Peregrin House

Mitochondria

2012-01-30T17:31:00.001-06:00

Mane has been learning about the organelles of a cell: the smaller organs within cells. We started out talking about body systems and then worked our way backwards: body systems are made up of organs, organs are made up of cells, cells are made up of organelles. The other night she & Mango had a long talk about mitochondria:

She's working on a chart of organelles. The next step with be to make a clay model of a cell!

We found this game for learning about organelles: The Incredible Megacell. Mane gave the gave a 4 out of 10 for fun and interest. I'd give it about the same. It was fine to do once, and she did learn some things from it, but it does the same thing over and over once you've played it once. It wasn't a bad way to continue our conversation about organelles, though. A comic strip for science class? Hey, who can complain?

FIRST Robotics Competition 2012!!

2012-01-25T18:56:00.000-06:00

Once again, guess where we'll be for the final days in March this year?! We're super excited for this year's FIRST Robotics Competition. This year the robots will be playing "basketball." Check it out:

March 29th-31st: http://www.mnfirstregional.org/regional/agenda#ns

Handcraft

2012-01-22T17:38:00.000-06:00

Shorty before Christmas, Mane's crocheting abilities really took off. She'd been finger crocheting chains for a few years already...chains that grew so long that they could be stretched round and round the house, I'm sure. But this year, she persevered and learned to make rows. Having mastered rows, she was able to make rectangles, fold them over, and sew up the sides to make purses!

Currently, she's working on a dishcloth:

She's also been using the round knitting loom for hat-making:

Alongside those handcrafting skills, she's been acquiring screen skills, learning to email and to navigate her own online photo album. She also learned to look up video instructions for making more crafts (screen skills merge with handcrafting skills)! She found the instructions, followed them, and made this traditional Polish Christmas star with absolutely NO help from me:

Stella comes home!!

2012-01-19T15:04:00.000-06:00

On December 19th, Flat Stella came home:

Stella had been in Montana, with our good friend, Anika:

Together, they went to Anika's favorite coffee shop...

They spent some time in the snow:

...and climbed a frozen waterfall:

She came home with a new winter coat, which sent Mane scurrying to make one for Stanley, too!

...and Mane also set to work filling their Christmas stockings!

Stella came home with a nearly full journal, lots of other photos, AND an email address! She had such a fantastic adventure! Thanks, Anika!!

Once they were back together again, Stanley & Stella had a blast lighting Hanukkah & Advent candles with us, playing dreidel, and eating pistachios from the Christmas Goat!

Nordic Story Hour

2011-12-03T13:10:00.001-06:00

We have had the good fortune recently of discovering (re-discovering, for me) some local cultural treasures here in Minneapolis. Our friends, who join us at the Tapestry Folk Dance Center for homeschool Scottish Folk Dance, also alerted us to the fabulous story-telling at the Scandinavian shop just down the street from us, Ingebretsen's. So, one chilly day, we bundled up with some other good friends and headed on over. We had a delightful time learning about wool (from sheep to yarn) and listening to Kari Tauring tell Nordic falk tales.

Art, Rockets & Birds, OH MY!

2011-11-02T22:10:00.001-05:00

Here's where I've been spending some time every Monday afternoon for the last 6 weeks:

It's the "waiting room" at Rum River Art Center where Mane has been taking art classes! These are some seriously fantastic art classes (scanned artwork coming in another post soon). Somehow the children go from chattering and giggling to quietly and diligently turning out artwork under the influence of their teacher, Larry, who overflows with sincere praise and constructive criticism of all their work. Mane's current series of drawing classes just ended, and we'll definitely be back!

Another event we'll be returning for is the Tripoli Rocketry Association rocket launch in North Branch, MN! We attended October's launch, and Mane was totally inspired. We're hoping to attend a launch in the spring with our own rocket!

And, finally, something we probably won't get to do again - at least, not for a long while: attend a bird show in aunt & uncle's sun porch! My sister-in-law's father turned 70, and he LOVES birds. So, she found someone who does bird shows (typically for children's birthday parties), and she invited us, since Mane also has a keen interest in birds:

And that is not all, no that is not all! Mane is learning the glockenspiel at the same church where she sings in the choir...

...and our six week series of folk dancing classes just ended at the Tapestry Folkdance Center.

We might...just maybe...be looking forward to a break from some of the busy-ness. Perhaps we'll finally get around to learning some Spanish at home and cooking together a bit more! We might actually be "home"schoolers for a while!

Stanley & Stella

2011-10-14T13:01:00.000-05:00

Remember Flat Stanley? Did you think he'd disappeared? Well, he & his friend Stella are still around, and have made some of our field trips with us this year...

Stanley and Stella on the Osceola Train:

And on the Red Wing Trolley:

And they accidentally spent a week in someone else's purse:

Last spring, Stanley went to Mexico with Mane's grandpa, and this fall we're hoping to send one of them by mail to visit our friend in Montana! Stay tuned for more Stanley and Stella updates...

Red Wing Trolley Tour & Universal Playground

2011-10-14T12:47:00.003-05:00

This October we headed out to Red Wing, MN to tour the city with the Red Wing Trolly Company...and some good friends!

The tour brought us through the city and along the river for some breathtaking sites. The kiddos, however, were simply enjoying the time cruising around in a trolley...

The real highlight of the trip, however, was our visit to the Universal Playground...

The playground is equipped with special swings, rubber squares for padding and wheelchair accessibility (rather than sand or wood chips), ramps for wheelchairs and those who struggle with climbing, enough space on all the equipment for adults to get around, sensory play equipment, braille, and metal slides that do NOT create static electricity to allow children with hearing implants to use the slides (hearing implants can be destroyed by the static electricity of plastic slides)!!

We found that the ramps and the added width on the equipment made it safer and easier for the kids to really run and play. We saw plenty of grandparents, with limited mobility, hanging out at the playground with their grandchildren because the park is safer for them, too.

As if that wasn't enough, the park also features a beautiful garden, which children are encouraged to explore, smell, and TOUCH...

...and visit with the fairies...

We'd go back just for the playground! ...but the ice cream at Halstrom was also fantastic (with both gluten free and no sugar added options)!

MORE Field Trips?!!

2011-09-21T13:42:00.000-05:00

There has GOT to be a word for this...homeschoolers, who never stay home. We're not Unschoolers. Maybe we're out-of-school-schoolers? World Schooler sounds too presumptuous. Nontraditional schoolers? Maybe just schoolers? Scholars? ...got any suggestions?

In any case, my good friend took us on a tour of the Joseph Wolf Brewery Cave this past weekend in Stillwater, MN. Mane learned that the temperature stays the same in this cave all year round, that it was marketed as a bomb shelter during World War 2 (she also learned why it would have made a really poor bomb shelter, especially with a fireplace and a thousand people inside), and that beer brewing had to stop in 1920 due to prohibition. We saw the underground spring and talked about why cave tunnels shouldn't be dug one on top of the other. That's a good bit of science, history, and social studies right there in one half hour tour!! She gave the full report to Mango when we got home. So, I know she enjoyed and retained quite a lot from our little field trip!

On Monday, Mane had her first art lesson at Rum River Art Center in Anoka. We stopped in at the Lifetime Fitness in Champlin, where she played in the Play Maze. We picked up Mango from work. Then, Mane went to choir practice! It was a full and active day!

Tuesday morning we caught the bus and headed to the park!

Mane at the bus stop (yep, right here on a city street corner):

The View From the Bus Stop:

Tuesday afternoon we finally stayed home! Mane added to the history timeline on the wall, listened to some Story of the World audio and read from the Usborne History Encyclopedia, read books, practiced handwriting, did math, talked about Harry Potter, and helped make dinner! Life is full to the tippy top!

Harry Potter

2011-09-15T18:36:00.002-05:00

Some friends of Mane are hosting a Harry Potter themed birthday party in October. So, our plan to read the first book this school year got promoted to the top of the list. Mane has turned into a Harry Potter groupie, and I'm capitalizing on the obsession!

Drawing for the homeschool notebook:

A page of King's Cross Station, also for the school notebook:

Finding England on the map:

In the coming week, we'll be using some passages from the book for handwriting practice and learning about other things in the book that are true reflections of English culture (food, clothing, idioms, etc...)!

Field Trippin'

2011-09-11T19:28:00.000-05:00

A photo journey (three field trips in 8 days!!)...

Last weekend we went on a boat tour in Taylor's Falls:

We stopped in Stillwater for a picnic and saw a gondola going under the lift bridge:

On Friday Mane attended a class on plantable paper (papermaking with seeds in the paper) at Silverwood Park:

The kids learned about all the things that are made from paper and how paper is made:

And they made seed necklaces (bean seeds sandwiched in wet cotton balls in a plastic bag to make a living necklace that should sprout within the week):

Today we took the historical train ride from Osceola, Wisconsin to Marine on the St. Croix, Minnesota:

The best part, of course, seemed to be the train-riding dog:

On Monday Mane returns to choir! Next week will see the beginning of art lessons and the following week Scottish Folk Dancing! I think "home"schooling is a misnomer.

This is Just to Say...

2011-09-03T12:09:00.000-05:00

I had one of those unforgettable moments recently when I felt the real, pure joy of homeschooling and witnessing my Mane's unfolding thought processes...

Many of you are familiar with the poem by William Carlos Williams that goes like this:

This is just to say

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

Well, Mane learned this poem last year, and we read it again this year in A Family of Poems collected by Caroline Kennedy. It's one of my favorites, and, since it's one of my favorites, we spent some time talking about it. Mane memorized it. We repeat it often.

So, several nights ago, Mane finished the container of peanut butter. Mango came out in the kitchen in search of a snack and couldn't find any peanut butter. Mane launched into a parody of the poem by William Carlos Williams. We were all laughing so hysterically that she decided it was worth writing down. Here are the results:

NOT back to school

2011-09-02T15:00:00.000-05:00

We officially started our school year (without GOing back to school, thank you very much)! This is the end of week 4. We did 3 weeks of relatively "academic" work, and week 4 was a camping trip!

We're using Sonlight this year, though I've made up my own hybrid version. The only things I actually bought from Sonlight were the Instructor Guide and the reading schedule. I have the Instructor Guide for core B/C, which is the World History core. Next year I hope to do core D/E, which is the American History core. I bought many of the readers & read-alouds at thrift stores and garage sales. The rest we're checking out from the library. We're using Saxon math 54, which was given to us. For now, I'm going to keep teaching Language Arts & handwriting without a curriculum, and I'm working out a science schedule with Mango.

It's been good so far...very good. The Instructor Guide includes Bible reading and memorization, a schedule for reading the world history books and the read-alouds, discussion questions, suggested poetry reading, and a schedule for reading Aesop's Fables. I love having a schedule mostly worked out for me!

(And did you know you can read Aesop's Fables on-line? They're kind of weird, though. Don't say I didn't warn you.)

And did you know that homeschool means we never stay home? In our first months of school we went to the Peace Games:

We spent some time at Silverwood Park in NE Minneapolis:

We went to birthday parties, parks, libraries, coffee shops, and to DULUTH (where Mane danced at the amphitheater in Leif Erikson Park with her little friend):

So, we're back to school, though not AT school because we homeschool, and not at home because we're almost never home. Peace!

Science Class...Technology Day

2011-07-16T22:28:00.000-05:00

We here at Peregrin House made batteries today! Mango taught the 5th in a series of 6 homeschool science classes to Mane and a group of friends. They all tested out something different about the battery-making process. Some changed amounts of chemical. Others changed which chemicals they were using. They all got some practice recording independent and dependent variables, and they'll be graphing their results!

Jr. Park Naturalist

2011-07-13T22:24:00.000-05:00

When we went camping in June, Mane picked up her first Jr. Park Naturalist book. (I would link to the program, but the government is currently shut down, and that means the state park website is also shut down!! Here's a link to another website about the program: Craft Fairs and Shows.)

We went camping again this past weekend, and she spent some time working through the book, drawing and writing about plants and animals, habitats and conservation.

Once again, she had a little shadow...

Mango teaches a summer science class...

2011-07-07T23:11:00.001-05:00

So, I met this awesome group of women (and children) at a folk dancing class for homeschoolers this past spring, and a few short months later my husband is teaching a science class for all our children! It's been a totally new and energizing experience for him, and the kiddos are all having fun with science!

Looking at real elements and finding them on the periodic table chart on the wall...

Get a whiff of that sulpher...

Class meets on the back porch...

2011-02-24T13:21:00.000-06:00

A large part of the reason I've been too busy to post this school year is that one of my dear, dear friends moved in two houses down from me in September. She and her husband were searching for a house in Minneapolis, and, so, they've been renting on my block. They found a house, and now they're renovating. In a few weeks they'll be moving away (still within biking distance, though). So, this blog has suffered while we've had morning coffee/tea together and while I've been taking care of her daughter so that she can house hunt, and then paint, and then tile.

...and having my friend's little daughter around has provided an experience for both girls (Mane and my friend's daughter) that I hope will solidify their relationship for life. It's been an experience for Mane...learning to share space and toys and time with someone who's small and doesn't know how to share space or toys or time, to take care of another person, to know what it is to be followed around and admired and to get totally worn out with that. It's been a time for her to grow in her understanding of people and the world and how we all work together to make things "work." Mane has grown a tremendous amount in her ability to be responsible for people and things, though it's sometimes been a painful sort of growth. A few weeks ago she invited our friends to come have lunch with us after Bible Study. I approved the invitation, having no idea what I'd be making for lunch. And, then, a wonderful thing happened! MANE made lunch! Yep. She did.

Yesterday was a beautiful day. We took care of our little friend all day and I sat back and smiled...

Flat Stanley

2011-02-23T14:23:00.000-06:00

We began "rowing" Flat Stanley this week. Aurora made her own "flat" people:

We're going to use the flat people as we study more geography and family history. You see our geography wizardry book in the photo, along without our newest homeschooling gadget, the Samsung Galaxy Tablet!

Mane is a strong auditory & kinesthetic learner. This is, in part, because she struggles with reading. I, in turn, have been struggling with homeschooling her because it's very time-intensive to have to read everything to her. SO, the tablet is part of the answer to easier homeschooling for us. We have Story of the World on audio. We downloaded a FREE audio Bible from Faith Comes by Hearing. And we received, as a gift, some of the Your Story Hour Bible Story CDs.

We use Math U See for our math curriculum, and we ordered the song CD that goes along with the curriculum. We didn't use it for adding and subtracting, but we are using it a LOT for multiplication. Mane can learn almost anything that's set to music!

For English grammer, Mane has been listening to The Case of the Missing Parts of Speech, which is a musical I was in as a child and is the reason I know all my parts of speech!

We check audio books out from the library all.the.time.

We use Hooked on Phonics (HOP) for a reading curriculum. This year's HOP has a CD-ROM, and Mane both hears and sees her reading lessons and activities.

