school pics

Here are some fun school things we've been doing.

ziggurat

Stonehenge model

L mummy

Z mummy

Lapbook

More lapbook

Step pyramid out of sugar cubes

Katakana with Dad

the rest

Here was the rest of the day yesterday.  After posting I took a shower.  When I got out, I realized the time, got the kids up quickly, and rushed out the door to meet our friends at the park.  The was about 2:45.  We got lost on the way, (of course) and after snapping at the kids a couple of times, finally found the place when our friend stood by the sign waving her arms.

3:15  Having left the house so quickly, I forgot some essentials.  Baby wipes, for example, which I always seem to REALLY need when I leave them at home.  But not other times.  Luckily, I had a clean diaper and my friend had some napkins.  Also I didn't bring enough of a snack so L kept complaining about how hungry he was every 15 minutes.  But anyway, the kids played, the moms sat and talked.  I met a new mom who also does ambleside, so I'm sure I'll have lot's of questions for her. 

5:00 Arrived home to a mess (again left quickly) and the baby now really needed a bath after the diaper incident and also due to playing in the dirt.  So L worked on cleaning his room, Z started folding laundry (laundry will be a new chore we're trying out for her), and I gave the baby a bath in the sink.  Afterwards I helped Z fold, then helped L clean while the baby ate a snack.  I must've given the kids a snack too, but I don't remember it.

5:30 Z took a bath, then L.  I did some more cleaning and started dinner, helping the kids at intervals. Then the kids listened to books on tape. I played around on the computer a bit. 

Jomo called to say he wouldn't be home until 7:15. The kids played outside at some point.

7:30 We ate dinner.

8:00 Kids did Japanese and prayer with Dad.  Kids had snack and brushed teeth.  I put the baby down.  L went to bed, Z stayed up for her turn of one-on-one time with Dad.  They played Wii (yes, the kids are doing occasional video games during the week at night).  I read.

9:20 Z went to bed, Jomo and I got ready for the next day, we talked a bit.  Jomo took a bath, and I fell asleep around about 10.

Now, ideally our day would get started on time, Jomo and I would spend a little more time together in the evening, and I would get the things done that I wanted (like the pile of toys in the baby's room that I still haven't touched!).  But all in all, it was a pretty good day.

a day in the life

First, right this minute the baby has discovered the beam of light coming through the window in our living room.  She's exploring how it shines on her hands and on Z's shorts that she got out of the laundry basket, and is reaching for the dust particles in the air.  So cute.

I've been wanting to record a typical day, but a lot of days end up not being typical, and I also forget the details.  But we had a good school morning, so I thought I'd start the first half of the day now, then post the next half tomorrow (since it hasn't happened yet).

6:20 I woke up late, didn't get out of bed until even later, missed my quiet time, nursed the baby a little (she wasn't very interested) and went straight to helping Jomo get out the door.  Since he's been biking to school, he really needs to leave on time, so I'm trying to help him with his lunch and stuff.  I felt like eating pancakes so I worked on those and made Jomo's lunch simultaneously.  Jomo got himself ready and helped the kids with their WiiFit morning exercises.  The baby ate 2 pancakes (yay, we're trying to fatten her up) and Z opted for cold cereal, while L was ecstatic about his pancakes (a boy after his mother's heart).  This all took us until about 7:30 when Jomo leaves.  Sometime in there I inhaled my own pancakes.

7:30 Z took the baby in the bedroom and played with her while I did my WiiFit for 20 minutes or so.  Isn't she the responsible big sister!  L played with pokemons I think in his room.

8:00  I finally had my coffee and sat for a spell while Z played in the backyard and L continued with pokemon.  The baby played with her walker and laughed at herself "walking" across the livingroom.

8:30 I called Z in and L came out looking for more food.  They had some sort of not healthy fruit roll thing, then we started our morning chore, which today was to clean the school room floor.  Jomo usually puts our bed up into a couch in the morning, but like I said, we woke up late.  So, for the first time, I actually did it (it's not easy and I'm pretty proud of myself).  Then the kids picked up the floor, swept, I vacuumed while holding the frightened baby, then the kids cleaned the wood floor with our wood cleaner and cloths.  

