can get every single one from the library! So, do not let the high price hold you back from trying Sonlight before you check out your local library.

Here is our line up for the 2012-2013 school year:

Jack (age 4), Jesse (age 3)

Sonlight P3/4
Before Five in a Row and Preschool Packs around the web as I feel time and energy permit (for fun and ‘extras’).
Lots of learning games, activities,, Kumon workbooks, etc.

Joe (age 7)

Sonlight Core A
Sonlight Language Arts 2
Sonlight Science B
Apologia Elementary Science books (all 6) as supplemental reading
Living Books
Wordly Wise 3000
Teaching Textbooks Math 3
Life of Fred Elementary series

Hanna (age 13)

Sonlight Core W
Advanced Winston Grammar
Inspiration Software
Life of Fred Beginning Algebra (with the home companion and practice books)
Apologia Physical Science
English from the Roots Up, Volume 2
Typing (1st Semester), Computer/Keyboarding (2nd Semester)
3D Art at local Homeschool Academy

*We will fulfill art, PE, etc. through hands-on activities and classes within our community and homeschool co-op.

My goals for this upcoming school year have changed so much since we started homeschooling. What I want most from this upcoming year is for us to love learning together, read together everyday and enjoy living, laughing and learning together more than we ever have.

Our first week of school has gone very well. I feel like we’ve gotten off to a really good start. I’ve had time to spend with each of my children daily teaching them, reading along side them and I haven’t felt stretched too thin. So far I can see Sonlight being nothing but a blessing for us (I know it’s only the first week though!) and I am starting our year feeling very positive and with a renewed passion for homeschooling! I am so thankful for the wonderful week we have had!

Paul Revere and School Stuff

noreply@blogger.com (Susana) — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 03:57:00 +0000

We had a relaxed, summer row with The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere the week of the 4th. Joe asked me why we celebrated the fourth of July so I thought this would be a wonderful time to row this particular book and read some go-alongs about the Revolution and America. By the end of the week he knew and understood exactly why we celebrate this special day and what a blessed land we live in.

We learned about:

Paul Revere
The American Revolution
Signals in case of emergency, morse code, signals made with lights, etc.
Reading poetry aloud
Using light (moonlight in this instance) in art for effect
Briefly learned about the state of Massachusetts

Joe made a timeline of several important events during the Revolution. We discussed the way reflections on water (with the help of moonlight) make objects appear differently than they actually look. Joe drew a ship in the water using an illustration from the book. He used oil pastels. The book was full of examples of reflections in water. Joe chose his favorite to draw. Joe labeled some rivers and places of importance on a map of Massachusetts and completed two notebooking pages about the state. We didn’t do any extra activities and very few notebooking pages. We did read lots of go along books though. We’ve been busy just enjoying our summer swimming and playing each day and I didn’t want this to feel like ‘school’, more like fun and time together learning about the 4th. It was nice for a change!

We had a super fun day with family! We enjoyed swimming, eating good food and just being together. We’ve got a couple more weeks of summer vacation left before we start our new school year. I plan to start with the boys the first full week of August. Hanna will start the last week of the month. I think it will help me out to start them at different times.

I’m excited about our new school year. I finished getting everything laid out this week just in time to enjoy two weeks myself (school free) before we start back! This will be our fourth year homeschooling and I’m just so thankful for the blessing that it is in my life and in our family.

Ideas, inspiration and printables for Paul Revere can be found at:

The Little Red Lighthouse, FIAR

noreply@blogger.com (Susana) — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 03:30:00 +0000

(6/18 – 6/29) We learned a lot and visited new places as we rowed The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge by Hildegarde H. Swift. All three of the boys enjoyed listening to this book and I liked it too. I love it when a book is based on a true story. This book is written about the red lighthouse at the bottom of the George Washington Bridge and it is still standing today. We read a great go along book suggested in the Five in a Row Volume 2 manual, Keep the Lights Burning, Abbie. Another book based on the true story of an experience had by a lighthouse keeper’s daughter as she kept the lights burning in their lighthouse for several weeks during a storm that kept her father at sea.