All of these things have helped take some pressure off me and moved Mane toward greater independence with her learning. Except for the Hooked on Phonics, all of these things can be uploaded to the tablet, and Mane can use them independently. As she becomes more of a reader, we'll also be using the tablet's Kindle application for e-reading.

Backwards Alphabet

2011-02-22T13:42:00.000-06:00

Contrary to what this blog might lead you to believe, we've been busy here at Peregrin House. Of note, we began using some new reading strategies to help Mane with her reading struggles! Among the exercise: Learning the alphabet backwards:

Mane made the alphabet backwards and forwards out of clay, upper and lower case, and she practiced saying the alphabet backwards for 3 days until she had it! This is to help her stop singing the alphabet and think of each letter as in individual entity. It is also to give her hands-on interaction with letters, something Mane has always needed as a kinesthetic learner.

After playing with clay for several days, Mane decided that reading lessons are a whole lot of fun! I'm hoping that decreasing the pressure surrounding reading and giving her some new "hooks to hang things on" will free her to read more easily.

Next step: Spell-Reading. Mane will be spelling words before she reads them, also in an effort to help her see letters individually and to slow down when she doesn't know a word.

I'll keep ya'll posted!

Book Review - Schooled

2010-12-09T20:55:00.000-06:00

Recently, I visited the library with a friend, who was looking for good books for her nephew. The children's librarian recommended several books, and I ended up picking up two of them for myself! This was one of them:

Schooled by Gordon Korman

I enjoyed this book a great deal, though, at first, I was resistant to the stereotyped weirdo homeschooler idea. The public schooled kids were also pretty heavily stereotyped, and, in the end, I decided that the stereotyping is what makes this book so humorous and so powerful at the same time. It exaggerates to make a point.

Capricorn (Cap) is the new kid in the 8th grade because his grandmother, the only person he's ever really known in his life, breaks her hip and needs to recover in the hospital for several weeks. Because the 8th graders are in the habit of electing the the least "cool" or popular student in the school to be their class president, Cap becomes class president. The "cool" kids are ready to make fun of him all year, but they discover that it's pretty difficult to make fun of someone who doesn't understand the social rules and has been heavily indoctrinated with "hippy" values.

Book Review - Eleven

2010-12-09T20:53:00.000-06:00

Recently, I visited the library with a friend, who was looking for good books for her nephew. The children's librarian recommended several books, and I ended up picking up two of them for myself! This was one of them:

Eleven by Patricia Reilly Giff

A fascinating idea but not a particularly believable outcome. Sam turns eleven and discovers a newspaper clipping in the attic that seems to indicate that he's been missing, which could mean that he's somehow living with the wrong people and that his family is not really his family. Sam's endeavor to find out the truth about himself is hampered by the fact that he struggles with reading. Sam enlists the help of a new girl at school, who seems to have her nose in a book constantly. This book is the story of the friendship that develops between them as they sort out the truth about Sam. There were some very sweet and beautiful things about the story, but, on the whole, I didn't find the ending believable, and Sam seems much younger than 11 (though he has some extraordinary wood-working skills).

A Wagon Walk in the City

2010-09-28T14:54:00.002-05:00

Walks in the city are so full of beauty and surprises. Come "virtually" join us for this one...

Our Library:

Mane insisted that I photograph the light...

We reached our destination:

Back Yard Homeschooling

2010-09-27T15:47:00.000-05:00

Mane betook herself to the backyard this afternoon and climbed a tree with a pair of binoculars. This isn't unusual. In fact, if you ask her grandparents, who live upstairs, they'll tell you that Mane is out in the yard all the time. This warms me to the very bottom of my homeschool mama heart...

Wee Gillis

2010-09-17T09:34:00.000-05:00

Our Five in a Row studies have begun with the tale of Wee Gillis, a young Scottish lad, who can't decide if he wants to be a Higlander, like his father's relatives, or a Lowlander, like his mother's relatives.

The book is full of possibilities for our studies over the next few weeks. We've begun with an exploration of Scotland. Mane has drawn a flag and dug up a pile of images of bagpipes, kilts, tartans, and clan emblems on google images.

We've been reading our way through Scotland: Enchantment of the World by R. Conrad Stein. Last year we studied a number of biomes (ecosystems), including deserts and prairies. So, we're paying special attention to the biomes of Scotland, and we'll be making biome posters (or maybe a biome book) this year.

Our history studies just happen to intersect with our studies of Scotland, as well. We're still using The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child: Volume 1: Ancient Times: From the Earliest Nomads to the Last Roman Emporer. (Also known as Story of the World or SOTW.) We're currently studying ancient Rome, and, of course, a very famous structure in Scotland is Hadrian's Wall, which the Romans built because they could not conquer the Scots, but they really wanted to keep them under control somehow. We've been looking at maps of the Roman empire and marveling that the Romans were not able to conquer Scotland when they had already conquered so much of the world.

Last night, Mane and I began a family tree on-line at geni.com. Since Mango's family comes from Scotland, our study of Scotland has peaked Mane's interest in family, ancestors, and genealogy.

In a totally other direction, a theme of Wee Gillis is the way Wee Gillis' lungs develop because he has to call the sheep in the lowlands and he has to hold his breath while "stalking stags" in the highlands. His well-developed lungs eventually make him able to play the biggest bagpipes in all of Scotland. Sooooo, as you may have guessed, we'll be studying lungs. Mane's interest in the human body has grown steadily since she was very small. This year we'll be making posters or booklets of the human body systems (similar to what we'll be doing for biomes). She's already studied digestion, the senses, the heart, and reproduction. So, we'll be tying it all together and adding the remaining systems this year. I anticipate that biomes and body systems will be semester-long or, perhaps, year long studies this year.

Science Lessons - A Picture Story

2010-09-16T20:56:00.001-05:00

Last night Mango was grading papers for his high school chemistry class, and he taught Mane an entire lesson on the scientific method by walking her through the assignment he had given his students...

Tonight they did their own chemistry lab and made GOOP!

Lab set-up

Vinyl Alcohol

Borax

Stir

Keep Stirring

Goop

Listen to the explanation...

Beginning

2010-08-20T09:00:00.001-05:00

So, today we're making an unofficial start of the school year. In some ways, I want to make a big deal of going "Back to School," like the kids who go to school. In other ways, I enjoy that we just fall into it, our footsteps fitting into the tracks like comfortable shoes without fanfare.

Mane wanted me to pick up one of the ugly teacher planners from the dollar aisle at Target. So, I did. She reminded me of the way she was writing weekly goals in the spring, and she said this would help us keep track of them. So, we're getting started, with Mane leading the way. She made a list of topics she'd really like to cover this year, and she's set herself some long term goals already!

All summer Mane has been dragging her feet about finishing the 2nd grade Hooked on Phonics chapter book. It was the only book left for her to complete the whole box, and she just couldn't get motivated. Since it was summer, and she was reading other things, I let it go. Last night when we started making a plan for the next week, Mane realized that she could begin the next Hooked on Phonics box, Master Reader, if she finished the last three chapters of the last book in the 2nd grade box. She read ALL THREE chapters last night. This is the child who gets tired after HALF a chapter. Then she begged to open the Master Reader box. She was like a child at Christmas opening the new set of reading materials!! Her long term goal: to finish the Master Reader box and then read the book she won from the library summer reading program last summer, Everything on a Waffle.

Mane also wants to read the book she received as a gift from our friend in Montana, Three Cups of Tea:

So, these are the things that motivate right now. She's known for many years that whole worlds open up in the pages of books. I've often said that she lives for stories, and I think that's pretty accurate. Her uncle calls himself a bard, and there are many days when she reminds me of him, sometimes even more than she reminds me of myself or Mango. She is beginning to get an itch to discover all those stories for herself. Perhaps, this is the year.

On the subject of other "subjects," we'll be continuing with ancient history from Story of the World, beginning with the Romans. We'll also be continuing with Five in a Row (FIAR) - a last few books from Volume 2 and many books from Volume 3. We'll go wherever they lead us!

....now it's time to go wake up the little sleeper and actually begin the day!

Reflecting

2010-08-16T15:28:00.000-05:00

Well, I've been reflecting on the passing of summer and the upcoming school year. This year, I admit defeat. We will not even contemplate "doing school" in the summer ever again. It simply didn't happen. Mane still read me the occasional book, and we played a few math-related games. She's taken to reading a number of things on her own because she wants to know what they say (street signs, t-shirts, billboards, and comics). We read some books related to early American history as the 4th of July approached. And that was that. We didn't do anything else.

Well, we didn't do anything else on purpose anyway...

Mane's education, strangely, continued at a steady pace throughout the summer. Looking back, I remember conversations in the car about speed and acceleration, about credit cards and banks, and about the English language.

Mane is currently carrying out her own experiment with bean sprouts.

She learned about construction while helping Mango with the basement project.

She looked through Vespera's photos of Mexico attentively, learning about Vespera's birthplace and the culture of the Mexican people.

We received a poster in the mail the other day with a timeline of all the American presidents. Mane asked questions about elections, the legislature, congress, the house of representatives, and the various wars, in which the U.S. has participated. She even asked questions that led to a discussion of democracies and dictatorships.

We had long talks about theology, about various religions, about faith and tolerance.

Mane learned about birds, bugs, plants, and weather. We were out in it. We talked about it. We experienced it. She caught tadpoles and frogs, she observed flies (yuck!) and deer and chipmunks.

We saw the science museum film about Arabia.

We went to the Irish fair and learned about Irish dancing, native dogs of Ireland, sheep herding, and the Potato Famine.

The list could go on and on. I see now why some studies show an actual jump in learning over the summer for some public-schooled kids (this was true only of children of college-educated, middle/upper income parents, which is another discussion altogether).

My experience this summer is almost (but not quite) enough to make me believe that un-schooling could work for us. If I could trust the process (and keep up the energy and momentum), Mane could learn everything she needed to know the same way she learned over the summer. The truth is, though, that I think we both appreciate the structure that comes with a new school year. The different form of learning over the summer give us a rest and prepare us for the more focused work ahead. As with so many things in life, we need a balance.

Mane made me a list today of some of the things she'd like to learn about this year. At the top of the list is some family history. We'll be delving into some culture and making some family trees! And we have an excellent FIAR book planned to lead the way....

Deal of the Day!!

2010-07-22T20:23:00.001-05:00

We were out with a friend this afternoon and found a Quercetti Skyrail Suspension marble roller coaster (made in Italy) for $10! Mane has been happily at play for about 4 hours, learning how to adjust angle and tension to keep the marbles on the track! The kit comes with a booklet explaining speed, acceleration, gravity, centrifugal force, kinetic energy, inertia, and friction. Hurrah for physics!

Weaving- Take 2

2010-07-10T15:50:00.002-05:00

Thanks to the generosity of my sister-in-law's mother, Mane got her first "real" loom the other night. As you may recall, we studied some about weaving this school year, and Mane has shown a definite interest in weaving. From paper to potholders, weaving projects keep her busy with useful projects for hours on end!

Potholders:

The new loom:

My sister-in-law's mother also made a kumihimo disk for Mane to try out the Japanese art of kumihimo braiding!

Book Review - The Palace of Laughter

2010-07-02T17:02:00.002-05:00

The Palace of Laughter is the story of a homeless boy, Miles, escaped from the local orphanage, and a little angel named Little, whom Miles helped to escape from the circus. They are on a quest to find the angel, Silverpoint, whom Little followed to earth and whom she needs to find in order to get back home. They know that Silverpoint is at the "Palace of Laughter," but they don't know where or what that is.

The story is somewhat dark. The circus people are the scary kind that give people nightmares, and they are dangerous, cold, and cutthroat. Although the book's intended audience is 4-7 grades, I think I'd be inclined to stick with the older end of that spectrum in buying or recommending the book to/for kids.

Philosophically, I like the ideas Berkeley introduces about angels, though I don't know that I buy into all of them. It was hard for me to blend the elements of fantasy into this story in my mind (talking animals again!), but, I found that in the end I liked the way it all fit together. I think I'd like to read the next book to find out what happens to Miles next!

Memorable quotes: "I am a Song Angel, and every language is an echo of the One Song, even the sigh of the wind and the groan of the mountains. Everything speaks. You just have to know how to listen."

"The One Song is the music that runs at the heart of everything. It keeps the world spinning and the stars shining. Everything that exists, every insect and rock and river and flower, has a name in the One Song. Love and Sorrow, Laughter and Anger and Courage all have their places too, and they must be kept in harmony. When one of these strands is taken out from the rest, that is when bad things happen, like a rope beginning to unravel. Each Song Angel must learn a part of that song. We keep it alive and guard it, and in the end we must each add our own name to it so that the Song keeps growing and the world keeps moving along its path."

A speech worth hearing...

2010-06-21T20:57:00.000-05:00

This is Astra Taylor speaking at the Walker Art Center here in Minneapolis about her experience of being "unschooled" as a child. Food for thought...

Book Review - Mossflower

2010-06-21T16:11:00.002-05:00

I finished Mossflower by Brian Jaques last night. Here's my review:

I gave this book 4 out of 5 stars because it was well-written and I liked the theme of peace-loving creatures defending themselves in clever, rather than violent, ways. The woodland creatures have had their land, Mossflower, overtaken by the wildcats and weasels. This is the story of how they cleverly take it back.

That said, I'm not a big fan of books with animal main characters, especially if those characters basically act just like people. Various woodland creatures farming or using slingshots and arrows just doesn't fit for me, nor do I buy into mice, badgers, moles, squirrels, hares, and beavers all living together happily under one roof, cooking great feasts and caring for each others children. The characters were sweet, and there was some nice character development. I'm afraid it just wasn't my style of book.

Summer Art

2010-06-15T11:01:00.000-05:00

We spent some time at Michaels the other day, and Mane came home with a slew of ideas for summer craft projects. We originally went to get more loops for her potholder loom, and she has, indeed, been busily weaving new potholders. She even got our 12yr old neighbor in on the action at a community meeting last night!

This morning, though, she was ready to start in on a new project - vases from recycled glass jars! We got out the hot glue gun and some odds and ends from around the house with some very beautiful results!

Here she is at the kitchen table this morning...

Happy Summer!

Clocks, American History, and Bird Watching

2010-06-09T21:35:00.001-05:00

Today Mane and I had a long, long discussion about WHY it might be important to tell time on a regular clock, as most of the clocks in her life are digital. I've taught her to tell time TWICE, but it hasn't really stuck because she doesn't keep using it on a regular basis. She basically told me that time-telling with the hands on a clock is an outdated skill, and she doesn't need it! I explained that sometime in her life it might be really important (in the absence of digital clocks, for example) to be able to tell time. That may not have been particularly motivating, but the online games I found for time-telling were pretty successful in helping her brush-up on her skills.