9:00 We started school, I put the baby in the pack-n-play in the school room, and she cried for a bit.  This is kind of new for her.  Z and L practiced their memory verse (1 John 4:19), then I started Z on her math, and read a book to L.  L did a narration (something he initiated recently after seeing Z do her Aesop narrations) which I typed up and printed for him to draw a picture. At this point, Z started complaining about her math being too long, which it was kind of long, so after a bit I relented and told her to do one more line of problems for now.  L started his own "chapter book" which was some folder papers which he wrote on and illustrated.  (It was called "Cat and the Witch.)  I did First Language Lessons orally with Z, then she read aloud to me from Christian Liberty Nature Reader 1 (It was about "trapdoor spiders")  

10:00 Z did a phonics worksheet and finished her math while I nursed the baby and put her down for a nap.  I don't know what L was doing.  Then Z read aloud a list of "er, ir, ur" words and begged to read the reader that went along with them.  I was the mean mommy and didn't let her because we had other stuff to do, and I knew she would reach her limit soon.  After that I read "Moses the Kitten," by James Herriot, to her and she narrated it back orally.  L sat in a bit.  Then we started science.  This is where it got good.

10:40 maybe?  I read "Magic School Bus " habitat book that I can't remember the name of.  It's the one with the frog.  Both kids listened.  Then Z made a list of what's important to have in a habitat (food, fresh air, water, a place to reproduce, a place to hide).  Then I got out the lapbook she's making for our field trip last week, and she got really interested.  She filled in the life cycle of a butterfly, glued down the map of the susquehanna river, made a mini-book of the things we found in the strandline, and she wanted to do more during her rest time.  L worked in a coloring book.

11:00 While Z was working I got very hungry and so heated up some leftovers for myself (Patak Mild Curry Sauce with chicken over rice, mmm) and started the soup for the kids.  When Z was done we ate.  Well, I ate, and Z, but L wasn't too excited about the soup.  I finally had to make him finish before he could have watermelon.  After lunch we worked a bit more on the lapbook (because she was so excited about it) and read a bit from our habitat book, after which Z made her own drawing of the food chain with her at the top.  After all this she declared that she wants to be what her Didi is when she grows up (a science professor).  So it was a pretty good school day.  They certainly aren't all like this!

12:00ish, Z practices her piano (without complaining!) and practices her ballet.  L listens to music in the other room.  Baby wakes up and eats lunch.

1:00 Kids have rest time.  They have to spend the first half hour lying down while music is playing, then they can get up and play.  Z is in the school room today, L in the kids' bedroom. They alternate.  I play with the baby a bit, then I just put her down for her nap (around 2).  Now I'm about to take a shower, clean up the lunch dishes, and maybe a few other things.  Then we're going to meet a friend at a new (to us) park.  

I know this was really long.  Hopefully you aren't completely bored reading it!

"Uh oh"

So the baby is trying to talk.  She's not too interested in signing, but she's really trying to talk to us.  "Uh oh" is her favorite.  Her version sometimes sounds like "uh uh" and sometimes it's a sound that changes from high to low in intonation.  But it's cute.

Today I woke up with a headache, feeling tired and unmotivated.  And a little sad.  Once I got through WiiFit I was feeling a little better.  Then an ibuprofen and a cup of coffee made the day even brighter.  I decided to have a "catch-up" day.  There are some loose ends in school that I wanted to get through, so we did a little of that, and we'll do a little more after tea time.  That was it for school today.  I spent the extra time trying to catch up on cleaning.  Our weekend was busy so there was a lot left undone.  Right now I'm going through a pile of papers and mail, trying to put it all away somewhere.  That's probably one of my least favorite chores, but it is nice to have all the little piles gone from the surfaces of my living room.  

Tomorrow my goal is to get through the huge pile of stuff in the baby's room.  I recently went through the kids toys and told them to each fill a basket of the stuff they wanted to keep, and the rest was to be put away somewhere.  Unfortunately the somewhere ended up being the baby's room, since I've been afraid of the attic since the dead squirrel thing.  But we finally took care of the squirrel (woo hoo!) and now only need to bleach the floor up there.  In the meantime, another animal has moved in.  We can hear it at night.  Apparently the moth balls didn't deter him, as the landlord said.  And on top of it, I just read that the fumes from moth balls are pretty poisonous especially for children, and our house has smelled strongly of moth balls for a couple of weeks.  It's not as bad now.  I'm glad I had the windows open a lot.  But to get back to the point, tomorrow I need to figure out which of the toys to keep and put upstairs, and which to toss/donate.  I'll let you know how it goes!

