Wow, a whole month...

...has gone by since my last post! What HAVE I been

doing with myself? And The Kids, for that matter?

Well, we've tried to keep pretty busy, although I don't know that ANY state of busy-ness is busy enough for those two! We took a trip to Memphis in mid-June, celebrating Bear's birthday there with Ched's mom and stepdad. That was a fun, relaxing trip. We went to the Zoo to see the Pandas and to the Peabody to see the ducks march to the elevator. The Kids loved that! Plus we spent a lot of time just hanging out and relaxing - much needed, I might add! And. of course, we had to go eat the best ribs in the WORLD at Corky's, so our trip was complete!

The Lion King

I know that this isn't a homeschooling topic, per se, but I had to share!

Last night we took Reilly to see The Lion King on stage and it was, without a doubt, hands down, the most fantastic show I've ever seen! (and I've seen quite a few shows!)We had purchased the tickets about 9 months ago, and originally just Ched and I were going to go, but he decided that he'd like for her to see it as well, so we snagged another ticket for her. It just happened, timing wise, that the date we chose coincided with our last day of school, which was Friday, so we turned it into an End of School celebration and took her out to dinner.

Our seats were row G (the first row was C, so we were even closer than I thought we'd be) and we ended up being right on the aisle. (That was sheer luck because the theatre had to add two extra aisles for the opening scene, and when we bought the tickets we didn't know where those aisles were going to go in!) So, the music starts, here come the animals down the aisle and we were on the side with the elephant! Reilly's eyes were as big as SAUCERS!! Frankly, my eyes were filled with tears because it was so fantastic and I was so thrilled, and I guess that's how I handle emotion!

*sigh* I want to go back and see it again!

The Last Day of School

Well, I decided that I wanted to make the actual last day of school special, so I surprised The Kids with a trip to the Zoo! They absolutely LOVE the Zoo, even though we've been there about a thousand times. We went to the store and picked up some Lunchables - which is a huge treat by itself! - and off we went. Several times during the day, Deco said, "Dis is fun, Mama!" It was definitely a good end to a great school year!

Oh my...

*gulp*

Tomorrow is our last day of school...

When I think about it too hard, I kinda want to cry...not in a sad sort of way, by any means. But in an "OHMYGOODNESS, we actually DID it!" kind of way.

When I think back to the first day of school (August 25th), I remember sitting on the sofa with Bear, and doing a page in a math workbook that I'd gotten on eBay. We did the number "1" - it was the first time she'd written a number 1. And when we were finished that day, I thought to myself, "Wow, now we really are a homeschooling family." After years of talking about it, praying about it, preparing, and stressing out about it, we were there. And now she easily counts to over 100 and writes numbers up to 100. She can do simple math. She reads. Her handwriting is amazing. She's beginning to learn about punctuation and capitalization...and I helped her do all that.

I wonder - would I be feeling this emotional if she had gone to public school? Somehow, to see where she was, and to see where she is now, and to realize that I had a hand in getting her there...it really, truly boggles my mind. Wow.Am I going to feel this way at the end of every school year? Am I still going to be turning into a blubbering fool when she "graduates" from first grade? Or fourth grade? Or seventh grade? Oh my, I don't know if I can handle it!

We're going out to dinner and to see "The Lion King" on stage on Saturday night as our End of School Celebration, so I'm looking forward to that...we all are. (OK, well, Deco isn't going, but the rest of us are excited!)

Our "Resurrection Plant

When we were in St. Louis, my mom bought Bear a "Resurrection Plant" at the Missouri Botanical Gardens. This is a type of fern, and the packet said that even though the plant looked completely dead, it would return to life if placed in a shallow bowl of water.

So, last Tuesday, we put the plant to the test!

The first picture on the left is what the plant looked like when it first came out of the package. Curled in on itselt, very dry, very brown...seemingly very DEAD!

The first picture on the right is after it has been in water for about 15 minutes. It's beginning to unfold a little bit and we could see that some of the ends had a little bit of green on them.