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We've continued reading Paul Revere's Ride, and now we've started reading America Alive by Jean Karl. We're covering some American history in fast forward in order for the stories of Paul Revere, the Declaration of Independence, and the 4th of July to make sense. So far, I've really enjoy this book, as it gives an honest history, beginning with how the first people probably came to the Americas via a temporary land bridge between what is now Russia and Alaska. The story does not get hung up on names and dates, but it references the important things while maintaining a storytelling feel. Mane and I sat with her inflatable globe between us as I read, and we found everything on the globe as we went along. Today we made it as far as the Spanish and the French coming to the Americas. The next chapter is about the English. Tomorrow I plan to print a map and have her draw lines and label some of the people groups coming from Europe to the Americas. Since she enjoys maps, this should be fun for both of us!

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We've been having a tremendously enjoyable time watching birds lately, too! A friend of mine gave Mane a bird watching journal for her birthday, and she has been steadily filling it up. As many of you know, we live in a duplex downstairs from my in-laws. A few days ago we went and sat on the upstairs porch with them and watched the birds. We saw several house finches, along with the usual chickadees, cardinals, sparrows, and robins! A few weeks ago my father-in-laws snapped some photos of a wild turkey in the yard!!

Book Review - The Higher Power of Lucky

2010-06-06T10:49:00.000-05:00

I finished The Higher Power of Lucky last night and couldn't wait to get on-line to write a review! Here it is:

It's hard to know how to write a review of this book. Let me begin by saying that I thought it was absolutely wonderful! I laughed out loud in several places, and when I tried to read the amusing passages aloud to my husband, we both laughed ourselves nearly to tears.

This is the story of Lucky, a 10 year old girl who lives in a tiny desert town where there are hardly any jobs and everyone is poor. The town's greatest asset is the Found Object Wind Chime Museum and Visitor center, where there are a number of weekly twelve step meetings. Lucky's job is to pick-up trash around the museum, where she also eavesdrops on the twelve step meetings and becomes fascinated with the search for a Higher Power. Lucky's mother died two years ago, and she is a ward of the state being cared for by her father's French ex-wife, Brigitte. Lucky is convinced that a Higher Power would help assure that she gets to continue life in her small town, and a Higher Power would convince Brigitte to stay with her.

I find Lucky's character to be well-developed. It's hard for an author to really take on the character of a 10 year old, and Patron does this well. The other characters are viewed through Lucky's eyes, and they take on character and meaning as described by Lucky.

The book has been criticized for it's use of the word "scrotum" in the first & last chapters and for the mention of alcoholism, smoking, and drugs. As a book written for the 9-11yr old crowd, I could see how this would offend some and not bother others. I'm among those who would not be bothered. I *do* want to know what my daughter is reading, which is why I'm reading the 4th-8th grade books now (while she's going into 3rd grade), but there wasn't anything explicit in this book. "Scrotum" is in reference to a story Lucky overhears about a dog, and at the end of the book Brigitte gives a very straight-forward answer when Lucky finally asks what a scrotum is. As for the alcohol, smoking, and drugs: these are not glorified or even discussed explicitly. They're discussed in the context of twelve step meetings from the innocent perspective of a ten year old, who doesn't really understand what it's all about anyway. My 8 year old is well aware of alcohol, smoking, and drugs. These are things we've discussed since she was very small, and I'm not concerned about her reading books that mention these things. We live in an urban area where these discussions cannot be avoided. (I should also mention that she knows what a scrotum is, too. It's a very obvious part of basic human anatomy.) Overall, none of these things seem like major themes in the book. They're part of the context of a larger story.

Book Review - Tuck Everlasting

2010-06-03T19:46:00.000-05:00

And my final review for today...

I finished Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt a few weeks ago, and I've been thinking about it ever since...

A very delightful read! This book is so well-written that I read several passages aloud simply to savor the sound of them.

This is the story of a family, who drank from a stream of enchanted water that has caused them to live forever, and an ordinary girl who discovers their secret and must make some very grown-up decisions about what to do with that secret.

I have since discovered that many teachers use this book in children's literature classes because of the excellent writing and the richness of themes.

Book Review - The Great and Terrible Quest

2010-06-03T14:47:00.000-05:00

I loved, loved, loved The Great and Terrible Quest by Margaret Lovett! It's not a very popular book. In fact, I'd never heard of it until I received it from Sonlight as a free gift for requesting their catalog.

Here's my review:

A fantastic book! This is the story of a man who lost is memory, though he knows he's supposed to be on a quest, and a young boy, who accompanies the man on his quest after escaping his abusive grandfather. The good vs. evil plot is reminiscent of Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. There's a strong emphasis on being bold and brave, strong and tenacious, while also being compassionate and kind. The mystery of the quest unfolds along with the book and would keep a middle school reader guessing about the outcome. The characters are layered and complex, which keeps the story from being entirely plot-driven. I'll be on the look-out for more of Lovett's books to add to the bookshelf!

Book Review - The Door To Time

2010-06-03T14:42:00.000-05:00

As part of my endeavor to stock the bookshelves with books I really love, rather than the twaddle so readily available for children these days, I've begun reading my way through books that are written for the 4th-8th grade set. I've decided to include my reviews here - for the benefit of others seeking great reading for their children (homeschooled or not).

So, to begin, I read...ok, I didn't finish...The Door to Time...on Tuesday this week. This is what I said about it over at my goodreads account:

"Flat characters, very predictable story line. I got halfway through the book and put it down. I have no attachment to the characters and do not care what happens to them. I guess that says it all."

I found that other goodreads users also found it lacking in substance. Some loved it, but very few give it 5 of 5 stars.

Studying the Declaration of Independence...

2010-05-30T20:48:00.000-05:00

Around the dinner table...

Over the month of June, we'll be rowing Paul Revere's Ride. I wanted to do this last year, but summer got busy, and we didn't have a plan. This year I have a plan, and we'll be covering some early history of America up through the Revolutionary War just in time for the 4th of July!

New website to check out!

2010-05-28T20:46:00.001-05:00

I just found this today, and I thought it was worthy of sharing!

Lesson Pathways has free K-5 curriculum & resources for all kinds of subjects - science, math, language arts, and reading. They have structured plans that you can follow in sequence or you can pick and choose your own particular areas of interest and organize them into a planner for your child(ren). I don't know much else about the site, but I've already found some great ideas and on-line resources for our current history studies.

Go check it out!

The Ugly Duckling

2010-05-21T13:24:00.002-05:00

Yesterday we began "rowing" The Ugly Duckling. This story is not part of our Five in a Row curriculum, but I happened to find a unit study at the thrift store for The Ugly Duckling, and since it's spring, it seems like a good time to row a book about ducklings! We started by reading The Ugly Duckling by Hans Christian Anderson in A Treasury of Children's Literature. I have to say that I find this version of the story very compelling. It is beautifully written, and the theme is many-layered and rich. I got to thinking about how important the lesson of this story is for children (and grown-ups) - both that people are more than what we see on the outside, and that we are more than what people say about us. The Ugly Duckling had been teased so much about being ugly that he believed it, and it took the love and care of other swans to convince him that he wasn't ugly at all. I think we'll be spending some time on this story just to let it simmer, to talk about how the things we say affect other people, but also, how we can be secure enough in ourselves to let hurtful things go. And we'll be talking about how to bring healing to others and how to repair our own mistakes when we've said destructive things to others.

Today we read another version of the story and compared it to the one we read yesterday. Then we talked about swans, what baby swans are called, where swans live, etc... Mane had already looked them up in her North American Wildlife: Birds Field Guide book. She has declared swans to be her favorite birds (though we've been through this with cardinals, whooping cranes, eagles, and owls already)! Mane learned to make a simple sketch of a swan by beginning with the number 2, and she followed instructions for making a swan hat out of paper!

One on One

2010-05-20T18:13:00.003-05:00

Mane has been learning multiplication. And what I've realized is that if she was in a regular school classroom with lots of other kids per teacher, she wouldn't really, REALLY learn this. I have learned that I can set her loose with her math worksheets, and she will return with them finished and correct...but she'll have done all the problems the long way. I want her to learn the "tricks of the trade," so to speak, and that means I have to sit with her while she's doing math and have her talk me through the problem...so the so-called shortcuts actually become shortcuts. Sitting with me helps her to focus, and verbalizing the process helps her to learn.

This is one of the first times I've really stopped and realized that she wouldn't be getting this kind of attention in school, and she needs it if she's going to really learn. She'd be one of those kids who gets by and doesn't cause a lot of fuss, but she would only get to mediocre. I read in the blog of a teacher recently how much she (the teacher) is frustrated with previously homeschooled students because they won't do anything on their own. They require so much attention. And she implored homeschool parents to teach their kids independent study. While I agree that being able to learn independently at some point is important, I think it's entirely possible that homeschooled students are asking for more attention because they really want to understand the process and they aren't accustomed to settling for "good enough." They come to expect themselves to really learn something instead of just getting by.

At least, that's what I hope. I hope that all the time and attention I'm pouring into this means that Mane won't settle for being able to do the work without really understanding. That's what I did through most of school. I was so excited when I got to college and really began to understand how things fit together and why they worked the way they did.

In any case, I'm not going to try to teach Mane to work independently right now at the expense of true learning...no matter what the school administrators complain about homeschooled students. I'm going to take advantage of the opportunity to have her one on one, to provide her with her greatest tool for learning success...my presence.

Apricot Tree

2010-04-02T12:18:00.002-05:00

In August we ate apricots, and we looked up how to save the seeds over the winter to plant them in the spring. (See pictures here.) This is our apricot tree today:

A Walk/Bike Ride in the City

2010-04-01T14:57:00.005-05:00

This is Take 3 of "A Walk in the City." (In case you're interested, here's Take 1 and Take 2.) We're doing less walking and more biking now, but it's still the urban version of the nature walks & hikes & bike rides of our rural and country counterparts.

Goals, Deadlines, and Planning

2010-03-16T11:39:00.002-05:00

I once read that the single biggest problem that college professors see with homeschooled students was their inability to meet deadlines. They tend to honestly believe that the rules can and should be bent for them because they've been schooling in such a flexible environment. As this seldom works in college classrooms or in real life, I think it's a worthy cause to develop some goal-setting, deadline-meeting, planning-ahead skills in homeschooled children.

I've been mulling over this dilemma for some time, coming to very few conclusions. One of the benefits of homeschooling is the flexibility, the ability to drop "school" for the day and go to the orchestra or visit friends. I think this helps homeschooled children become well-rounded individuals, involved and informed in their communities and able to develop deeper and more meaningful relationships with their friends.

A friend of mine introduced me to the idea of setting out a series of goals for homeschooling at the beginning of the month and checking them off as they get done. Her daughter is a little older than Mane, and they have been using this system. It allows them to have some change and variation in their schedule, as not everything needs to be done every single day, but it also creates a system for being sure that the things that get done that need to be done. A valuable side benefit: the child learns to set goals, meet deadlines and plan ahead!

At the beginning of March, Mane and I set out to implement this plan. We're using 2-week time blocks, rather than a whole month, though, since she's new to this process and younger than my friend's daughter. I have to say that I'm absolutely pleased with this plan. Mane can be self-directed within the structure. She's able to take some responsibility for her own planning and schedule. I don't have to cajole her to get things done. I just remind her of what there's left to do and how many days she has remaining. We finished our first 2-week plan on Sunday. On Friday Mane looked at what she still needed to do and made herself a chart for how she was going to get it all done. I sat back and marveled a this skill-building process!

So, what did she/we do?

* 4 chapters in Story of the World
* Completed Math U See Beta!! (Yes, she's done with 2nd grade math!)
* Completed 15 pages of an on-line math curriculum (more on that later).
* Read 2 early reader books from the library
* 2 Hooked on Phonics spelling lessons
* Followed the Iditarod (Mane kept a musher data sheet for Jessie Royer and DeeDee Jonrowe. She filled out times, dates, positions, and number of dogs herself. This included some learning about writing dates and "a.m." and "p.m." times.
* 2 Lego projects following instructions from a booklet
* 10 "real life" math problems
* 2 pages of free writing (corrected for grammar & spelling)

Aside from those things, we also went to the orchestra, visited grandparents, volunteered at the Go Fish concert, did a puzzle with grandma, went to visit friends in Cambridge, had friends come to visit us twice, went to Bible Study, and attended several soccer games (where Mane runs around & plays with friends).

I know it sounds like a lot, but Mane has also had plenty of time to go outside, work on art projects, watch Ponyo, and hang out with her dollies!

I'm feeling great knowing that we're still progressing through some goals. Mane is feeling great knowing what the goals are and having some control over them. Today we wrote up our second set of goals. (Yesterday, true to flexible homeschooling form, we spent the day with the grandparents and drove them to the airport, picked Mango up from school, went to the book store for some books I need for Bible study, and got me a new cell phone!)

Iditarod XXXVIII

2010-03-03T18:57:00.001-06:00

The Olympics just finished up, but we still have Olympic fever at our house! So, it's a good thing the 38th annual Iditarod sled dog race begins on Saturday, right on the heels of the 2010 Olympics, and just in time to keep feeding our hunger for great sports action and stories.

This will be our 4th year following the Iditarod, both for fun and for education. Over the years we've been drawn to the stories of the mushers (the individuals who "drive" the sleds), and we have learned much about character, strength, generosity, and endurance. I'll never forget the story of the musher who lost one of her dogs during the race. She was so heartbroken that another musher offered to stay with her and keep pace with her for the rest of the race, just for company, thereby giving up an possible competitive finish for himself. And then there's the Red Lantern - the prize and trophy awarded to the last competitor to finish the race, a tribute to that musher's determination and an acknowledgment that any finish in this race is a prize-worthy accomplishment. I've found that the race and the stories that happen on the trail are so often analogous to the rest of life and faith.

This year we'll be following more that a few mushers. Of course, we'll have to keep tabs on some of our favorites: Martin Buser, DeeDee Jonrowe, Jessie Royer, Aliy Zirkle (in alphabetical order so as not to pick favorites).

We'll also be watching the 7 female rookies this year (Jane Faulkner, Kathleen Frederick, Tamara Rose , Michelle Phillips, Kristy Berington, Celeste Davis, and Colleen Robertia - listed in the order they're listed on the Iditarod website, also so as not to pick favorites). That's SEVEN women who have never run the Iditarod before this year!! I find that pretty amazing.

Finally, we'll be following Sam Deltour of Belgium, who was the first Belgian to finish the Iditarod (2008) AND the first person ever to finish with all 16 sled dogs (also 2008), Wattie McDonald, who is from Mango's country of ancestry, Scotland, and Newton Marshall, who is interesting just by virtue of being from JAMAICA!