We learned about:

lighthouses
bridges
three color printmaking
personification
compound words
the difference between good and bad pride

Here are some pictures of our learning fun:

Compound words game—we used this last year when we rowed Gramma’s Walk and it was good review for Joe. Last September it was a challenge, but he’s definitely mastered this concept now!

Personification using our Pick and Draw game and lighthouse printables from Homeschool Share, (original inspiration for game via Delightful Learning). Joe and I played this together and it was fun!

Joe’s:

Mine:

Illustrations using three colors—red, blue and black. All of the illustrations in the book use three colors only—red, blue and black. Joe used a combination of an art lesson on drawing lighthouses from Art Projects for Kids, and an illustration from the book to draw his own 3 color picture. He did a really great job! He is always so patient and takes his time when he draws and I love that.

We saw our own great gray bridge in Charleston.

We visited and toured the Hunting Island lighthouse. On our way there we actually crossed a drawbridge and that was pretty neat!

This was mine and the kids first time ever being in a lighthouse. It was a cool experience. There were 167 winding steps to the top. Lighthouse keepers had to carry a 50 lb. bucket full of oil up and down these stairs!

Jamie stayed back with Jesse—he didn’t meet the height requirement to go up. When we got to the top we waved to them down below. There was a really pretty view of the beach from the top.

After our tour of the lighthouse we enjoyed the beautiful beach at Hunting Island. Definitely the prettiest beach I’ve ever been to! I ♥ the beach. This was one of my most memorable rows because of our visit to the lighthouse and the discovery of a new beach that I know will become a favorite, one we’ll hopefully make many memories at together.

Up next we learned about Paul Revere as we celebrated the fourth of July.

Night of the Moonjellies, Five in a Row

noreply@blogger.com (Susana) — Sun, 17 Jun 2012 05:03:00 +0000

(6/4 – 6/15) We rowed Night of the Moonjellies by Mark Shasha over the last two weeks. This was one of our most fun rows yet. We loved the book, the lessons we covered, our hands on learning and we made special memories too. Night of the Moonjellies is based on a summer the author spent helping out at his Grandma’s seaside diner, Mar-Gra’s, in the New England area of the US when he was seven years old. After reading the book and reading on the last page that it was all based on real life experiences from the author’s life it made the book even more special to me. I could tell it fascinated Joe to know that it was a true story.

We learned about:

different kinds of jellyfish
ocean creatures of all sorts
biome—what it is and we talked about ocean biomes
small family business (reviewed this concept from our row of Little Nino’s Pizzeria)
contrast
details in a story through pictures
warm/cool palette (reviewed this lesson from our row of Little Nino’s Pizzeria), pastel chalks

Jack and Jesse enjoyed lots of free play with learning manipulatives from our shelves these two weeks. They learned about the ocean from our read alouds, and up close and personal as we visited the beach and aquarium.

Jack did have fun with a few specific learning activities I printed for him. His very favorite was creating spiky sea urchins using play doh, colored toothpicks and number cards. I pulled out a barnacle pop up I made last summer when we rowed Gramma’s Walk and we revisited barnacles.

We went on our first beach trip of the summer to see the ocean and hopefully some ocean life in person. We didn’t see any ocean creatures this time around except some tiny crabs that Hanna caught and made a habitat for in a bucket. We also walked down to the pier to look at all of the barnacles covering it. We read the lesson from Apologia Swimming Creatures about jellyfish. Joe made a couple notebooking pages about different kinds of jellyfish from our reading.

Joe and I made our own jellyfish using watercolors, watercolor paper and pastel chalks from a lesson at Deep Sparkle Art. This was one of my favorite things we did together. It was a super fun and creative art project and the finished pictures turned out beautifully. Joe loves it when I participate with him and I do too. I put glowstick bracelets in the bathtub one night and told the boys to come in, that moonjellies were in their bath! They thought it was the coolest, most fun thing ever! We’ve done it more than once since this first time. We visited our state aquarium and saw moonjellies and sea urchins up close and personal.