The second picture on the left was taken a few hours after it had been put into the water. Obviously, it's much more uncurled, and we could see much more green down in the center.

The last picture I took, which is the second one on the right, was taken some time the next day. There was a whole lot of green and the plant was almost completely spread open.

Now, the plant never turned into the "lush, green fern" that the package said that it would, but it was really neat to see it come to life as much as is did! We could plant it in a planter, but I've not gotten around to doing that yet. Someday, someday...

Sliding into Home Plate!

Well, believe it or not, we're in our last week before we begin our summer break!!

*mind boggles - have we really done this for a whole school year?*

I've decided that I'm going to take all of June off, then do part time school in July, and then take all of August off. Hopefully we can get closer to finishing Horizons Math Kindergarten before we start first grade. I didn't buy it until halfway through the year and I didn't think about the fact that we wouldn't finish it by the end of the school year.

Today was a really rough day for me, as far as school goes. Really, what it boils down to was I was fighting a fight that didn't need to be fought, got frustrated, acted like a big huge jerk, apologized, took an hour off of school, and then got a fresh start. Once we went back, everything was fine.

We haven't really been doing anything exciting for the past few weeks, which is in part, I think, because I'm just trying to plow through and get things done. We had a GREAT trip to St. Louis to see my brother's college graduation, and ended up doing some things there that I felt "qualified" as school. We went to the Missouri Botanical Garden to see the "Glass in the Garden" exibit by Dale Chihuly - it was beautiful! Erin had done his photography internship there, and I'd seen a lot of pictures that he had taken, but it was amazing to see the glass pieces in person. We did a lot of "I Spy", only it was "I spy a Chihuly!" We also went to The City Museum, which is like a huge playground for adults and kids (very great!) and the Laumeier Sculpture Park, which is a park (no, really?) that is full of huge sculptures that you can climb all over. It was a fun trip, and I was so glad that we were able to go. Even if we hadn't gotten to do anything fun, it was worth the trip just to be there to see Erin graduate! *wipes away tear*

http://mobot.org/chihuly/chi_press.asp

Schoolin' in St. Louis!

Ode to Room 108 and Grad Weekend 2006

(Sung to the tune of "If You're Happy and You Know It")

We ate chicken on a plate in 108.

We slept and we took showers, it was great. (108!)

We saw Erin graduate,

and we had a piece of cake;

Oh, we learned to celebrate in 108!

We saw Chihuly in the garden, stayed up late. (108!)

Climbed on sculptures at Laumeier in the rain. (sort of!)

Oh, we crawled around The City...museum, that is...

It was tough, it wasn't pretty.

Had lots of food at Big Sky, wine and STEAK! (108!)

IT WAS A BUST!!

Well, the fantastic "invisible ink" idea was a complete bust! We found the hottest lightbulb in our house and held the paper over it...and held it...and held it...and HELD IT...to no avail! NOTHING HAPPENED! Oh well, someone left a tip saying to use the iron, so we'll try soon. Poor Bear, she's getting pretty tired of these things not going so well!
We've been using a "plan" for encouraging Bear to not complain when things don't go the way she wants them to - it was getting to be a problem and I spent a lot of time saying, "DON'T COMPLAIN!!!" Instead of disciplining her when she complains, we reversed our thinking. Now, each time she is in a situation where she could complain and makes the decision not to, she gets a little star on a chart on the fridge. Then, when she earns 10 little stars, she gets a BIG star on a chart in her room. When she ears 10 big stars, she gets a reward. The first reward, which she has already earned, was a trip to the mall for Dippin' Dots. The second reward, which she is still working toward, is a date with Mama! (I came up with that one!)
The reason that I'm sharing this on my homeschooling blog is that we've started using this "plan" to encourage her to read out loud. Previously, whenever I asked her to read anything outside of "school time", you would have thought I'd just asked her to cut off her big toe. So now she can earn a little star on her chart by bringing a book to me that she wants to read out loud or by agreeing to read out loud at my suggestion. So we'll see how that goes!