That covers 14 of the 71 current entrants! Every year we seem to accumulate a few more names of interest. ;) We look forward to seeing what new projects we can build around the race this year and, of course, to a great party to celebrate the finish!

Slow Blog

2010-02-19T12:59:00.002-06:00

It's a bit difficult to stay on top of the blog these days. Mane & I have been busy, and I seldom keep track of every little thing we do anymore. We've been reading about and watching the Olympics, reading more of The Hobbit, and continuing to plod along in math and reading (finishing lesson 22 of MUS this week & beginning the Blue Book in 2nd grade Hooked on Phonics).

On the subject of the Olympics, we've been reading athlete profiles from Great Skates by Laura Hilgers, and we've been closely following the snowboard halfpipe competitions and the pairs figure skating.

Mane has been having regular playdates on Fridays with another girl close to her age, who is also homeschooled, we've been attending a homeschool group twice a month and Bible Study once a week. We've also been getting back into weekly visits to the library. On the weekends we attend Vespera's soccer games, where Mane has gotten to know several other children. This has been serving as both social time and phy. ed.! Our lives are once again feeling rhythmic and settled...thanks be to God.

I'm also proud that Mane has finished memorizing The Lord's Prayer! I'm trying to settle on what to have her memorize next. It has worked well to find scripture for which we also have music. She listened to Psalm 23 by Temple & Brent and to As It Is in Heaven by Michael W. Smith, as she was learning the corresponding passages of scripture.

Tough times

2010-02-11T09:41:00.002-06:00

We've been struggling for structure (have I written this before?) because it's been such an off year. The last few weeks have been challenging but productive. We're starting out every day with math & reading, followed by a break, then Story of the World (SOTW) or Five in a Row (FIAR). Whenever anything gets challenging Mane claims she's tired or she doesn't understand and wants to quit. These few weeks have been practice in perseverance. I'm insisting that she either go take a nap if she's that tired OR finish the work. I'm trying hard to avoid "school at home," monotonous drudgery of workbooks and assignments, but I do insist that math & reading practice need to happen. She doesn't balk at SOTW or FIAR...unless I try to get her to write something down or have a conversation with me. She wants me to read her stories and expect nothing of her. We've been doing that. Now I need to step it up. She's so proud of her school notebook when she actually puts work into it, but it's been like pulling teeth to get the work to happen. She's been in a slump. But, I guess, I have been, too...or, rather, one after another since November.

So, as I said, it's been tough but productive. It's been bumpy, but I'm seeing a trend toward more willingness to work, to have a Socratic conversation here and there, to look things up and write things down. I think we're seeing the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. We've both needed to dig our way through.

What have we been doing? Well, Mane will be moving on to lesson 21 in math by the end of the week. She's finishing up the 2nd Hooked on Phonics chapter book. (There are 2 chapter books in the middle of the 2nd grade level.) She's very proud of her reading and actually told me a few days ago that reading goes better for her if she practices every day. AND she announced that she can't wait to read big chapter books on her own. This is a huge increase in motivation. I've been trying to pace her carefully to keep her from tiring and continue her feelings of success.

We've been reading The Gullywasher for FIAR. We found some National Geographics about Mexican cowboys and U.S. cowboys and looked at the pictures. One article about Mexican cowboys told of a pilgrimage that many hundreds of Mexican cowboys make to a statue of Jesus in the mountains each year for Epiphany. So, Mane & I asked Vespera & Niteo if they'd heard of this pilgrimage. They both had, AND Niteo ended up telling us about a bicycle pilgrimage that he made to a sanctuary with a statue of Mary in Juquila, Mexico. He told us about the journey and the other people that went, and he looked up youtube movies for us to watch about it. Then Mane took a picture with Niteo, and she wrote a little paragraph about talking with him in her school notebook.

Later we read a book about cowboys in the "Wild West" and listened to cowboy/cowgirl songs. Mane printed some pictures that she liked from google images for her notebook, and she drew the 4 major trails on a U.S. map that the cowboys(girls) followed to bring the cattle to market each year.

We dug out this timeline that I printed a long time ago for our history studies and marked several key events from SOTW that we've studied this year. We looked at where the Greeks fall on the timeline and began talking about the beginning of the Olympics.

Yesterday we watched footage of the torch relay for this year's Olympics. We watched the torch lighting in Olympia and talked about how the torch is lit using a mirror and the sun's light. Then we found Greece and Canada on the map. We found Vancouver, along with several other places where the torch has been.

The plan is to pick some Olympic athletes to follow and learn some things about them before the games begin. We'll record the opening ceremony tomorrow night (because we're going to be our with friends) and watch some on Saturday.

Classification

2010-01-25T13:41:00.003-06:00

So, we rounded out last week talking about sheep! We looked at pictures of wild sheep and domesticated sheep and talked about the difference between sheep & goats. Then we took a look at how sheep are classified (yes, kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species...remember?). Mane thought that was so fascinating that we made another page in her school notebook for classifying people. I think this is something we'll continue to do as we encounter animals in Five in a Row and Story of the World.

We finished the chapter on ancient Africa in Story of the World, and it looks like we'll be moving into more chapters on Egypt. My plan is to spend less time on these since we spent SO MUCH time on Egypt last year. Depending on how it goes, I might try to get us to ancient Greece by the time the 2010 Olympics begin.

Well Socialized

2010-01-21T12:41:00.002-06:00

No worries about an unsocialized homeschooler here in the last week...

Swim lesson last Thursday,
Playdate on Friday,
Played with friends at Vespera's soccer games Saturday & Sunday,
Homeschool group on Tuesday,
Bible Study on Wednesday,
Playdate today...

Onion Skin Dye

2010-01-21T12:38:00.001-06:00

Weaving

2010-01-20T16:04:00.002-06:00

We found a lovely book about weaving at the library called Kids Weaving by Sarah Swett. Mane completed her first weaving project - weaving a card for Mango - after we read the first portion of the book. The book includes some history of weaving and weaving terminology - a perfect guide for kids AND adults!!

Mane has been writing common nouns, proper nouns, and verbs from A New Coat For Anna, as we have continued to row this book. I reviewed the book with her using the comprehension questions from the Five in a Row book and was AMAZED that she could remember what Anna's mother traded for each step in the process of making the coat after only reading the book twice. (I didn't ask her the questions after the first reading...hmmm, makes you wonder!)

Here's Mane's intro to the section in her notebook on A New Coat For Anna:

Today Mane is writing her own story with the steps for making applesauce...in the same manner as the steps to Anna's new coat.

We've been spending a lot of time with the Making Words book lately - practicing spelling and organizing words according to rhyming. Lately we've been using words that look more alike, and Mane has needed to really attend to letter order. She has a tendency to guess what word she's reading based on the first few letters. Today we did a much longer lesson because she just wanted to keep going. She took out her magnet letters & her little magnet board and used those rather than the letter cards. It's a nice, colorful change from the letter cards, and the magnets are more three dimensional.

We're on to lesson 17 in Math U See...rounding to the nearest thousand and ten thousand. We spent a long time with the math blocks this morning clarifying the concept of rounding and estimating. For some reason, the leap into ten thousands and hundred thousands is more difficult...perhaps because we've moved more into the realm of the abstract. I can't "show" her a hundred thousand math blocks. ;)

A Podcast about A New Coat for Anna

2010-01-08T14:20:00.002-06:00

Warmth, Waiting & Woolly Friends: A New Coat for Anna

Posted using ShareThis

A New Coat for Anna

2010-01-08T14:05:00.002-06:00

After a Christmas wedding, a car accident, and some medical crisis, we're back to some more academic type schooling this week. Mane is working through lesson 16 of MUS, and she's nearly halfway through the 2nd grade Hooked on Phonics. She's been painting most days with a daily watercolor calendar we bought at Barnes and Noble after Christmas. The calendar features famous watercolors and some helpful tips for trying your own similar painting.

Today we read A New Coat for Anna by Harriet Ziefert. We'll be rowing this book for the next few weeks. It's about a little girl who needs a new coat after World War II. Her family has no money. So, her mother barters for wool, then for the spinning, then for the weaving, and, finally, for the tailor to make the coat. It takes a year for Anna to get a new coat, but, in the end, she has a new coat and several new friends. Today Mane drew a picture in her school notebook to begin our pages on A New Coat for Anna.

Today we also continued our studies of early and ancient China. We read about the Great Wall of China in You Wouldn't Want to Work on the Great Wall of China! by Jacqueline Morley, and we looked at pictures of the terracotta army in The Emporer's Silent Army by Jane O'Conner. We talked about how being so terribly afraid of everything is what made the emporer Qin so cruel and ruthless and how we don't need to live our own lives in fear. Both books mentions some of the advantages of having an organized empire (standardized weights & measures, standardized money, better roads, better protection from invaders). We talked about how those things are good, but they would be better if the emporer had cared more about the people who were doing all the work to make those things happen. We did some comparing to the early rulers of Mesopotamia, as opposed to Hammurabi.

Plans I just need to write down for next week before I forget:
- Demonstrate how non-standardized measurements are a problem
- Talk more about acting out of fear vs. acting out of care and concern for people
- Learn more about weaving - maybe make our own weaving loom
- learn about making dyes (Anna's mother dyes the wool red with lingonberries in the book)

Odds & Ends

2009-12-08T19:26:00.003-06:00

Mane is halfway through her math book for the year. So, we're taking the next few weeks to play with math. She has always preferred verbal math over doing math worksheets. So, today we reviewed some of her math facts verbally, and she thought it was great fun. (It helped that Novio was around & listening. She always loves to show off a bit.) I told her she'd be learning multiplication later this year, and she got all worried. I told her that multiplication was the same as skip-counting, which she already does by 10's, 5's & 2's. In that case, she decided to learn some of the 3's today, too. ;)

I looked over the book What Your Second Grader Needs to Know, and I must admit to feeling very much at ease regarding the things we've covered this year and what we have left. We read a portion out of the history section today just to reinforce what we've already covered about India & China this year.

We went to the orchestra again last week for a fantastic performance of Hansel & Gretel!

We've been reading Advent stories each evening, and Mane continues to learn The Lord's Prayer.

Last week we read through The Care and Keeping of You, which fascinated Mane and led to many fascinating discussions!

And Mane has been playing outside lots in the snow & cold!

I have very little time to keep up with blogging right now. So, though this blog looks scarce, we've been busy...perhaps that's the way it ought to be.

A fresh start

2009-11-30T19:38:00.002-06:00

Well, we seem to finally be back on our feet. Mango was terribly sick the week of Thanksgiving, and I've spent the month recovering from surgery. Mane has been learning lots just by living life and talking with us, but today we had a "real" day of homeschool...one that resembles the structure we started with this year.

Mane reviewed Psalm 23 after breakfast. Then we worked on adding a new portion of The Lord's Prayer. We read about the Maccabees again and about the significance of the menorah for Hannukah. We listened to Michael W. Smith's song of The Lord's Prayer, and then Mane listened to a story about the Maccabees that we found on the internet. I have a DVD from the library about Hannukah that we'll be watching this week, as well.

After that we did a Hooked on Phonics lesson and a lesson from Making Words.

We dug out the Human book and looked at the eye. Mane drew a picture of an eye - with the optic nerve, lens, cornea, and muscles. We talked more about optical illusions. Then we turned the page in the Human book and reviewed how our ears help us balance.

We began the next chapter of Story of the World about ancient China. We looked at the map and discussed why the Mesopotamian people referred to China as the Far East. Mane traced the Yellow and Yangtze Rivers on a map for her history binder, and we talked about the kinds of food grown in the Yellow River Valley. We read the story of how the first emporer's wife supposedly discovered silk, and Mane retold the story in her own words. Then she copied down some ancient Chinese pictograms from the Story of the World text.

When Mane got up this morning she was asking when it was going to snow. So, we looked at the 10-day forecast on the internet. Then we discussed whether the forecast was likely to be right or not, and we decided to keep a log of it for the next ten days. This led to a discussion of the scientific method, and we wrote out the method we'll be using to find out if the forecast is more often right or wrong.

Mane finished out the day by taking test 13 in Math U See. We'll be moving on to a section on measurement next!

A Blur

2009-11-16T13:53:00.002-06:00

The last two weeks have gone by in a blur...not full of activity, but full of sleep and recovery. I had my appendix out Novemeber 4th. I was sick for the two days prior to that. So, today marks 2 weeks since this whole thing started. I am still tired beyond belief, and homeschooling takes a great deal of energy. So, we're going slow...doing a lot of incidental learning and reading books.

So, on Novemeber 2nd, Mane and I began rowing Mirette on the High Wire. We read both Mirette on the High Wire and Starring Mirette and Bellini. We watched a bunch of youtube videos about the Wallenda family (famous for their high wire walking and seven-person pyramid) and other real life high wire walkers. Mane drew a picture of Mirette walking the high wire for her school notebook. My mom ended up coming over on Tuesday to help me out, and she read Mirette and Bellini Cross Niagara Falls and The Man Who Walked Between the Towers to Mane.

Tuesday night, Mango taught Mane about how the fluid of the inner ear helps people to balance. I think later this week I'll have her draw some pictures, maybe a picture explanation of how balance works.

For several days after I had my appendix out we talked about the appendix and the digestive system and laparoscopic surgery.

Mane played "store" with Mango and practiced reading and counting money. She continues to do a great deal of incidental reading on her own. Over the weekend, Mango worked with Mane on a business venture they'd like to start together, and they spend many hours busily creating a website. Mane did a great deal of the typing and spelling herself.

We continued reading The Hobbit together...

Today we read Mirette on the High Wire again. I printed a map for Mane's school notebook, and she circled all the places mentioned in the book. I wrote out all the places we've talked about (and several others that I already know that Mane knows) on index cards. Then I had her draw cards and find the places on the map. I asked her if each place we a continent, country, or city, and we talked again about the distinction between those things. Whenever she could find a place, she got to keep the card. I think we'll keep using this stack of cards and adding new places as we study them in Five in a Row and Story of the World.

We read The Painted Circus, which has a circus theme (to go with high wire walking) and is full of optical illusions. Then Mane showed them all to Vespera & Novio, who happened to be hanging around the house this morning. :)

As I was typing Mane, began lesson 12 in MUS...adding money. Tomorrow she'll take the test, as this is exactly the same as the addition she's been doing - only with a decimal point and a dollar sign. She had no trouble with the practice page.

Cork Trees

2009-10-30T16:17:00.003-05:00

Did you know that cork comes from trees that grow in Spain & Portugal. In The Story of Ferdinand, Ferdinand likes to sit under a cork tree and smell the flowers. So, today we watched a youtube video on how corks are made:

Unschool

2009-10-29T15:54:00.002-05:00

This week's schooling has looked largely like unschool. I'm impressed with the results and feeling comfortable with where this week went, even as I'm ready to get back into a schedule.