We discussed the meaning of contrast when it comes to words in a story and how you can see this contrast both in the text and in the illustrations. (We also discussed details in a story through the use of the illustrations). Joe concluded that he thinks contrast is a lot like opposites. He wrote a paragraph contrasting calm vs. loud. He told me he likes calm better than loud. We read A House for Hermit Crab by Eric Carle and then Joe and Jack made their own house for a hermit crab. They painted a piece of watercolor paper blue, colored a hermit crab picture, used a paper plate for the shell and stickers to decorate it. They could have done this all day. They loved it, and I mean really loved it!

Joe’s:

Jack’s: We learned about biomes and then Jack made his own ocean biome using construction paper, sandpaper and ocean stickers.

Just to prove that Jesse was in on our learning and fun, here’s a picture of him at the fountain having a blast! This was on the same day we visited the state aquarium.I love it when I can tie a row into family activities that will make special memories forever. This was definitely one of those rows. I was excited about it from planning it all the way to the very end of the two weeks we spent rowing.

Currently we are learning about lighthouses, bridges and boats as we row The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge.

Ideas, inspiration and printables for this row can be found at:

Five in a Row Volume 1 manual
Apologia Swimming Creatures textbook and free notebooking pages
2 Teaching Mommies Ocean Preschool Pack – play doh sea urchins and number card printable
Deep Sparkle Art – jellyfish art lesson
Ellen McHenry’s Basement Workshop – Barnacle pop up book
Delightful Learning and School Time Snippet’s – Glow Stick bath inspiration
Naturally Educational – House for Hermit Crab craft
Kinder Days – Ocean Biome picture
Preschool Corner and 5K Too!
Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers Weekly Wrap-Up

The Bee Tree, Five in a Row

noreply@blogger.com (Susana) — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 03:16:00 +0000

(5/14 – 5/18) We rowed The Bee Tree by Patricia Polacco and I learned a whole lot about bees! They are some industrious insects and pretty amazing! This was a fun and sweet book about an adventure a little girl has with her Grandpa and a whole slew of people they pass along their way to the bee tree. In the end she discovers that the adventures within the pages of a book can be just as rewarding as a high speed chase to a bee tree and as sweet as honey.

When Mary Ellen gets bored with her reading, Grandpa knows a hunt for a bee tree is just what she needs. Half the town joins the exciting chase, but it’s not until everyone returns home that Mary Ellen makes a discovery of her own: Sometimes, even the sweetest of things must be worked for. ~excerpt from The Bee Tree, by Patricia Polacco

We learned about:

the different types of bees and their jobs—watched Nova Tales From the Hive and visited a working bee farm.
how honey is made and what makes up a bee colony
that a colony only goes after one type of flower—I found this to be amazing!
life cycle of a bee, body parts of a bee, examined a bee using our microscope
how to make a map
the state of Michigan
onomatopoeia
hospitality

Jack completed a preschool pack about bees throughout our time rowing. The first part of our week with bees we set out to visit a bee farm. I was very excited to see how the bees are kept and how the honey was hived, etc. I think more than the boys! With the monsoon like weather we’ve had since the end of April our trip was far from what it could have been, but we still got to learn much and have some hands-on fun, even if it wasn’t the full experience. I would like to travel back for another field trip in the future for sure!

The kids all bottled honey, made wax figurines and small candles. We enjoyed honey for a long while after we were back home and have added it to our diet on a daily basis for a plethora of reasons. Those were all of the pictures I got at the bee farm. It started pouring shortly after and we didn’t get to take advantage of the rest of what they offered because it was outdoors. Bummer for sure, but the kids had fun getting soaking wet playing in the rain, lol! They played in it for about an hour and then we headed home—they were all drenched, but it was worth it to see them have a blast just being kids.

We examined a bee under our microscope. We were able to identify all of a bee’s anatomy and even see in detail the compound eyes—it was really cool! Joe drew a map of Grandpa and Mary Ellen’s journey from start to finish as they followed the bee’s trail to the tree. He really had fun making his map. He put a lot of thought, time and energy into planning and drawing it and I was just so proud of him.

Here are the rest of his lapjournal pages from our row.

We enjoyed our time with this book and learning about bees. We will definitely have to make sure to revisit this one down the road during nice weather and take another trip to the bee farm. We are enjoying slower days as we periodically break from the three R’s and row at a slower pace. Currently we are rowing Night of the Moonjellies and having fun getting our toes wet in the sand and sun!