Today in school...

I had Bear read one of the pages in her "Reading Practice Book" that I made for her out of the Ordinary Parents Guide... book. I think that I may get on the computer and make up some stories of my own to add to that book. The only problem with it the way it currently is is that there's no continuity to what she's reading. There might be two little paragraphs on a page that correlate somehow, but, for the most part, it's composed of random sentences.

We did a little bit of a "science experiment" that involved drawing with lemon juice on paper and letting it dry. We'll go back later today (or tommorow) and hold the paper over a lightbulb so that the "ink" will brown up (a'la invisible ink) and you'll be able to see what was written. The "experiment" comes from the same book that the other two FAILED experiments came from, so it remains to be seen whether or not this one will work!

FINALLY, a use for my Cuisenaire Rods!

I purchased a big 'ol set of Cuisenaire Rods off of eBay at the beginning of the year because I thought I might use the Miquon math curriculum, BUT I decided that Miquon was going to be too confusing for me to teach, and heaven knows that I have enough trouble with math without having to use a confusing curriculum to try to teach it to another person! SO, I gathered up my Miquon books that I had purchased, along with the rods, took a picture of them, and got all set to sell them on eBay.
Then, I relized that they would be PERFECT to use to reinforce the idea of place value, which is where we are in Horizons! You see, the rods are manufactured so that they are fractions of each other...for example, 10 white rods equals one orange rod. So, yesterday, I got out a whole bunch of the littlest rods and 5 or 6 of the orange rods and was able to show Bear that if we have five sets of 10, we have 50 in all...so if we have 5 tens and 3 ones, we have 53...well, it all makes sense in my head, even though it doesn't seem to make much sense as I try to read what I just wrote! And she seemed to grasp the concept a little better than just trying to do it on paper. Plus, there's the added bonus in that she loves anything that she can do with her hands!
So, while the rest of the books are currently listed on eBay, the rods are staying here!

Just a note...

Hey, I just wanted to point out to my VAST (I'm sure!) reading audience, that I've added links to two other blogs that I've started keeping! "A Day in the Life..." is chock full of my thoughts and things that happen that are outside of the homeschooling realm and "What's On the Shelf?" is the beginnings of my own personal book review blog. I read a lot and thought I'd share some of what I'm reading with my friends! Plus, it gives me something ELSE to do on the computer!

So, check them out! Enjoy! And, hey, thanks for coming!

Reading....

I was having a bit of a dilemma this past week with Bear and her adventures in beginning to read. Having never taught anyone to read, and not being able to remember learning to read myself - as far as I can remember, I was born knowing how to read! :c) - it's hard for me to know what is typical for her age and grade. I DO know, however, that she's doing fantastically. She can sound out virtually any word that is put in front of her, and, therein lies the "problem", if there even is one. We've been going through The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading, and have just passed the lessons covering ending blends and were getting ready to start beginning blends, when I realized that she still sounds out most words. Even small 3-letter words like "ran" and "hen", and, while she can look at any of the blends that we've covered and say their sound when I show it to her on a flash card, she doesn't blend it together when she initially sees it in a word.
So, being the fruitcake overachieving homeschooling mom that I am, I immediately begin to panic that there is SOME sort of thing that I've mis-taught and that she'll NEVER begin to blend the sounds together and will go to COLLEGE saying, "Th-ee, the, fff-aaa-t, fat, c-aaa-t, cat, rrr-aaa-nnn, ran."!

Then I realize (thankfully) that she probably just needs some practice!

SO, I went through the OPG lessons that we've done and took the little sentences and stories that they have in there, and typed them up on colored paper (to make it seem more fun!). I put these in a folder and, yesterday, had her pick one page that she wanted to read out loud. We put a stamp at the top of the page so that we'll be able to keep track of which ones she's read. I'm just going to review these lessons for a little while until she is a bit more smooth, and THEN we'll move on!

Science "Experiments"?