Field Trip!

Yesterday was field trip to the Susquehanna River day.  We met my mom at her boat and drove out to the small island that we usually visit with her.  Our plan was to learn more about the "seashore" (though not technically a seashore) habitat via the book One Small Square: Seashore, by Donald Silver. 

The weather was a bit chilly for swimming, so there was much shivering involved.  But the sun was shining and we actually got to observe a good number of animals.  However, my expectations of Z's wide-eyed fascination with our science lesson was not met.  She made a good effort at cheerfully learning, but was really much more interested in playing in the water and building sand castles.  I guess I can't really expect much more out of a six-year-old!  And besides, I consider playing in the water and sand to be quite educational in and of itself.

I think we'll make a small lapbook about our trip, even though I recently blogged about how they're too much work.  But I think it'll pull all our observations together and give Z a better understanding of this habitat.  Here is a list of some of the neat things we observed:

Seaweed

Crickets

Blue dragonflies (we need to look these up)

Lot's of butterflies 

Ducks (which we fed)

Pill bugs

Bird footprints

Possibly a heron? (Z wants to look this up)

Sea gulls (catching fish)

Clams

Sand (it's dry on top, but wet underneath)

Strandlines

Ok, maybe it wasn't a bad field trip.  That seems like a lot of things!

Confession

It's time for confession.  This is how I often look at home during the day.  I know.  Sad.  

I'd like to be one of those people who gets all put together every morning.  I even make the effort from time to time, but it usually fizzles out quickly.  One of these days I'll get there.  

My problem is, I really like to be comfortable.  (Oh, and a lot of my old pre-pregnancy clothes still don't fit.)  I do make somewhat of an effort if we're going out somewhere.  Usually.  And of course the times that I don't are the times when I happen to see people that I know.

So now that you've seen this, hopefully I'll be motivated to primp a little more.  Seriously, it is a goal of mine to try to at least look neat and clean each day, even just at home.  I think it's important to look my best for my hubby, and even for myself since I feel better when I do.  Okay, I'm off to shower and do something with this hair! 

Indulgences

Since we've moved to the D.C. area from Michigan, our grocery bill has increased 30 - 50%.  Certainly, this metro area is more expensive, though probably some of the cost increase is due to our growing family, and our change to a healthier diet.  And while we'd love to buy mostly organic fresh foods, with Jomo in school and me staying home with the kids we're finding that we need to cut costs.  That's ok.  We really like pasta and vegetarian meals, and even a good tuna casserole. But here is my list of grocery store indulgences.  

1. Fair-trade coffee, I like Newman's own.

2. Cheese.  One hunk of good cheese makes tea time happy for a couple of weeks.

3. Salmon. We all love salmon.  It's so tasty and easy to cook.  And it's a super food.

4. Good rice.  We've been buying good rice for a couple of years now.  We eat a lot of rice. I don't even like the cheap stuff anymore.  Kokuho Rose is good.

5. Fresh fruits.  We try to keep it in, but it usually doesn't last too long in our house!

Thanks for indulging me!

future

Ok, so I have future curricula on my mind.  I know, I know, we just started this year!  But I want to get my ideas down because I really think it'll help me get it out of my head to focus on what we're doing now.  Then I can look at it later when we need to make decisions.  So here goes:

Language Arts

Learning Language Arts Through Literature looks really good to me.  I like Ruth Beechick principles of learning language naturally.  It looks gentle and like it will fit into short lessons.  I'm thinking of starting Z on the yellow level, which is approx. third grade, because the second grade includes a lot of phonics, which I don't think she'll need, and is more expensive.  I think her reading level will be fine for yellow.  There are criticisms that this program isn't very rigorous, but I'm not really looking for rigorous, just something a bit more structured than Ambleside Online alone.

Explode the Code workbooks, as long as we like the ones we're doing this year.  Just a little extra phonics practice.  These types of things tend to be fun and easy for Z.

Christian Liberty Nature Reader 2.  I really like level 1 that we're doing now.  It's pretty advanced for first grade, and it keeps Z challenged.  Plus it's really good information.  I'm getting tired of early readers that have awkward sentences like, "Dad did help him."  I understand the need for them early on, but I like that these readers have a more natural flow, even if they're difficult.

Sing, Spell, Read & Write for L.  I may include some Explode the Code workbooks for him, especially if he goes quickly through level K like Z did.  But I don't want to overdo workbooks, so we'll see.

Handwriting Without Tears for both kids.  Skip SSRW handwriting.  Also copywork, especially using Bible verses.

History

A Child's History of the World, Hillyer- This is an Ambleside recommended book (as well as Sonlight) and it looks like a good narrative of history to use for the next few years.

Peace and Peril and Monks and Mystics, Withrow.  These would be for church history. They are mostly short biographies I think.  We're starting P and P at the end of this year.

Our Island Story, Marshall- Another Ambleside book about history of Great Britain.

Fifty Famous Stories Retold, Baldwin- Ambleside book.

Viking Tales, Jennie Hall- Ambleside book.

This Country of Ours,  Marshall- Ambleside book. 

In the third year I'd plan to start American history alongside world history.  I like the look of Beautiful Feet Early American History, and also Time Travelers cds from Homeschool in the Woods (for fun activities).  I may start out the Explorers Time Travelers at the end of year 2 if we get to that point and see what I think. BF includes a lot of the D'Aulaire books that Ambleside recommends.  I think, in general, I like the idea of doing American History chronologically along with world history, unlike how Ambleside does it, because I think it will make more sense.  It'll make more sense to me, for sure, so I'd rather do it the way I feel most comfortable.  

Math

Singapore Math 2

Miquon Math Level 2

Earlybird Math for L

Science

Noeo Science looks good to me.  Perhaps the Physics 1?  I may do another year of Life Science though.  Animals and such would be fun for L, I think, so we'll have to think about this.

Literature, Artist, Composer

Continue Ambleside Online selections.  

Ok, enough of my crazy ramblings.  

So far

Here are some things I've been learning about school for our family:

1. Lapbooks are time-consuming, both for me and the kids.  And, I don't really like having such a long ongoing project.  I just want to get it done!  Also, I don't think I love the format.  Mini books are too small for Z to write well in.  And the complicated folds are just more than I want to do.  I think in the future, if we do more lapbooks (I already told Z we would do one for Little House in the Big Woods, and L is currently working on an alphabet lapbook), I'm going to adapt them to work for us, and make them much shorter.  I do really like the idea of it, and I'm tempted by all the fun free ones out there, but I'm not sure the educational value for my kids is worth it.  

2. L wants something to do while I'm working with Z.  However, he doesn't always like what I have for him to do.  He does pretty well playing on his own, but I think now he's wanting a little more "school" but without any of the directions to follow.  Hmm.  So I think I need give him a stack of paper and other supplies, and come up with some ideas that he can start with.  He does really like to get creative and do his own thing.  He makes his own "pop-up" books, which consist of drawings with little pieces of paper glued on.  I think I also need to set aside some time for just him when I can read him some books and sit down with him to work on something.  During school time that is.  So maybe when Z is working on her math, since she's pretty independent with that.

3. I need to slow down a bit, and not worry about getting every history and science book in.  We've been working on weather (and doing a weather lapbook, pics coming soon) and I checked out every "Let's Read and Find out about Science" book related to weather.  We were also reading "Magic School Bus Inside a Hurricane" and looking at our science encyclopedias.  These were great books, but I think in the future, I can limit it to two or so. 

For History we've finally started The Mystery of History.  We skipped the first several chapters because we didn't love how they presented the information.  So I guess I'm just now finding out how it will go.  But I can already tell that I want to get every good book in!  I definitely need to limit it.  I've already checked out a bunch of good Egypt books, so I should probably take my own advice and just choose two or three.  My plan for notebooking is that for each topic we have a paper printed out with a little picture on it and space for a drawing, where Z can write down some of the things she's learned. From what I've seen so far, and it makes sense, this is just too much for her.  Formulating the thoughts to put down is probably enough.  If she also has to execute handwriting and figure out spelling, it becomes a big ugly chore.  I'm thinking about writing it down for her, but I'm not sure about this yet.  I'm resistant to the idea of her history notebook filled with my handwriting.  One thing we tried was having her dictate to me, I write it down, then she copies it in her handwriting.  So I may keep going with that and see if that works.

I'm sure I'll be learning more and tweaking more in the future.  Like, I really want to get some nature hikes in, and we just haven't done it yet.  I need to figure out how to do that.

Here Z and L are working on the cuneiform tablets after we learned about the Sumerians ancient form of writing.

Z came up with her own version of cuneiform to make a message.

The baby laughing with Daddy.

"What do you want from me?"

More Pictures!

Ok, back-to-back posts.  But I couldn't fit all the pictures that I wanted.  So here's the rearranged school room.  We moved our dresser into the baby's room, since she doesn't need a lot of space.  And we hung up the timeline.

And here's our impromptu science experiment from this morning.  These ones are sideways because I didn't want to spend the time rotating them the only way I know how.  There may be an easier way, but... 

We're learning about weather, and this one shows that hot air rises.  (The beer bottle was the only glass bottle I could find, lol)

Pictures!

Things have been going really well.  My arm feels MUCH better!  School has been good, though the kids have been tired due to the change up of bedrooms.  We put Z and L in together in the bunk bed, took L's old bed apart to store, and put the baby in his old room.  It makes just a bit more space in our tiny house.  Anyway, the kids are still adjusting and staying up later than normal talking.

Just wanted to put in some pictures from this week.  Here's Z's piano recital.  She played "Grandfather's Clock" beautifully.  I'm so proud of her hard work this first year of piano and hope for many more.  I'm especially proud, too, of how she got up on stage in front of all those people and played so confidently.  She's not the kind of kid who likes to be the center of attention.  So that was very cool.

Waiting excitedly for her turn.

Playing on the grand piano with her piano teacher nearby.

Here are some pictures from tea time yesterday.  I wanted to take them because it doesn't normally look so pretty!

The table is set with our new Japanese plates that Oma (Grandma) sent.  (I know, brie cheese with ritz crackers is almost a crime.  But it's what we had.)

Here's a painting Z made from memory of "Primavera" by Botticelli.  We are learning about 6 of his paintings for the next several weeks.  I like Cupid flying above.  I guess that's her version of a bare bum.

Here's L's painting.  I liked his use of color.  I didn't give him the same "assignment" as Z, but he still seemed to include elements of "Primavera."

It's shaping up to be another one of those weeks...

Last week was pretty challenging.  I had the clogged sink, two bee stings, and then the poison ivy.  Well, the rash got pretty bad, especially over the weekend.  I couldn't sleep for more than two hours at a time.  It was quite painful.  Then on Monday, my arm started to swell up quite a bit.  I made a doctor's appointment for Tuesday afternoon.  In the meantime, L had his (well overdue) yearly checkup scheduled  for Tuesday morning.  So Monday night, knowing that it's hard to get everything together and everyone going in the morning, I packed a bag with school books and activities for the waiting room, snacks and drinks, diapers, an immunization record, and a temporary registration to hang in the rear window since that also was overdue.  I felt very prepared.  I even picked out clothes for everyone.  Tuesday morning comes along and everything is running smoothly.  We're even ready to get out the door ten minutes early to make sure we're on time.  And what should be missing?  Car keys.  I couldn't find them.  Anywhere.  I tore the house apart looking for my keys.  I still can't find them now. So, needless to say, L's appt. had to be rescheduled.  (He didn't mind waiting a few more weeks for his 5 shots!)  

What to do about the afternoon appointment?  Well, I'll probably have to cancel it.  Oh wait!  There's public transportation!  So we walked 1/2 mile to the metro, took the train 1 stop, walked another 1/2 mile to the doctor's.  Not too bad.  But hot.  And we didn't bring enough to drink.  Thank you Baja Fresh, next door to the doc's where we filled up on lemonade and cheese quesedilla.  Then hiked back home.  Oh, and the arm is infected.

So, rough day so far.  The cherry on top was upon arriving home and discovering a distinct odor permeating the house.  So we're pretty sure an animal got into our attic and died up there.  I'm too wimpy to actually look.  There are some perks to renting, one of which is the landlord gets to deal with it.  

So I don't want my blog to be a list of complaints.  But I just couldn't resist after last week's and yesterday's events.  It's actually kind of funny now.  I wasn't laughing, though, when I was frantically searching for my keys!  Maybe this is normal and I need to get used to it.  I wonder what other exciting things will happen this week.