Mane read early readers from the library for her reading practice this week. She finished 1st grade Hooked on Phonics last week, and I wanted to spend a week reinforcing reading skills before moving to the 2nd grade materials. She's eager to get started, too, and I wanted to build that enthusiasm a little.

Mane is about ready to finish chapter 11 of MUS, after her huge leap in math lessons last week. I practiced reading price tags with her at Savers this week, and she's been practicing the money counting all on her own.

Monday night we took a close look at the section on India in the book Wonders of the Ancient World. Mango was with us and asked a lot of excited questions, which was good review for Mane AND an opportunity to find out more. Tuesday we had a friend from India come over to make Indian food with us:

We continued talking this week about Ferdinand and the country of Spain. Mane asked a lot of questions about how the Mexican people came to speak Spanish, since the Spanish language comes from Spain. So, we talked about how countries sometimes take over other countries, about the way that many European countries formed colonies all over the world, including the United States. I explained that Mexico used to be made up of the Aztec and Mayan people, just as the United States used to be a whole bunch of Native American tribes. We talked about why countries take over other countries, especially about how it usually involves taking the other country's natural resources. This led to a discussion of natural resources, naturally occurring elements, and the periodic table. Whew!!

When something suddenly clicks!

2009-10-23T10:23:00.001-05:00

Wow! I think I've been waiting for this moment without even really knowing it. It is SO FUN to see Mane learn things. I remember being amazed all through her babyhood as she learned how to grasp and roll and crawl and walk. Now I'm starting to see that with knowledge.

So, here's the story... We've always played around with counting money. She seemed to understand how much each coin was worth and how to add them up to dollars. Then, yesterday we did the Math U See lesson where the unit blocks represent pennies, the ten blocks represent dimes, and the hundered blocks represent dollars. Mane's response? "MAMA, you can use MATH to count money?!!!" She then proceeded to dump out her piggy bank and count the entire contents. She counted $12.53 in coins. It wasn't that she used any different method than we had always used to help her count coins, but she kept exclaiming over and over again about how it easy it was, and it was clear that SOMETHING finally made sense to her about counting coins. It was so fun to see her so excited.

2009-10-21T18:30:00.002-05:00

I think Mane is a genius. But that shouldn't surprise you, right? I'm a little biased. She sailed through her reading lesson today. Then she did lessons 8 AND 9 in math!! She took test 9 and is ready to start lesson 10 tomorrow. I can't believe the ground we covered today. Wow. One little nice thing about homeschooling is that this can happen. We can plod along for a while and then sail through when we're ready.

She also colored the flag of Spain today. And I read her chapter 2 of The Hobbit. We'll be doing some more "schooling" tonight. Not sure how it's going to evolve exactly, but we've got some time this evening while Mango does some "homework."

Ferdinand

2009-10-20T10:08:00.003-05:00

Yesterday we began rowing The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf.

This is a sweet little book, and it really ought to be in every child's library. It's a story of a young bull named Ferdinand, who grew up to love sitting under a cork tree smelling flowers rather than fighting like all the other bulls. Mane and I discovered today that Disney made a movie of the story, and you can watch it on youtube:

While we read the book for the second time to day, Mane picked out common & proper nouns, as well as the one interjection in the story. She drew a page for Ferdinand in her school notebook this morning while I read more to her out of the Jewish holidays book. She's finished memorizing Psalm 23, and we began work on The Lord's Prayer this morning.

Last week I didn't write here at all. It isn't that we didn't do anything, but, rather, that we were extremely busy. On Monday we did all our regular math & reading, read a book called A-Z India, and made fresh squeezed orange juice. We ended up talking about fractions while we made orange juice because we saw how much juice we got from one orange & then from two oranges, and we estimated how much would be needed to make a cup of orange juice. We talked more about how we know that a food is a fruit (because it has seeds in it) and printed a page of pictures of fruits with the seeds showing for her school notebook. We also split up the big long timeline we began two years ago and put it in a three ring binder in order to make it easier to add things to the timeline in the future.

Tuesday we went to the Minneapolis Institute of Art with some other homeschoolers. We made our way through a whole lot of the museum and then spent time letting the children play together in the family room at the Institute. It's so inspiring to see Mane recognize pieces of art that she's seen before and watch her discover new things. I'm always interested to see the types of things that interest her.

Wednesday we rode our bikes to Bible Study. When we got home Aurora's grandma came to pick her up and she went to spend the night with grandma so that Mango & I could go to the Education Minnesota conference on Thursday. I went to an absolutely excellent workshop on teaching U.S. history using picture books. The workshop was done by 6th grade teacher and children's book author, Pat Bauer, and her husband, a children's book illustrator, David Geister. After the workshop we went to the keynote address entitled "Life in the Next America," regarding the influence of immigration on America today by Ray Suarez. Here an interview with Ray Suarez here.

Friday we had a birthday party for Vespera. She had some friends come for dinner, a movie, and a sleepover! Mane got to watch reading Rainbow episodes and play, play, play for most of the day while we all made preparations for the party.

Today we have our homeschool group in the afternoon. Mane took test 7 in her math book & is ready to move on to lesson 8. She's about 2 weeks away from finishing 1st grade Hooked on Phonics, and then we'll be ready to begin the 2nd grade level!! Yeah! She's paying attention to signs and reading everything everywhere. We've seen tremendous improvement with practice and a solid program. The repetition of Hooked on Phonics seems to be the key to success for her.

Apple Cidering

2009-10-08T15:56:00.003-05:00

Today we went to Eastman Nature Center and made apple cider!

Pour the apples in the grinder...

Turn the crank...

Grind the apples...

The pieces are caught in a cloth bag, and the juice runs out the bottom...

The cloth bag is closed up, and a wooden "foot" is placed on top to press it down...

Turn the crank to press out the rest of the juice...

YUM! Apple cider...

Rain Makes Applesauce!

2009-10-07T19:39:00.001-05:00

In the time it took me to write the last blog post, we also made applesauce!

Apple Trees

2009-10-07T18:57:00.002-05:00

I'll review this week backwards starting with today! Right now, as I type, Mane is drawing a progression of pictures that show how rain makes applesauce, since we just finished the book...

The book is a bunch of silly talk, but in the end it turns out that rain DOES actually lead to applesauce. This is a 1965 Caldecott Honor book, and it lives up to its award!! The pictures are strange but fascinating, and the text makes us laugh every time!

Earlier in the day we read...
And we traced the trip the apples made from Iowa to Oregon on the map. We printed another map that shows the places where Johnny Appleseed planted apples.

Yesterday was full with the regular math and reading AND then the long bus ride to our homeschool group. On the bus we read a book about India...learning about how people lived, what they wore, what the government was like, and the kind of religions the people followed.

Homeschool group was a total blast!! We used the multipurpose room at a community center, but the rules have changed since last year. The kids cannot play with balls. We stood around scratching our heads for a while. Then the kids got out the tumbling mats and a bunch of chairs. They built houses and tents with the tumbling mats. Then they used one of the mats to set up a stage curtain, and a bunch of them worked out a play while the others lined up rows of chairs to watch. They *did* actually tumble on the mats for a while, too, and they played various and sundry animal games. I couldn't believe how the group of them could have so much fun with so little!!

On Monday we rode our bikes to Savers. It was a little cold and wet out, but we managed to go for a walk and collect leaves when we got home before it really started to rain. Mane made leaf rubbings and practiced identifying leaves:

We talked about various leaf shapes and how leaves from different trees turn different colors in the autumn.

That pretty much covers the basics of what we've been up to this week. Tomorrow we have a field trip to go on a tram ride to see the autumn leaves and then we'll learn about apple cidering!

Rainy Day

2009-10-01T20:04:00.002-05:00

It rained and poured, and was oh-so-cold today. So, we lit a fire again, and here's Mane doing her math work:

We read and looked around on the internet about the life cycle of an apple tree. The Mane painted the life cycle:

Her apple tree picture from a few days ago:

Then, we began reading The Hobbit today, and Mane wanted to look at all the pictures before bed:

Johnny Appleseed

2009-09-30T19:37:00.002-05:00

Yesterday we read Johnny Appleseed: A Poem by Reeve Lindbergh, and began talking about autumn and trees and leaves and the varied topography of the United States. Mane made a picture in her notebook for Johnny Appleseed, and it was so cold that we had our first fire in the fireplace for the season. Mane laid out her notebook in front of the fire, and I fell in love with this idea of us homeschooling here in our cozy living room before a crackling fire...

We did a quick review of our history studies so far and put all the related papers in a binder, which will become our timeline. We looked over a National Geographic book about India, and learned more about how the people of India lived and what they believed. Mane did a word search activity from the back of the Story of the World Activity Book 1. This is good for remembering words associated with the history we've learned so far AND her reading and scanning skills.

Today we went to Bible study, had a picnic at the global market, and babysat for the friend of a friend. Now Mane is practicing reading with Grandma. She's starting to take pride in her reading!

I didn't write about Monday because it was filled with running errands and a long trip to the library, but, notably, Mane made a list of all our errands and checked them off as we went. She also sat in the car reading the map. Fun, practical reading practice. :)

India

2009-09-25T16:37:00.002-05:00

Today (after our standard math & reading) Mane & I read from Story of the World about ancient India. We'll be studying ancient India for at least the next week (and possibly longer). We found the Indus River on the map and looked at how it connects to Mesopotamia through the Arabian Sea. We talked about how difficult travel was over the land and why people chose water instead. Now I'm on an internet quest for some fun web pages about ancient India.

Lately Mane has also been helping make dinner. I know this is something I should have gotten around to a lot sooner, but I'm finding that having waited didn't harm anything and she's actually old enough to be real help now. She made meatballs this week and helped make lasagna. She's watching me carefully, and I think cooking is going to be one of those things she loves to do. Who knows, maybe I'll be able to pass it off to her in a few years? ;) Now I'm thinking of it as part of her education. Cooking is part of growing up and being responsible. It's also a place to read, measure, and be creative...a fantastic venue for learning.

The Prairie

2009-09-24T10:11:00.002-05:00

I flipped through Mane's school notebook this morning so I could remember what exactly we've done with our week! We read Three Names again, and Mane wrote down common nouns and proper nouns as we read. We researched prairie plants, animals, and insects and made a page for each in the notebook. Briefly, we discussed the various biomes of the earth and printed a map.

This morning we did some more reading about water. We made a pie chart of how much of the earth is made of water. This was a great way to discuss percentages and fractions. Then we made pie charts for the percentage of water in women, men & babies. Mane had some fun guessing how much of herself is water, since she's not a baby and not yet a woman.

Mane drew a water molecule, and she explained to me all the things she already knows about water molecules in the solid, liquid and gas form. She tells me that Mango told her all about it, and she surely did know all her stuff! Then she asked why ice floats, and we found the answer in one of our many library books on water.

Finally, this morning we followed some instructions for watching bean seeds grow from her nature book. Place seeds in a jar between the wall of the jar and some blotting paper, pour water in the bottom of the jar, watch beans sprout and grow:

Walker Art Center

2009-09-24T10:05:00.002-05:00

Some photos from our trip to the Walker Art Center Sculpture Garden last week when we went to see No Impact Man:

And believe it or not, here is Colin Beaven, No Impact Man!

2009-09-22T14:56:00.002-05:00

We finished out last week by reading books about the prairie and identifying plants and animals of the prairie.

Mane spent the weekend with Mango while I went back and forth to the hospital with my aunt. My uncle was in the hospital near our house. Mane did lots of reading with Mango and also had some good playground time!

Monday I brought Mane to the hospital with me and we looked at a book about marbles, since the children in Three Names played marbles. We played a game where one person hides some marbles in the their hand. The other person guesses how many they're hiding. If the guess is correct the guess-er gets to keep the marbles. If the guess is incorrect, the guess-er has to give the difference to the person who was hiding the marbles. I quickly discovered that this is a great way to teach and practice small number subtraction facts! Yeah for us, and my aunt was quite impressed!

My mom was at the hospital as well, and Mane was quite happy to show off her new reading skills by reviewing her most recent Hooked on Phonics stories with my mom. Then she did a math page while we were waiting to talk with doctors and getting ready to leave for lunch.

After lunch, Mane drew a picture of animals that live in the prairie and had a conversation with my uncle about herbivores and predators of the prairie.

Today we biked to the clinic and to Target. Mane is getting to know her way around very well. She's always been very observant of her surroundings. Now that we're biking she leads the way to most familiar destinations. We're both exhausted from a weird weekend, but homeschooling allows us to spread our learning out through the day rather than cramming it into the first 6 hours.

No Impact

2009-09-18T12:48:00.003-05:00

Mane & I went to see No Impact Man together at the Walker Art Center on Wednesday. Earlier in the day we went to Bible Study, did some math & reading, reviewed to portion of the 23rd Psalm that she's learning, and then did some research about No Impact Man. We talked about the things we already do to reduce our impact on the environment, and Mane drew some pictures of those things in her school notebook - biking, walking, recycling, and using less electricity. We related this to Three Names by talking about the ways the world has changed since the time of Three Names. We used a chart from homeschoolshare.com to categorize things into how things were done in the past and how they're done in the present (things like washing clothes and getting water).

At the Walker Art Center we wandered around the sculpture garden after securing our tickets. We arrived super early (by bus) because we wanted to be sure to get tickets. The tickets were free, and the art center was expecting a full house. As it turned out, we didn't have to come as early as we did, but it was fine because we played Swap & Fluxx until we got our tickets and then ran around the sculpture garden until showtime. Mane drew some pictures during the film, and she listened attentively to the film maker after the film. As a special treat, Colin Beaven, the author of the book & subject of the film, made a guest appearance. So, we got to see him live and in person. Mane was quite impressed. ...and she wants to start composting our food waste.

Thursday we met up with some friends and spent the whole afternoon at the beach! This felt like the second special treat of the week - to have it warm & beautiful enough in September to spend another day at the beach! Mane came home with a little collection of shells and a rock...and a darker suntan!

Today Mane played with the children of some friends of ours who are home on furlough from Russia. They have been missionaries in Russia since they got married several years ago, and now they have 3 children. The woman is planning to homeschool her children. So, we had a nice conversation about homeschooling while the kiddos played.

Later we'll be driving (gasp!) Vespera to school and stopping by the bank and the library. We have been SO busy this week that it feels like we've hardly gotten anything done, but I suppose it only feels that way if I think of seeing educational films and playing with friends, and exploring the beach as nothing...which I don't. So, I guess we did plenty, just not what we planned. ;)

Three Names

2009-09-15T20:58:00.002-05:00

This week we're rowing Three Names by Patricia MacLachlan. It's a book written all about a boy's grandfather and how his grandfather grew up on the prairie with his dog named Three Names, who would follow him to school every day. There isn't a lot of action in the story, but it's a very beautiful and simple description of prairie life for a young boy in America's pioneer days. The book is going to lend itself well to our continued study of horses. We're also learning about rivers, water supply, water cycle and prairies.