We've tried TWO science experiments out of a new book that I got from our church library, and BOTH of them have...not really failed, but have not worked as well as the book indicated they would! The book is Simple Science Experiments with Everyday Materials, by Muriel Mandell, and one of the things that is says in the intro is that they work. Well, I'd have to disagree with that statement, but I guess Bear has had fun with them regardless!
Yesterday we did an "experiment" where we put a green marker dot on a piece of papertowel and put the end of it in water. In theory, the water was to soak up the paper towel, erasing the green dot and leaving in its wake blue ink and then yellow ink because, according to the book, "...the colors that make up green - blue and yellow - do not move at the same rate, they separate." Well, we tried this three times with dubious results! The first two times, I think our dot was too big. The third time it worked somewhat, but by that time we were all tired of trying, so the impact was lessened a bit!!
Today, we tried to make 2 dull pennies shiny by putting one in lemon juice and one in vinegar. Well, the pennies came out SOMEWHAT shinier. I had thought that we could compare which made the penny shinier - the lemon or the vinegar....they were both pretty much a bust! Oh well! Hopefully we'll have better luck with the next one!

Is it already the end of ANOTHER week?

Sheesh!

We've had a mixed bag this week. We had a great Easter, and on Monday we planted the little "self contained" seeds that I put in Bear and Deco's Easter Baskets. It's a little paper pot that came with a dehydrated soil pellet and some sunflower seeds. You reconstitute the soil, plant the seeds, put it in a warm place and, presto! A sunflower sprouts! However, I was looking at the pots today, and there appears to be some sort of mold growing on the top of the soil, so I don't know if we're going to get any sunflowers or not! We're pluggin along well in reading, which I'm using The Ordinary Parents Guide to Reading to teach. We're up to Lesson 45 and have begun to cover consonant blends (lk, lb, lp, st, nt, etc.) as well as double consonants. Bear reads so well and sometimes we're able to do more than one OPG lesson in a day. I've started doing some math "drill" type activities with Bear to begin teaching addition facts. We've covered 0+ and 1+ with flash cards, which she knew right off the bat, and we've worked a little on 2+, but used the abacus for that so that she would have a visual aid. I don't know if this is coming too early, but I just really want her to have that base for math. I know that it will make it SO much easier for her in the future!
I'm searching, trying to figure out our curriculum and schedule for next year. I know that I want to add some type of science and spelling, and possibly beginning history. There'a just SO much out there to choose from that it makes it hard to pick! Plus, price always plays a role, and some of the "better" (most highly reccommended!) curriculums come with a hefty price tag! Oh well, it'll all work out!
On the home front, I made chicken and noodles for our neighbors for dinner tonight. They just had a baby two weeks ago and I thought it would be nice to fix dinner for them. Now, my mom taught me that when you make chicken and noodles, you add a couple of drops of yellow food coloring to it - it just makes it look more...chicken-y. Well, I go to add the food coloring this evening and the yellow lid had been put on the RED food coloring! So I had to take PINK chicken and noodles to them!! (Actually, it was more of a dusty rose....)

Aaah, the end of another week!

I wish that I could say that we did something super-exciting today, but we really didn't.

Bear had had an idea to play "Store" for math, so I took her up on that. I made ten price tags, ranging from $1 to $10, and had she and Deco pick some things from their rooms to stick the price tags on. She would come into the "store", pick two items, and then figure out how much she would owe me, using her number line. She thought it was great fun, of course! I think her favorite part was getting to pretend that Deco was her son. She got to say things like, "Son, stay over here by me!" (It's so funny to hear yourself parroted in your kids!)
Altogether, we've had a good week! We read a book about Easter and learned that, in Australia, they sell more chocolate bilby's than they do chocolate bunnies. A bilby looks like a large-eared rat and is endangered, so they started producing chocolate bilbies to raise money for conservation. A good friend of mine brought her grandkids over yesterday and we dyed Easter eggs. We always have a good time when they come to play - Sophie is a year younger than Bear and they just play together SO WELL! No arguing or fighting, it's like heaven!
I'm excited about Easter on Sunday!