Ideas, inpspiration and printables for this row can be found at:

Five in a Row Volume 3 manual
Homeschool Share’s The Bee Tree printables
Apologia Botany and Flying Creatures books
Netflix or YouTube for viewing Nova Tales From the Hive
2 Teaching Mommies Bee Preschool Pack
Parts of a bee anatomy printable
Michigan notebooking pages—Joe has been using these notebooking pages for the 50 states for a few months now and they are my favorite (and free!)
Preschool Corner and 5K Too!
Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers Weekly Wrap-Up

2011-2012 Memory Pages

noreply@blogger.com (Susana) — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 04:01:00 +0000

To see last year’s Memory Pages click *here*.

Truman’s Aunt Farm, FIAR

noreply@blogger.com (Susana) — Wed, 23 May 2012 05:14:00 +0000

(5/7 – 5/11) We had fun rowing Truman’s Aunt Farm by Jama Kim Rattigan. This is a fun book! The boys enjoyed it, laughed and asked lots of questions as we read it throughout the week.

During our row we focused on and learned about:

homophones
repetition in text
how to write a friendly letter
list making
ants, their life cycle, types of ants and their jobs, the way a colony operates
the letter ‘A’ and ants in our Preschool

Preschool was all about ‘A’ is for Ants. Jack worked on a preschool pack and made a picnic style letter ‘A’ poster for his ABC Book. Jesse busied himself with Connect Four and miscellaneous learning toys. All of the boys like playing with the cash register. Joe learned how to write a friendly letter to a relative just as Truman did in the book. He chose to write and mail his letter to his Great Grandma. I taught him the parts of a letter and format for writing a block style friendly letter. He enjoyed learning how to do this and wrote several more letters as the week progressed ‘for fun’ :-).Truman’s Aunt farm is all about homophones. We discussed what they are and I printed a few homophone worksheets for Joe for reinforcement and practice.

In the book Truman serves the Aunts tiny hot dogs, jelly rolls and rice pudding. I made a lunch of this for the kids. The highlight of the week was our ant farm. The kids have all had fun observing the ants. I have too. I never knew ants worked so hard and depended on one another so much. Joe took notes, drew pictures and answered some questions I wrote up for him as he watched the ants each day.

Hanna was awesome getting them into the farm. I was afraid it was going to be a disaster like our ladybug fiasco a few years back. Even after putting the ladybugs into the fridge for a short bit they were still flying all over the place and we ended up with a house full of ladybugs and none in our habitat, lol. The ants were a breeze! Joe made an ant colony of his own from paper, raisins, rice grains, noodles and mini chocolate chips. He enjoyed doing this a whole lot and it turned out really neat. This was a fun project. We enjoyed our time with Truman. I think I learned more about ants than the boys did!

Currently rowing The Bee Tree. Up next, Climbing Kansas Mountains.

Inspiration, ideas and printables for Truman’s Aunt Farm can be found at:

Song of the Water Boatman, FIAR style

noreply@blogger.com (Susana) — Tue, 08 May 2012 05:05:00 +0000

(4/30 – 5/4) We focused our studies this past week on Song of the Water Boatman by Joyce Sidman. This is a book full of well written pond life poems. The poems paint vivid images of pond critters from big to very small. The illustrations are well done and add much to the book. Each poem is accompanied by a non-fiction description of the poem specific pond life. I liked this feature a lot. Joe loves poetry, so I chose this book with him in mind. I thought spring would be a perfect time to do a pond unit and thought studying it through poetry would be something new and fun. We ‘rowed’ this book and treated it just like a Five in a Row selection even though it wasn’t.

We learned about:

alliteration, repetition, haikus, stanzas
many new vocabulary words in this book!
sharing—we read the Value Tale of The Mayo Brothers
life cycle of the frog
spring peepers, diving beetles, nymphs, wood ducks
pond life in general
letter ‘F’ for frog was our preschool focus

We studied the life cycle of the frog all week.

I printed these pictures of a frog from each stage of it’s life cycle from Kids’ Soup…

…and each morning we would sing the following song to the tune of ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb’ as we transformed our tadpole into a frog. The two little boys loved this!