Today we read books about rivers while we were on the bus on the way to our homeschool group. Then Mane played for three hours with the other homeschoolers!!

Mane had done some reading before we left the house. Now she's working on putting together a vocabulary book for the words we've encountered in Hooked on Phonics that she did not know. I'm finding clip-art for her to demonstrate the word meanings, and she's practicing her handwriting putting the words into a book.

Yesterday Mane started & finished MUS lesson 3. I continue to marvel at how quickly she learns math concepts.

2009-09-08T18:46:00.002-05:00

As promised, here are the photos of the architecture stamping activity:

Before we got down to stamping, Mane watched lesson 2 of MUS, did a couple of practice pages, and took the test. I guess we'll be moving on the lesson 3 tomorrow. She also continued in her Hooked on Phonics book. She told me today that she didn't really like Hooked on Phonics very much when we first got it, but now it's not so bad. ;)

We read some more about New York today from a book called New York: The Empire State by Margery Facklam.We printed a map of New York, traced the outline and the Hudson River, found the Erie Canal, and looked for all the Great Lakes. I also pointed out to Mane that there are two mountain ranges in New York, and one is the Appalachian Mountains, which we studied last year.

Mane requested that we look at the world map and sing the song about the continents. So, we did that, and then we traced how the Great Lakes lead out into the Atlantic Ocean through New York, and we talked about how that affects trade and commerce in New York.

Art Studies

2009-09-07T21:33:00.002-05:00

I LOVE my local thrift store, and in the last few weeks it has proven itself to be a treasure trove of homeschooling supplies. Today I picked up the Make A Word Bingo Game for $1.5o.
Mane and I have played it already, and I can tell it's going to be another great tool in my reading toolbox (or treasure chest?).

I also purchased The Prestel Art Game for $2.
Mane, Mango & I played this game at a coffee shop this afternoon, and it was great fun! We didn't know the answers to most of the questions, but we had a good time reasoning out the answers, and Mane learned some new art-related vocabulary.

The art game reminded me that a few weeks ago I also purchased Fun With Architecture for $1.50:

This is a stamp set of architectural elements, which can be combined to create buildings and bridges. My plan is for Mane to follow the instructions in the booklet for both a bridge and a lighthouse this week to go along with The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge. I'll take pictures when we're finished! (As a side note, Fun With Architecture is from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City! I can't wait to tell Mane that when we begin our stamp project.)

I'm excited to see some art and design work trickling into our time together. Today we saw a sculpture (outside the coffee shop) entitled "Allegory of Excelsior." What made this especially special was that Mane just finished studying the New York flag this last week, and there's a little banner on the New York flag that says, "Excelsior." So, we talked some more about what the Latin word "excelsior" means and what the sculpture and the flag were both trying to represent.

We did actually have a little art lesson last week that I forgot to mention. We did some exercises from Drawing with Children by Mona Brookes. We've done lessons from this book before. So, this was just to get us warmed up. I'm committed to doing some real art lessons once a week (not just craft projects). So, the Drawing with Children book will be my base.

Rowing The Little Red Lighthouse

2009-09-06T19:55:00.002-05:00

We continued rowing The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge Thursday and Friday last week. On Thursday we read the book, and Mane wrote down all the compound words she heard in her school notebook. On Friday we talked about nouns, and Mane wrote down nouns as we read through the book again. She also made a page in her school notebook for places she'd like to visit in New York someday, including the statue of Balto in Central Park, the zoo, and the Statue of Liberty.

We read several books about New York and the Statue of Liberty, including:

Building Liberty: A Statue is Born by Serge Hochain, which is a story of several people who had a part in making the Statue of Liberty happen - a young engineering apprentice in France, a boy working on the ship that brought Liberty to the U.S.A., a boy who sold newspapers in New York and helped raise money for the pedestal for the statue, and one man who helped put Liberty together after she arrived in the U.S.A..

New York, New York: The Big Apple from A to Z by Laura Krauss Melmed and Frane Lessac. This is a book with something about New York from every letter of the alphabet.

Journey Around New York from A to Z by Martha and Heather Zschock, another book with something about New York City from every letter of the alphebet.

The alphebet books led to some discussions of Wall Street and stocks, Ellis Island and immigration, and September 11th, 2001. Mane was visibly disturbed by the story of September 11th, though she didn't say anything about it. I didn't go into detail. The alphabet books brought it up under the subject of firefighters and the firefighter's museum in New York. Later she said that one of the places she'd like to visit in New York is the firefighter's museum.

Friday evening Mango spent some time looking at New York on Google Earth with Mane. Since we had focused so much on New York City, she was surprised to learn that their are mountains and wide open spaces in New York, as well.

I've been spending some time on-line looking for lighthouse models we can build from legos. This will be one of our projects for the next week.

New York

2009-09-03T15:49:00.002-05:00

The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge is based on a scene the author witnessed in New York. So, yesterday Mane & I found New York on the map, printed a map of the U.S. and colored in New York for her school notebook. She got out her big 50 States coloring book and colored the page about New York, which included the New York state flag and the state flower. Mane put various pictures related to New York in her school notebook.

We read more about Przewalski horses, the last remaining breed of wild horses. Mango was very interested in the differences in chromosomes between Przewalski horses and the rest of the horses in the world. We talked all about Przewalski horses over dinner with Mango.

In the afternoon Mane played with a friend of hers for several hours - building with train tracks, jumping in the beanbag, and making crafts.

Today we went on a long bike ride to a park. Then we got back to practice reading, and Mane took test 1 for MUS Beta. She finished some coloring on the New York page, and we did an art lesson from Drawing with Children. Now Mane is listening to All of a Kind Family on itunes, and I'm putting together some books to read to her about New York a little later today.

Lighthouses! (And A Walk in the City)

2009-09-01T20:20:00.003-05:00

We started out the day with the "real" story of Moses from the Bible. We talked more about Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur. Mane asked questions about what those words actually mean and what language they are and WHY.

We did some math & reading lessons quickly and then took off on a trip to the library. Mane whined about walking to the light rail because we've been biking everywhere lately, but all the way there she commented on the things you can notice when you're walking because you're going more slowly than biking! Talk about night & day. Here are some of our discoveries:

HUGE can tab

Mushroom

Daisies

Relaxing at the station

While we were downtown, we sat at a coffee shop and looked over a book about lighthouses from the library called Lighthouses by Phillip Plisson.

This week we're "rowing" The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge. So, our perusal of the lighthouses book was a good intro. As I write this, Mane is reviewing the book with Mango. She was very impressed to learn that there used to be lighthouse boats AND lighthouses that we just on pieces of rock in the middle of the sea. Lighthouse keepers had to slide on a rope down to a boat to get off the lighthouse. Now people are dropped from helicopters to get to the lighthouses for maintenance.

A book about lighthouses seemed timely since we just visited the Two Harbors lighthouse on Lake Superior:

And our trip to Two Harbors reminded us of our trip to Split Rock lighthouse last summer:

We spent a great deal of time in front of the map today, too, finding New York (the setting for The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge), which led to finding all the other places we know on the map and singing a song about the 7 continents. AND we found a youtube video with actual footage of "The Little Red Lighthouse."

Monday

2009-08-31T19:36:00.003-05:00

Today involved a reading lesson with Hooked on Phonics, the first DVD lesson of MUS Beta, a bicycle ride down the greenway, and a DVD about Rosh Hoshannah and Yom Kippur. I've been rather low energy today. So, I feel proud to report that much!

Last week we visited with friends nearly all day Wednesday, Thursday afternoon, and Friday morning. No need to worry about socialization!

It looks like the Jr. FIRST Lego League team may not work out for us after all. Homeschoolers are a crazy conundrum between being very flexible and, therefore, able to do all kinds of wonderful things, and very flexible and, therefore, very busy and sometimes overbooked. Three out of five families dropped from our group. So, now I'm looking at the possibility of finding a new group or waiting until next year. I'm thinking of maybe taking the time to actually learn something about and work with legos this year. Then, I'd be more prepared to actually work with them next year.

Horses

2009-08-25T12:42:00.002-05:00

We rounded out the day yesterday looking up different breeds and patterns of horses, printing pictures, and getting them ready to go in the notebook. Mane has had a fascination with horses for some time now, fueled by Grandma buying her those Schleich toy horses and telling her horse stories. We found out that there's only one heard of wild horses left, and scientists aren't even sure they're the same species as other currently existing horses! Mane compared the horse pictures to her Schleich toys.

Today we found a chart of all the parts of a horse and talked about the names for baby horses (foal, colt, filly) and grown horses (mare & stallion). Mane is currently pasting the horse pictures in her school notebook as I type.

This morning we read the story of Moses and the Ten Commandments from the Jewish Holidays book. I LOVED their take on this story, which is that we all make mistakes and mistakes are part of the process of growing and learning more about ourselves and God. The focus of the story was on Moses getting so angry that he broke the stone tablets. At the end of the story God tells Moses to save the broken pieces along with the new tablets. Moses complains that then he will always remember how embarrassingly angry he got. God says that's exactly why he should save them...not as a punishment, but because the mistake is holy, too. This is a lesson Mane needs to hear over and over again. She's so worried about making mistakes, sensitive to being wrong. It's a good story for me to refer back to when she gets all upset about mistakes, and it's good for me, too.

Mane read one of the Hooked on Phonics books, and then we put star stickers on her calendar for the recent days that she has practiced reading. Having some sort of small reward is a life-saving motivator right now. She is able to focus and even enjoy a little time reading if she knows she's working for something. It isn't my ideal. So, I haven't been pushing it. But, interestingly, she's been asking to read. So, whatever.

We continued reviewing some MUS Alpha concepts. Mane has a good memory for the things we haven't practiced in the last few months.

We're considering biking to the library, but there are storm clouds brewing. Not sure if we're going to make it out today or not.

Maps & An Apricot Seed!

2009-08-24T13:27:00.008-05:00

I think we're in love with maps. Mane and I studied a MN map before we went up to Duluth last week. She located Minneapolis & Duluth and the connecting highway - 35W. As we drove, she watched the road signs for number of miles until Duluth. She's learning how to pay attention to signs and watch for exits. While in Duluth we looked at the trolley map and Mane traced the map from where we got on to where we got off. Today she put all the maps in her brand new 2nd grade school notebook!

Then we printed a Minneapolis map and took a look at all the places we have biked so far and all the places we could bike. Mane was interested in figuring out north, south, east & west. So, she drew a simple compass underneath the printed map in her notebook. On the next page, we made a list of places we can get to easily on a bike based on distances Mane has already successfully biked:

- co-op
- 3 libraries
- 12 parks
- clinic
- Target
- Rainbow
- Blockbuster

This morning we took our bikes to the co-op, and I loaded up the crate on the back of my bike with good food for the next few days. I don't have to trailer attached to the bike yet. So, I could only purchase as much as I could carry in the crate. Mane led the way, as she's biked to the co-op with Mango. She has an excellent memory for direction.

First day of 2nd grade photos:

Before we left, we read the first passage out of the Family Treasury of Jewish Holidays about Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. My plan is for us to do some Bible/Theology studies every morning over breakfast, and part of the plan is to learn about the Biblical holidays and how they fit with Christianity. Mane has already heard some about Judaism from the book All of a Kind Family that she has on CD. So, she knew something about what I was saying. It was interesting to talk with her about the common history of Judaism and Christianity and to see what she thought about it all. I'm going to be looking forward to this part of the day with her.

At the co-op we bought apricots from Wisconsin, and when we got home we read about how to keep a seed so that we can plant it in the spring. We washed it and wrapped it in a damp paper towel, put it in a ziploc, and set it in the fridge, where it will remain for the winter. Then we'll plant it. Perhaps we'll have an apricot tree in the spring!

We did a lesson from Hooked on Phonics. Mane has done several of these so far, and so far it's enjoyable for her. Then Mane played with the math blocks at the kitchen table while I made lunch. We reviewed a bunch of concepts from Math U See Alpha. We'll be starting Beta next week.

While we were eating, Mane was putting out math blocks that matched the colors of our food and then adding them up. She made up this little game on her own. I told her about how food really does have numbers called calories. She was shocked that something like food is really, actually related to math in real life!

Biking Everywhere

2009-08-16T21:07:00.001-05:00

This is cross-posted at The Midnight Cafe:

We have some friends. Let's call them Mr. & Mrs. Bicycle. They bike everywhere...literally. They have no car, and they live here in this city. They are happy, well-adjusted people with real jobs, and a child. There's a second child on the way, too, by the way. They don't flaunt their no-car status. In fact, it's kind of hard to get them to talk about it. They just live like this, and I completely admire them.

I'm not sure what attracts me the most. Of course, there are the environmental benefits of riding a bike, rather than driving a car. The kind of car driving I tend to do is the absolute worst - city driving, stop and go, quick trips here & there with lots of turning the car off & restarting after a quick errand. I've been aware of this for some time now, though, and it hasn't compelled me to do a whole lot about it. (For which I feel somewhat guilty.)

There are health benefits, too, to be sure. One certainly burns more calories and builds more muscle on a bike than in a car. It actually occurred to me how funny it all is, actually, when you think about it...to sit down and have the car carry you half a mile to the grocery store. Half a mile was easily in the daily or several-times-daily repertoire of our ancestors.

But, still, the health benefits are not the most compelling.

About a week ago I went to Mr. Bicycle's house in the afternoon along with Vespera. She helps him run a bicycle repair and refurbishing business/charity out of his garage a few afternoons a week. Mango & Mane came along. I went because I had a trail-a-bike type apparatus to give to Mr. Bicycle. We all stayed because we'd biked all the way over there, and, well, it seemed like a comfortable place to be. We got our hands dirty repairing a few bikes. Vespera dug right in, knowing exactly what to do and where everything was kept. All kinds of people, from up and down the alley and all through the neighborhood stopped by. Some already knew Mr. Bicycle, and some came to ask a favor or buy a bike because they had been referred by someone else. A few came to practice their Spanish or teach a few words in Somali. It was unhurried, even leisurely.

Yes, that's it. Mr. Bicycle is never, ever in a hurry. In spite of the fact that he must plan all of his trips with extra time for biking (though he is fast), he's somehow never frantic. Maybe, just maybe, cars contribute to our hustle and bustle, hurried lifestyles. We can get somewhere more quickly so we squeeze more into the day and wait until the last possible moment to leave for anywhere. Even I, as planful as I am, often feel hurried, though I'm notorious for being on time or even early. The truth is, being early requires hurrying, too.

Mr. Bicycle said something when we were there in his alley the other day that rings so true, too. He said that he hated the winter until he started biking in it. Imagine that! Most of us, even here in hardy Minnesota, might agree to a 3-season bicycle experiment. But to bike in WINTER? Minnesota Winter? I wouldn't believe it, except that last year all the kids & Mango got snowboards, and I went out on skis, and we had fun in the Minnesota winter. I had been looking on-line for ways to beat the winter blues in MN, and I read somewhere that if you're going to live in the winter in MN, you have to embrace the winter, you have to get OUT into the winter and enjoy it. And how true that we can often find something to embrace when we just stop struggling so hard against it.

Next to not being hurried, I find that I enjoy the simplicity of biking. Mango told me the other day that the bicycle is the most efficient human-powered machine ever invented. That attracts me somehow. If you get around Minneapolis much, you'll see that many people have turned this bicycling simplicity into an art form. Bicyclists are inventive and creative in the ways they find to convey themselves and carry cargo. Very creative, and, yet, still so simple...homemade, backyard solutions. Anybody can learn to fix their own bike. Most people will never learn to fix their own car. And fixing a bike takes a few minutes, maybe an hour. Putting a new transmission in our car took all day.

Mango uses the word "freedom" when talking about riding a bike. He talks about how biking is "coloring outside the lines." It's outside the box, maybe even outside the rat race. It doesn't confine you to following google maps to get to your destination. It frees you from consuming the world's resources, unplugs you from the grid for just a little while. Biking allows you the freedom to stop and say "hello" to your fellow commuter, to not just move from "one climate controlled environment to another" (Mango's words again), but to actually experience the world and interact with it. Biking means being out in the world in a way that you cannot be if you're commuting in a car.

This is what attracts me. It's the simplicity, the living and breathing of real life, the interaction with the world and fellow human beings.

I also love it that Mane sleeps really well at the end of a "biking" day.

So what am I doing about it? As a homeschooling experiment, Mane & I are going to keep track of the errands we run, the places we go every day, and where we could go bike. We're going to keep track of how much we use the car, and how much we use it when we didn't have to use it. It isn't to make anyone feel guilty. It's to raise awareness, to play with the possibilities, to increase our dependence and our freedom. I have blocked out an hour and a half each morning on my extremely flexible homeschool schedule for getting out and getting active. Building biking into the plan will hopefully turn it into a habit...and then a lifestyle.

Summer Reading Program - Take 2

2009-08-16T11:42:00.002-05:00

Mane won a second book in the Minneapolis Public Library's summer reading program! Her book choice this time was Everything on a Waffle:

I'm contemplating whether I should read one to her or save it for when she's doing her own reading.

Mane has been practicing guitar with Mango for the last week! And she's been doing a little bit of the Hooked on Phonics program we picked up for cheap at Borders this week.

Summer Reading

2009-07-17T23:05:00.002-05:00

Minneapolis Public Libraries has a new summer reading program this year! This year, for every book a child reads, they fill out a little form where they write what they liked (or didn't) about the book and draw a picture, and their name goes in a drawing to win a book. And guess what?! Mane made her very first entry this week, and she WON!! Her response? "I had a feeling I was going to win." You gotta love that kind of confidence! So, today, we went to the library, and she got to pick a book from a stack of new books. She chose:

A Walk in the City

2009-06-30T15:09:00.003-05:00

I wanted to post these photos a while ago when Mane & I first started going for walks, but they were on my phone & it took me a while to download them. I always see all these great photos that other homeschoolers take of their "nature walks." I thought I'd show what an urban walk looks like...

Summer Break is Over

2009-06-28T10:14:00.003-05:00

Yep. We took a little break for Vespera's graduation and a family camping trip. Now we're through with summer break.

Mane agreed to do the summer reading program with Borders book store and with Barnes & Noble. And yesterday the librarian gave her a bunch of info on the library summer reading program. Aside from those things, we took out her calendar yesterday & decided to put a sticker on it for every day that she practices reading. If she reads for five days in a row, I agreed to take her on one of the rides at the Mall of America. Yes, I know it's bribery. Yes, I know it's using extrinsic rewards. And, yes, I think we need that kind of motivator right now. Mango & I discussed it & decided to see what happens if she has some very consistent reading practice. We shall see.

This week we'll be reading Paul Revere's Ride and The Declaration of Independence: A Museum in a Book in preparation for the 4th of July.

I taught Mane to play one of my favorite card games: Fluxx, which combines symbol recognition skills with a little bit of reading and some strategy. If anyone else has good game recommendations, I'm all ears!

Psychology

2009-05-29T21:09:00.003-05:00

We woke up & spent an HOUR on math this morning. It wasn't pretty, but we're needing to plow through this stuff. Turns out Mane KNOWS the material and wants to take the test rather than doing all the practice problems. I thought maybe that was the issue, but she wasn't getting that if she just took the test, I'd let her move on and we wouldn't be stuck practicing the same concepts over and over. I think I've communicated that ONE THOUSAND different ways this year. It finally sunk in this morning...after an hour. I wouldn't even make her take the test if she'd consistently demonstrate that she knows something, but she pretends to forget and need help every time we sit down to work on math. She's got some complicated psychology.

After the hour of math, she happily moved on to handwriting. Still loving handwriting.

Then we went outside and planted bushes with Grandma and watered the plants...talked about the water table and how dry it's been. It got so warm that Mane changed into her bathing suit and ran in the sprinkler. We've been hoping for some rain. None yet today.

We came back in and worked on the 100 Words book. Mane used the things she learned in handwriting practice this morning to write out her workbook answers. She's happily working through the 100 Words book right now, very pleased with herself. Seems like we can't be happy with both math and reading at the same time. Right now reading is more fun. Go figure.

I'm trying to reason out my own philosophy of learning. Ideally I'd like to see Mane learn math & reading in real life and have it not be a chore or even a workbook, sit-down activity. On the other hand, I feel like she needs some consistent practice in these areas. I'd like to be sure the practice is fun and practical, but I'm not sure how to make that work without making it WORK. I need some time this summer to really think out how I want to homeschool next year...philosophically and practically.

Oh, and we're still watching that caterpillar munch on leaves in the jar on the kitchen table. No signs of spinning a cocoon, but it's certainly getting fatter. ;)

Conversations

2009-05-28T14:30:00.003-05:00

Mane & I walked to the light rail and back through downtown today to get a "Go To" card for her - a plastic re-loadable bus card. At the light rail station we watched some gophers chase each other up and down under and around the tracks. They stood up on their hind feet to stare at us when they noticed we were looking. What bold little creatures!

On our way to the light rail we talked about all the fruits and vegetable that grow in Minnesota and what we could grow in our yard if we wanted to feed our family. I'm not good at gardening, and my last garden was a gigantic failure, but I just read an article in Mother Earth News about a family that grows all their own food in their yard in the city, and I was inspired. So, Mane and I chatted about it on our way to downtown.

While downtown we visited a coffee shop and talked about God and life and being Pergrins/Pilgrims on a journey to learning and following God. We talked about what it means to serve God and each other, and I told Mane some of the things I especially like about her. She really needs words of affirmation, like Mango. That's a major "love language" for her.

We also had another conversation about DNA, since she has Celiac's disease and she likely gets it from me, though I don't follow a gluten-free diet. She'd really like someone to join her in being gluten free so she took this opportunity to tell me how much better she feels being gluten free.

AND we talked about where sugar comes from and why high fructose corn syrup isn't particularly good for you. I promised that we'd look up some videos on how sugar is made from sugar cane once we got home.

We walked from Nicollet Mall to Government Plaza and stuck our fingers in the fountains. We met a college-aged guy from Boston, who was carrying a huge backpack, and told us he was going to spend his summer working in Ely, MN and in the Boundary Waters. I told him I spent my honeymoon in Ely. He said he was looking for fun & adventure this summer. He seemed so young.

Mane drew faces on the edge of the fountain by dipping her fingers in the water. We talked about why fish wouldn't live in the fountain very well.

On the walk home we talked about how stomping our feet and being angry about loud traffic noises and other nuisances we can't control is a waste of energy, and how we can let things roll off our backs rather than getting all worked up. Mane came up with her own version of that & said she could wiggle it off her back...this she said while wiggling her way down the sidewalk. We both laughed and decided that was a great way to feel better when something is annoying or frustrating.

So, now we're home...contemplating going out in the yard to cut down stray elm trees that are popping up among the peonies.

I'm going to pass off the math homework to Mango tonight while I go with Vespera to an award's banquet. Maybe a fresh face with make the work more fun for Mane.

All in all, the day has already been full with conversation and learning. It's only 2:45pm. Just think what could happen before we get to bed!

We love to walk!

2009-05-27T15:38:00.004-05:00

Lately...since the weather has been more cooperative...we find ourselves walking everywhere. Last week we walked to & from the light rail and all over downtown. Yesterday we took ourselves to the Greenway and over the Martin Sabo bridge. Today we walked to Franklin library & home again. It's SO nice to GET OUT!!

Yesterday Mane and I had a long conversation about puppies and DNA while we were out walking. I find that if I pay attention, every second is a learning opportunity. We also gabbed about all the flowers and bushes we passed along the way. Today we talked about camping, hiking, and getting ourselves in shape for all the climbing we want to do at Whitewater this year...which fits perfectly into our current studies of the heart and lungs.

...yep, we've been checking out the human body some more...namely the heart. Today we checked out a few more books about the heart & some DVDs about the body.

Mane is 1.5 lessons away from completing her math book and totally dragging her feet. We'll get it done.

We're also picking up momentum again in the 100 Words book we've been using for reading. Mane is interested and gaining some fluency. I'm talking with some people about whole word approaches to reading, and I'm implementing some of the strategies. I'm also using the words that Mane is learning in the 100 Words book for her handwriting practice.

Oh, and we're keeping a caterpillar in a jar on the kitchen table in hopes that we'll get to watch it build a cocoon and turn into a butterfly.

We're still reading Ballet Shoes, and I promised Mane that we'd watch the movie once we've finished it. Every time we're out walking I remind her of how Nana took the children out for a walk every morning in the Ballet Shoes book and how good and healthy it is to walk. It's fun to pretend we're children living in England going out for our daily "constitutional."

Mane spent Saturday night at the Farm with her grandparents and our neighbors. She ran around outside and slept like a baby. I'm so glad she has places like that where she can spend time with nature.

Oh, one more thing...We're still reading Story of the World, and we began our studies of ancient India yesterday. Mane is still so in love with Egypt that it's going to be tough to transition her to something else, but I am excited. We looked at India on the map and traced the waterways that connect India to Mesopotamia. We also spent considerable time talking about how traveling by water was the easiest & fastest way to travel with large quantities of goods in the ancient world.

The end.

I want to know everything!

2009-05-14T08:24:00.003-05:00

Mane asked me the other day to tell her "what all the parts of the body do." I guess we're going to be busy for a while.

Seriously, though, this child has been interested in the human body her whole life long. Skeletons don't scare her, and childbirth movies are popcorn-worthy. Recently we were playing at a park with some other homeschool families. It happened to be a vacation day for school children, also. So, the playground was busy. One little boy there had a hooded sweatshirt that zips up over the head & down the face with eye holes in the front, and it was printed with a skeleton. The mom I was with shook her head and commented on how gross that was. She muttered something about how she hoped her daughter wouldn't run into the kid because she'd be terrified. Guess who Mane thought was the coolest kid on the playground? Yup. You guess it. Skeleton-boy. She LOVES this stuff. Sooooo, we're going to run with it right now and see where we end up.

Yesterday we found pictures of the human heart for her school notebook. We read some about how the heart works, and she watched some youtube videos on the heart. Youtube is so fun!

Aside from that, Mane took MUS test 28 yesterday. She has the concepts down for the rest of MUS Alpha. Now it's just a matter of practice.

Mane sat on the floor and painted with Vespera & Novio yesterday afternoon while I read Story of the World (SOTW) chapter 8 to her (them?). I'm not as impressed with SOTW as I was to begin with, but it works well as a basic framework. It starts out reading like a story, but it quickly turns into a regular history book. It's a good framework, though, and I have a very poor foundation in history. So, I need this...a jumping off point.

The painting was a good lesson by itself, though. Mane learns quite a lot from watching the older two paint. She copied some of the work Novio was doing and compared the work of all three of them. She went around giving complements and making observations. It does wonders for her social development to spend some time participating in their activities, and it strengthens the relationships between them.

Now I need to order Five in a Row (FIAR) volume 2. We never found our missing copy, and I let FIAR slide while we worked on SOTW after Christmas. Now I miss it, and I want to go back, especially for the summer.

Astronomy

2009-05-12T13:04:00.002-05:00

This week we started out by watching the youtube videos from this blog post: How Great IS Our God. This post is over at If Life is a Highway, where I also write occasionally. Mane has always been super interested in astronomy. So, this was a chance to talk about how big the universe is, how far away the stars are, how BIG God is, AND ALSO how intricately complicated the human body is...how the God who made the whole big universe also looked into the itty bitty details that make people. They're good videos, good science, good theology. I'd recommend them.

I love it when homeschooling is a conversation. When Mane is still asking questions hours and days later. When whatever we've studied comes up in every day life. I love it when learning just happens out of our natural curiosity. This is the way we learn best. What we learned about stars yesterday came up again today, and we spent another long time discussing astronomy.

We also spent some time last week and this week putting together a dollhouse and some dollhouse furniture that Mane got for her birthday. Her ability to identify pieces and put them together is really quite remarkable. I could see her doing really well with geometry. I guess I better start studying now!

I can feel the year winding down. We've been spending way more time outside, and I'm pushing "academic" work less. I'm guessing we'll pick up some of that work again when it's too hot outside to play this summer. We'll have two weeks when Mango is gone to Baltimore this summer, too, and I'll plan some Five in a Row for those weeks to keep us busy. I"m enjoying the flexibility to enjoy the weather, and Mane's been enjoying bug collecting. She even found a bunch of SNAILS by the garage in the yard out back. Who would have thought. Next time I'll take pictures. ;)

Albert and other things...

2009-05-01T11:30:00.002-05:00

We've been rowing Albert by Donna Jo Napoli. In the story, Albert is an eccentric young guy who puts his hand out the window each morning to check the weather and see if it's a good day for a walk. Each day something just isn't quite right, and Albert decides to stay inside, not to mention that he finds some of the noises outside (garbage trucks and people arguing) quite disturbing. Then one day a cardinal builds a nest in his outstretched hand. Albert is forced to live for some days with his hand out the window. He learns to manage his fear of the frightening outside sounds and helps the last baby bird overcome its fear of flying.

This book is so rich with possible study topics that we've been totally absorbed for the last few weeks. We read a book about wings, and Mane drew this picture of an animal, other than a bird, with wings:

Because Albert was especially observant of sounds, we learn about ears. We used to subject of ears as a jumping off point for taking a look at all of the five senses, and we connected that to our previous studies of the nervous system and nerve cells:

One day we sat at Starbucks and wrote a list of all the sounds we heard. Then we wrote onomatopoeia for all the sounds:

Mane has continued to read "incidentally" all over the place. I looked over a book of what's on the standardized reading test for 1st graders and realized that she already meets 1st grade "standards." So, I'm letting the reading rest a bit...again. Ever since I let go of more formal reading lessons, she's been reading more on her own. I was prompted to relax a little but some reading I did about how pushing a child to read before their eyes are developed enough for reading can create dyslexia and a need for glasses. So, while I do some research on that, I'm going to stop pushing.

Yesterday Mane took test 27 in Math U See...just 3 more lessons to go, and we'll be done with Alpha! I'm learning some things about how to make learning more relaxed for Mane. I really don't want her to lose her love of math, but she's getting more and more resistant to workbooks. So, I read the math questions to her. She did the math in her head and gave me the answer. I wrote the answers down. Somehow this made her entirely happy to do the math test. Later I told her story problems, and she worked them out either in her head or with the math blocks. Story problems are really the only math problems worth doing according to Mane. So, I'm creating more story problems. I create story problems around the math problems in her book, and she happily supplies me with the answers.

I've been making observations lately of Mane's ability to tell time and count money. Interestingly, we've done very little formal work on those two things, but Mane has learned all the basics this year. One word for that: unschool. It's amazing what kids are learning when we aren't formally teaching.

The week in review...

2009-04-17T13:26:00.003-05:00

Mane has been picking up books and reading them ON HER OWN! Shhhhhh...don't tell anybody. She doesn't think anyone has noticed.

Mango spent some time doing math with Mane this week. It was good time for them. Mane loves to spend time with Mango, and he loves knowing what to do with that time. She took test 26 yesterday, and I think we're going to slow down again, reviewing the math facts, the rules and procedures. We only have 4 lessons left in Alpha, and we've got plenty of time to get them done before the end of the year.

On Monday we had a playdate with another homeschool family. The mom was my high school Spanish teacher. She now has a daughter just a year older than Mane, and they homeschool. The girls had a fantastic time together, and it was fun for me to catch up with my old (not so old) teacher.

Tuesday I did our taxes while Mane listened to All-of-a-Kind Family on itunes. Later in the day I took out our co-op newsletter and a free local magazine called Edible Twin Cities. Who knew you could homeschool out of these little publications? We read an article about the Schultz family farm. We buy Schultz eggs at the co-op. Mane saw a picture of Larry Schultz, and then went to see his name on our egg cartons! Then we read an article on maple syrup. The article had info about how syrup is made, as well as some statistics about the states where most maple syrup comes from, and the MN maple syrup producers.

Wednesday we went to Bible Study, and in the evening we went biking around the block. Mane has been outside for several hours every day this week, and we're all so happy for the warm weather and fresh air!

Yesterday we went to the MN Orchestra to see Casey at the Bat, a program on the connection between music and sports. Afterward we went to Chipotle for lunch and then walked down to the library where we found 2 bilingual books at the library bookstore, including The Gullywasher, a book we needed for Five in a Row. In the evening we read Albert, the book we're going to be rowing for the next week or so.

Today Mane took her scooter (and I ran along behind) to the doctor's office. We're still trying to sort out some allergy & arsenic issues. Since then she's been listening to On the Banks of Plum Creek on itunes.

Handwriting

2009-04-02T13:34:00.002-05:00

Mane LOVES handwriting. This really ought to come as no surprise for me. Reading has been tough for her, but she's been writing ever since she could hold a writing utensil. She's been asking me how to spell things for her ever since she could understand that letters join together to form words. The house is full of samples of her writing. When we began the StartWrite handwriting program I was thinking it would be tedious for her, and I didn't know how well she would like it. I should have known, though. The idea of writing fancy makes her exceedingly pleased. She's learning italic cursive right now, but I have a feeling she may actually learn more than one type of handwriting over time. She entreats me to write things in "real" cursive for her now. I have been teaching her one letter at a time, but I finally printed out a page for her today with all the letters because she wanted to write a story and wanted to see how to do ALL the letters.

The Run-Down from Last Week

2009-03-30T10:34:00.003-05:00

Although last week wasn't quite as full as the week before, we felt comfortably busy. On Thursday we drove Mango & Vespera to school so that we could have the car for the day. We spent some time at a coffee shop. Mane took the test for math lesson 25, moved along in the 100 words book, and read me some more of the Berenstain Bears Honey Hunt story. Then I read to her from Story of the World. We read the story of Joseph from the Bible and saw how it fit with this place in history, and we also read The Golden Sandal: A Middle Eastern Cinderella Story. This story is set in Mesopotamia, the region of the world we're studying right now. I like parts of it better than the traditional Cinderella story. It's interesting, too, that we just saw a ballet of Cinderella. So, we're getting lots of practice comparing and contrasting the different stories.

In the afternoon, we met up with another homeschooling family at the Carl W. Kroening Interpretive Center in Minneapolis. The building doesn't look all that beautiful from the outside, but it's a wonderful place inside. There are various activities for kids, including aprons and baskets of plastic foods to pretend Farmer's Market. We were there to watch the birds out the window, but, apparently, there had just been a group of people at the Interpretive Center, and the birds were hiding out. So, we walked through the animal room, which had a bunch of aquariums with different types of turtles (and a centipede - yuck!). Mane says her favorite part was playing with the Farmer's Market and pretending to drive the old car they have set up in the middle of the room. I should have taken photos. I guess there'll have to be a next time, no?

The homeschooling family we met up with has 2 girls, one younger and one older than Mane. The younger girl invited Mane to her birthday party in a few weeks. The two of them are very similar in personality, and they are separated in age by just a year. We picked out a birthday present for her over the weekend, and we're looking forward to getting to visit their house since they've already been to ours.

After the Interpretive Center, we headed over to Sumner Library in North Minneapolis to bide our time until we needed to pick Mango & Vespera up from school. We checked out some books on spring and maple syrup.

Over the weekend we participated in Earth Hour (see the previous post here at Peregrin House), and we also spent about an hour at Borders book store checking out their bargain book sale. Mane and Mango sat down and looked through huge books about Egypt, which was a perfect reinforcement of all we've been learning. I picked out a book called The Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Aztec & Maya. I love having real books to reference as we learn history, and learning about the history of Mexico is something we've been wanting to study for some time now. The Aztec and Maya people are in the later part of our Story of the World book. So, I'm getting ready to make it a really great unit. We also picked out a book of poetry that came with a CD of the poets reading their own poems. Mane was fascinated to hear Robert Frost reading Stopping By the Woods on a Snowy Evening, since we have the picture book, and Mane knows the poem well.

As spring comes, I'm definitely feeling more energetic, and I'm starting to look at what homeschooling over the summer might mean for us. I have more energy in the summer, and I'm wondering if we shouldn't do more focused learning in the summer than we've done in the past. ...and then I might feel less pressured in the winter when we just want to sit by the fire and read books.

Earth Hour 2009

2009-03-30T10:30:00.001-05:00

This post is cross-posted at The Midnight Cafe, my non-homeschooling blog...

Saturday night we participated in Earth Hour. We turned off the lights from 8:30-9:30pm and sat around the kitchen table telling stories with grandma & grandpa, who live upstairs. Mango set a recorder on the table, and now we have some fabulous recordings of grandma and grandpa telling stories. Mane was enchanted by the candles and by the quiet, warm atmosphere. It really was beautiful and made us want to have Earth Hour every night.

However, on Sunday morning we spent some time researching the carbon emissions of candles or oil lanterns versus electric light bulbs, and we found that even a single candle may give off more carbon than a 60 watt light bulb. Mango says we need to stick with using candles only occasionally for ambiance. They're not a better environmental alternative. What *is* a better alternative is turning off lights whenever we don't need them, unplugging cell phone chargers when they're not in use, turning off the computer when we're not using it, turning off the receiver amp when we aren't listening to music, and using the city bus and our bicycles more.

Mane spent some time on the Earth Hour Kids website, and then we watched a NOVA movie on global warming and more energy efficient choices. We heard all about electric cars, solar panels, wind farms, and reforestation. The options are all so expensive right now, and, with kids, we have to focus on the things that are within our reach. So, we're helping Mane remember things like turning off lights and reminding her that if we all work together, we can make a difference, which was a key message of Earth Hour.

We also spent some time reading about how a group called Engineers Without Borders is working on helping to replace oil lanterns in developing countries with solar powered LED lanterns. It's a good example of how technology can be used to reverse some of the negative effects that earlier technology created...and how environmental concerns interplay with world economics and poverty. Because people in developing countries are less likely to have electricity, they're more likely to use kerosene lanterns, and this contributes to health problems from soot and carbon monoxide, as well as the more global problem of greenhouse gases and global warming. The article we read even pointed out how reading is difficult with less light, making it harder for children to get an education, and, if they do read by the light of the kerosene lantern, they're more likely to get sick from the lantern emissions. It's strange how something as simple as lighting can have such a huge effect.

What struck me most about Earth Hour, though, was the number of places where lights seem to serve very little purpose, yet it was such a huge deal to turn them off Saturday night. Of special note was the Coca Cola billboard in New York. Do we really need to light up billboards at night? Isn't it enough to see them in the daylight? Also, several bridges, including the Golden Gate Bridge, turned off their "decorative" lights, leaving only the necessary lights to help people drive safely. What are we doing leaving all those lights on all the time anyway? The lights were turned off on the pyramids in Egypt, the Colosseum in Rome, and the Eiffel Tower. I can understand lights for security reasons, but the sheer volume of lights is questionable. It left me wondering how much we could "save" in terms of CO2 emissions if we all gave some hard and careful thoughts to which lights are really necessary.

We seem to honor things by lighting them all day and all night (the pyramids, for example, and the statue of the Virgin Mary in Rio de Janeiro), which raises a myriad of other questions for me. Why? Why do we do that? Do we think the pyramids know they're being honored with lights all night long? Why is it so disrespectful for them to sit in darkness? Perhaps they want to rest at night, too. I don't have such a hard time thinking about turning the lights off on the pyramids, but I cringe to think about turning them off on the Vietnam Memorial Wall in Washington D.C. (I have no idea if the lights were turned off on monuments in D.C., by the way). Why is that? Why do a feel that it's disrespectful to turn out the lights on the list of names? It's not really. It doesn't dishonor the dead to let the names rest a while, especially when nobody is there and the people have left this life long ago.

Earth Hour gave us plenty to think about. I have at least three other blog posts floating around in my head, but this seemed the simplest to get down in type right now. If this is simple, I don't know how I'll ever get to the rest. ;) ...stay tuned...

A full day

2009-03-24T19:54:00.004-05:00

Creative title, eh? Seems like all days are full days lately.

We started the day reading from the Berenstain Bears book, The Big Honey Hunt.

Mane is TOTALLY into reading now that she can read Berenstain Bears herself. Who'd-a-thunk?

We found out that we can check out Sesame Street episodes in Spanish from the library. So, we did that, and Mane watched one this morning. She spent the rest of the day going around naming the colors in Spanish. I'm seeing that she's still at a prime age for language learning, and I'm trying very hard to keep us on track learning a little Spanish each day. (It's been 3 days now.)

We kept working on lesson 25 in MUS. Mane has successfully mastered the 10's and 9's families for addition, and she knows how to turn subtraction problems into addition problems. Now that she's worked out how to turn the math upside down, and she's memorized 9's, 10's and doubles, she's ready to finish out the Alpha math book.

We started word group 3 in the 100 words book.

Then we read about the 1st Sumerian dictator in Story of the World and about Abraham. Tomorrow we'll read about Joseph, and we'll spend the rest of the week teasing out some details from this part of history. I love it that Story of the World includes the Bible stories. Mane can see how the Bible fits into history and how the Bible is a true story, too.

We read our history stuff on the bus on the way to Vespera's badminton game. Mane ran around at the game, and now she's playing happily with paper dolls at my feet.

Phew. What a day.

In the name of keeping up the blog...

2009-03-23T14:58:00.005-05:00

I'll post that we started lesson 25 in MUS!! AND I explained multiplication and division to Mane this morning. What fun!

Mane started the day watching a Reading Rainbow episode about music and orchestras as a follow-up to us going to the orchestra last week.

She finished the second word group in the 100 words books, and she read me the book that comes at the end of that section. I still worry about her reading, but it seems that she's learning.

We're still using StartWrite for handwriting. Mane has practiced letter a, b, c, d, and e, and she's learned to join those various letters together into words. We're learning italic cursive. I'm learning, too, since I learned traditional cursive to begin with.

Then we read Storm Run by Libby Riddles. She's the first woman who ever won the Iditarod, and the book is about her life and, particularly, about the time she won the Iditarod.

Last week we finished spelling Iditarod in character qualities/vocabulary words:

I = Innovation
D = Diligenace
I = Integrity
T = Teamwork
A = Attitude
R = Respect
O = Optimism
D = Determination

We'll be transitioning out of Iditarod this week and picking up Story of the World again. And we've been doing some short Spanish lessons. Finally.

The Orchestra & The Ballet

2009-03-20T19:46:00.002-05:00

I can't believe it was 3 days ago that I last wrote. Our days have been very, very full. Mane and I have had long conversations and internet searches about cells, cancer, and how babies are made. YES, we had that conversation again. Apparently she didn't remember it from the first 2 times we covered how babies are made. This time she asked how the sperm and the egg get together. I told her, and she said, "Wow. You have to hug really close to do that." THEN we talked about how this is something we don't tell other kids, just like we don't tell them that there is no Santa and no Easter Bunny and no Tooth Fairy. She was cool with that.

Then we went to the MN Orchestra concert Meet the Orchestra on Thursday. They asked everyone to put their cameras away. Mane whispered to me, "But I don't have to put my notebook away," and she proceeded to sketch pictures of the orchestra instruments just as quickly as she could in leau of taking photos.

Today we went to the Bloomington Center for the Arts and saw The Continental Ballet Company perform Cinderella. It was truly wonderful. Mane really enjoyed the whole thing, in spite of the fact that the ballet story has no words. The entire story was communicated (quite effectively, I might add) by music and dance.

The Iditarod, Cancer & Cells

2009-03-17T13:47:00.003-05:00

We've continued to follow the Iditarod race, keep stats on the 4 mushers we're following, and learn the character qualities that spell Iditarod:

I = Innovation
D = Diligence
I = Integrity
T = Teamwork
A = Attitude
R = Respect

Along with that, we've been talking about DeeDee Jonrowe's fight against cancer and Heather Siirtola's mother, who is also fighting cancer. This led to a discussion of cells, cell growth, and what keeps cells healthy. Mane already knows a fair amount about cells from talking and looking at books with Mango. Right now, as I type, she's drawing pictures of different types of cells in her school notebook. I'm amazed at where our interests take us as we follow the Iditarod each year.