Resurrection Eggs

Last Monday we started our Resurrections Eggs, which are produced by Family Life. It's really neat because there are 12 plastic eggs, each containing an object that relates to Christ's last few days. The kids open an egg, then I read out of the little booklet that came with the eggs which explains the significance of that particular object. There are also Bible passages that can be read, but we've not been doing that, simply because of The Kids age. Some of the Scripture entries are pretty long and the booklet does a good job of explaining. We'll read the Scripture when they're older. The first day Bear opened an egg with a donkey in it, for Christ's entrance into Jerusalem, and the next day, Deco got three coins for the money paid to Judas to betray Christ. There's also been a cup (the last supper), praying hands (Gethsemane), a strip of leather (Christ's beating), a crown of thorns, three nails, a die (casting lots for Christ's clothes) and a spear. That's as far as we've gotten this year, and we've got to put off the last three until Friday so that we open the last on on Easter morning. That's one of the coolest ones - it's just empty! Ooo, gives me goosebumps just to think about it!! They have really looked forward to opening one each day. In fact, today they were disappointed when I said we were going to have to put it off for a few days!

Fun with "The Tens Place"

Well, our math curriculum has introduced "the ones place" and "the tens place". (This is one of those things that I never would have thought to cover) And, in trying to teach it, I'm having difficulty explaining it!!! I've run across several things to teach that I just take for granted that I know, therefore, I have problems explaining it in Kindergarten terms!

So, of course, I got on the computer and made a chart and some big numbers that can be stuck on with velcro. Ched laughs at me all the time because I don't ever just get out paper and a marker and make a chart, I have to get on the computer and make a "fancy" one. I tell him that it's not that I want it to be particularly fancy, I just want it to be neat and tidy, with straight lines and even spaces, and I would not be able to do that by hand! (I think there's a part of me that's a little obsessive-compulsive when it comes to things like that.) But, of course, Bear thought it was neat, and I think it really helped her understand. Plus, it was just fun to play with.

The Easter Basket Game

This game is a new take on an old favorite. At Thanksgiving time I made a game for school that involved "feeding" a pilgrim and an Indian card-stock food. Bear always found it a lot of fun, so I decided to make a new one, this time with an Easter theme. She picks either a sight word or a "letter blend" card from my hand, and then if she can read the word or blend, she gets to put an egg into the basket!
I came up with a clever way for her to remember "ought". I covered up the first and last letters and said, "You can say 'UGH, why not get rid of those extra letters so it can just say 'ot' '?" I've realized as I've taught her to read that there are SO MANY weird things in the English language! And as soon as I tell her a "rule" we run across the exception!!!! AAHRG!!

Hellen Keller

Bear has been interested in sign language lately because I've gotten some good sign language teaching videos from the library. A couple of weeks ago, I got a video on Hellen Keller from our church library - just a 30 minute cartoon video that I thought she might find interesting. She really enjoyed it, so I got "The Miracle Worker" (starring Patty Duke) from the library so that she could a live actor portraying Hellen Keller. (Patty Duke did an amazing job in that movie!)

We watched it and then last Friday we did an "experiment" so that Bear could get an idea of what it was like. I got some heavy duty earplugs and stopped up her ears, put a towel over her eyes, and put a band-aid over her mouth, and then watched her as she maneuvered around the house. The most interesting thing from MY standpoint was watching her imitate Patty Duke from the movie - patting things with an open palm, banging her laundry basket on the table when she encountered it in her room. I led her outside and let her explore the backyard, which was neat. Since there weren't walls to run her hand along she was much more careful as she walked. She peeked a couple of times :) but stayed true to "character" for the most part. Afterwards, I made an audio recording about her experience, but the best way she could describe it was "weird"! (I guess we need to work on the vocabulary!)

Holly Dog

This is what our dog, Holly, does while we're in school:

She looks like she's dead, but she's not...she's just LAZY!!!