Frog just laid a little egg,
A little egg, a little egg.
Frog just laid a little egg,
And now a tadpole is hatched.

Tadpole looks just like a fish,
Like a fish, like a fish.
Tadpole looks just like a fish,
It swims and starts to grow.

Tadpole now is growing legs,
Growing legs, growing legs.
Tadpole now is growing legs,
Its body’s getting big.

Tadpole’s grown into a frog,
Into a frog, into a frog.
Tadpole’s grown into a frog,
Now watch it leap and hop!

We made a frog life cycle book—also from Kids’ Soup. (Pictured below is Joe’s.) We did a cool experiment from our Life Cycles Wood Frog book about frog’s eggs. I put couscous in warm water for a few minutes, then drained it. Next, I gently mixed the couscous with an egg white. This simulated frog eggs in the protective jelly. The boys each felt and described it. Joe and Jesse were all for this. Jack wasn’t up for it and thought it looked too yucky to touch. Joe drew a picture and made a word bank about the eggs and then used it to write a descriptive paragraph. *He actually finished this on another piece of paper and I realized I didn’t photograph that one.* I printed frog masks and the boys pretended to be frogs catching flies with their sticky tongues. The sticky tongue was a party blower stuck through a hole I cut in the frog mouth. They loved this! It was so fun to watch them pretend and play with these. We went to a pond on two different occasions during this row. I wanted the boys to be able to really experience the pond life we were reading about. Of course, Hanna had to catch some pond life up close and personal. She caught some minnows in a mason jar to watch for a while and then threw them back. She caught tadpoles and we brought them home and are hoping we can help them thrive through their complete metamorphosis. We had fun looking at all the pond life and listening to the peaceful sounds of nature. I’m so glad we were able to get out and have this hands-on experience. The boys talked about things from our pond visits as we read books throughout the week.

We have been observing two different sets of tadpoles. Water frogs from Insect Lore… …and the tadpoles that Hanna caught at the pond. These will become toads. The boys had fun watching them for quite some time during school one morning. This is one of my two most favorite moments from our homeschool this past week. When I pulled pictures off my camera and saw this one of the three of them gathered around the table it was just the sweetest thing. I love the look of wonder on Jesse’s face and the look of pure joy on Jack’s as Joe tells them about the tadpoles. One of the poems from the book is called Travel Time and it pictures microscopic pond life. I thought it would be neat to let Joe study pond water under the microscope. This was by far his most favorite activity of the week! I think I see a week of microscope studies in our near future :-). On one of our pond visits an area of the pond was covered in lily pads. I’ve been eyeing the pastel tutorials at Hodgepodge.com and decided it was time to try one. Joe and I both drew lily pads in a pond with pastel chalks. It was fun and I can’t wait to try another chalk drawing. Joe enjoyed it too and I could tell he loved the fact that I did it alongside him. He grinned from ear to ear when he realized I would be joining him and not just instructing him.

Joe’s:

Mine: Jack focused on the letter ‘F’ in his preschool. He worked on a pond preschool pack, pond life pattern block templates and various other learning activities we have on our shelf that he chose. My second favorite moment from homeschool this past week was Jack tracing his name all by himself for the first time!! I cannot tell you how proud and excited I was to see this: And, after he traced his name he asked for all of the names in our family one after the other. He asked to trace names and letters all week long after this. This made my whole week. I love more than words can express watching my children learn and progress. Jack is by far my busy one and for him to want to sit still to start doing things like pattern blocks and writing is a blessing and answered prayer. I am so thankful.

Jesse played with activities from our learning shelves. I love that he is still so tiny and baby like to me even if he is growing bigger. He still has such chubby fingers, legs. As I’ve typed up this post I feel overcome with gratitude and pure happiness. I feel so thankful for all of the memories we are making in our homeschool. I feel so thankful to share this fleeting time with my children each day. I love my family so much. I am so blessed.

Currently rowing: Truman’s Aunt Farm

Coming soon: The Bee Tree, Miss Rumphius and The Carrot Seed

Ideas, inspiration and printables can be found at: