Week In Review: October 9th, 2010

It really took some thinking to remember the beginning of this week.  Seems like that's always the case - you ask me what I did yesterday and I'm totally clueless.  Luckily, I take pictures of some of it.

 Trent got hold of Cameron's glasses.  Good thing we had the back-up pair.  Cameron learned that the bathroom counter is not a safe place for such a thing, and I learned, well, several things about being a good mother.

Ethan played in another soccer game.  He kinda kicked butt at goalie, apparently.  I was home tending to Drew's never-ending diarrhea, so Joel took Ethan to this game.  Thanks, Joel!

We went to Lagoon - those season passes are almost spent.  We're hoping to get one or two more visits out of them.

Trent was really upset that  he didn't get to ride the bumper cars.  He's too little.  Imagine that!

This was the first time we ever tried this ride.  It was higher than it looked and scarier than I imagined, but Drew laughed like a maniac the entire time.  At one point I took my arm away from him so I could adjust my sunglasses, and he screamed in terror, "Don't let go of me!"  So I put my arm back, and he resumed laughing.

 Ethan kept everyone calm on the Littles' favorite ride.

 It was a spooktacular time!

 Sandy and Mindy came for a quick pit stop visit on their way to see Holly.  We had a good time during those few short hours and were glad to get to see them.  Even more glad to see them beat each other with the weapons Joel made for my boys.  Good show.

 Speaking of weapons, we've spent the last two weeks studying the Middle Ages.  The boys learned tons of useless facts about medieval times.  It amazed me the things their brains chose to remember and the things that were cast out, never to be recollected.  Anyway, they made shields and painted their own coat of arms on them.  I forget what each one means, but the boys chose the symbols and colors based on what they wanted to represent.  I think the dragons indicate that the boys are guardians of treasure.  I think the only thing they have to guard is the family jewels and a nickel that Ethan managed not to spend at Lagoon.

We had cousins come over and build castles with us.  It was kind of insane, but the boys had fun.  I put the boys in teams of two, and now I have more cardboard in my kitchen than I know what to do with.  One of these nights I'm going to have to sneak them into the trash while the kiddos sleep.  Hopefully in the morning they won't be able to figure out why the square footage in the kitchen has doubled.

 Yes, I need to clean my baseboards.  What of it?

 We did several other projects which I managed not to capture on film.  My favorite was 'Sir Cameron and Sir Ethan's Code of Chivalry' book.  They each depicted several rules that they are to follow in order to be nice, respectful, chivalrous young men.  My favorite was the page that says, "Respect Women", and shows a doorway covered in cobwebs while a man bows to a woman and says, "Ladies first!"  I'm not sure if they think they are funny or if they really didn't get it...  Anyway, the above picture is the grand finale to our Medieval unit - the Medieval Feast.  We dined on roasted chicken, yams, red cabbage, banana bread muffins, apple cider and apple tarts.  All atop a "mess", because they didn't have plates back then, you know.

 As King, Andrew presided over the feast, while his noble knights sat at his table in the tunics they painted themselves.  Trent's is the sun, meaning glory.  Cameron's is a flaming star, meaning zeal and nobility.  Ethan painted a bloody sword, which means he is warlike and apparently very good at it.  Drew's is, according to him, a dragon and a dinosaur.  I'm not sure what that means.

Langer's was the chief supplier of cider back then, didn't you know?

 

 I was the peasant woman who made all the food, but the men let me eat with them anyway.

The cider was the only part Trent partook of.  I don't think he appreciated his bread plate. 

So there you go.  It was an exhausting, but very fun week.  Next week we're going to keep things simple with homeschool.  The history of Halloween, a little geology, a bunch of math, and lots of reading.  And here we end.

Week In Review 8/29/10

Boy have we had a week.  It's been a long time since I've had a fatigue-induced mental breakdown, but I suppose I was due.

Monday we took the kids to the park for one last summer picnic.  We were sick of sandwiches, so we brought Dominos pizza.  That stuff is good.

We played at the park and had a good ol' time.  Then it was home and bed, and our first day of homeschool.

It was hard, people.  Hard.  So much time, so little cooperation from the littles who were not used to being ignored for so long...  Cameron and Ethan were amazing though.  They did beautifully.  

We did our basics; math, reading, (both individual and group), language arts, spelling, penmanship, ...uh...did I get it all?  I don't know.  And then there was our science unit for the week:  insects.  

I jest not - my kids are now bug experts.  We watched DVDs on bugs, or arthropods if you will, we built a bug trap (as depicted below), made construction paper insects and labeled all their parts, sculpted models of insects and spiders out of salt dough and then baked and painted them...  The kids rocked it out.  And when they took their final tests on the unit, they each scored 100% without any help from me.  I was so proud.  

They both know that spiders are not insects, but are members of the arachnid family which is a sub-group of the arthropod species.  They also know that pill bugs and crabs are both crustaceans.  (Hello!  I didn't know that!  Well, I knew that about crabs, but not pill bugs.)  

If you asked them what three characteristics are true of all insects, they could tell you that they are all invertebrates, they all have six legs, and all true insects will have a head, thorax, and abdomen.  Then they could point out those parts to you and tell you how to spell them.

I have no idea how long it will take them to forget all this stuff, but who cares?  We had success on our first week!  Of course, there are a lot of things we need to tweak and perfect, but we'll get there.

Here's the kids' trap.  They dug a hole, and placed four flat-ish rocks around it.  (Flat-ish is a word.)

Then they put a large yogurt tub in the hole, and filled dirt around it to make the top of the cup flush with the earth.

 

Then they put a box on top to keep water out of it, and waited over night.

The next morning, they found that they had captured at least three spiders, eight beetles, several potato bugs (pill bugs to some of you), and one earwig, which was evidently killed by one of its cup mates.  It was hard to document all of this because all the insects and spiders were racing around the cup like crazy trying to stay away from each other and find a way out.  We took video of it, but I hate loading video on this thing, so you're out of luck.  (Or maybe count your blessings cause this post is already really long.)

The boys documented their findings...

...and sketched pictures of all the different kinds of insects they found.

And there you have it - a taste of our first week.  

And finally, Cameron's sunflowers are really super tall now.  He's an excellent gardener, and he didn't get that from me.

Have a happy week, everyone!

A New Batch of What-Ifs

As summer approaches it's last few weeks, I am growing uneasy.

This huge decision I have made (homeschool) is looming there in front of me, and I am terrified that I'm going to fail.

I'm worried that I will completely botch it, that my kids will learn nothing, or just not enough.

The plan was to do this for only one year and then send them back to public school with all the keys and pieces that they were lacking before. But if I screw it up, then I can't send them back to public school! They could be held back because their mother was a nit-wit!

What if I can't teach them the things I think I can?

What if they go back to school next year and have no clue how to do long division or properly punctuate a sentence?

What if all we do is lay in our p.j.'s and watch reruns of Ben 10 and Gilmore Girls? Would I do that??

What if I really excel at this home teaching thing, and in the process I miss out on all things Drew and Trent?

What if the dishes are never completely done again? (Because let's face it - it's a rarity now, and I don't have the burden of two minds to educate.)

I'm just thinking of all the potential there is to fail. I'm sure that somewhere in there, there is the potential to succeed.

Or I hope there is, anyway.

Summer Is My Pre-Test

I'm spending some time this summer on homeschool. I wanted to get a head start so there wasn't so much pressure to have all the hours done within the nine months of the normal school year. We want flexibility.

And I've basically decided on a Unit Study method. We'll pick a topic that is appropriate for Cameron and Ethan's educational level, as well as interesting to them, and we'll base our learning on that topic for a week.

For example, if the boys want to learn about dinosaurs, we will check out library books about dinosaurs, use those to read as well as pull our spelling words from. We'll take a field trip to the dinosaur museum a few towns away, possibly have a fossil dig, learn about fossils, maybe make a salt dough version of our favorite dinosaurs, etc... We can even incorporate our themes into our math work. Story problems and such.

There were a lot of things I liked about the Charlotte Mason method, in fact, I loved it, but I knew that it wasn't a good fit for my personality. I need more structure in order to be organized and productive. Plus, I think this Unit Study will be a good fit for my kids.

So anyhow, I wanted to start with some of the basics that led me to make this decision in the first place - penmanship, reading, writing, punctuation/grammar. But that stuff is no fun. Summer is not supposed to be filled with worksheets and assignments of four lines full of perfect letter g's.

So I'm adjusting a bit. I feel like I'm flying by the seat of my pants with no direction, and I guess that's ok for now. I've got til September to figure out all the details.

So tomorrow we're doing a science experiment - frying eggs on the sidewalk. Should be fun, right?

Two days ago we did an ice melt experiment. I wanted the boys to learn about hypothesis, estimation, recording data, and most importantly, making observations. So we took three ice cubes outside and placed them on different surfaces to see how long it took each to melt. First, we made estimates based on what we knew about grass, concrete, and foil. We recorded those and then moved on to find out how accurate we were. I think the kids had fun. We talked about how the results might have been different if there had been no clouds in the sky, if the weather had been cooler, etc. Plus, while we waited for ice to melt, we watched some ants and talked about their habits and jobs.









In the end - about an hour logged for science, and it was mostly effortless with really good results. Except that I was the only one around to see the ice on the grass melt. That sucker took forever!


Anyway - that's a very confusing look at what we're easing into. When things get more serious, I swear I'll be more organized. :)