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.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Earth Hour 2009
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...
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...
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
A full day
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.
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.
Monday, March 23, 2009
In the name of keeping up the blog...
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.
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.
Friday, March 20, 2009
The Orchestra & The Ballet
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.
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.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
The Iditarod, Cancer & Cells
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.
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.
Friday, March 13, 2009
The Last Great Race
We at Peregrin House have been following The Last Great Race: The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in Alaska. This is our 3rd year following, and, as usual, there are so many directions we could go with our homeschooling days, using the Iditarod as a jumping off point. This year we're working on character traits (and the associated vocabulary words) of people who enter the race and of the people who ran the first race to Nome carrying the serum that would save the townspeople from diphtheria. We're following Zuma's Paw Prints: Official Canine Reporter for the Iditarod. Zuma has an article for a character trait for each letter of the word Iditarod. So far we've gone over the first 2 letters.
I = Innovation
D = Diligence
Mane is learning the words and hearing stories from the Iditarod about each of the traits. She's also made pages in her notebook for each of the mushers we're following in the race (all women, by the way):
Jessie Royer,
DeeDee Jonrowe,
Melissa Owens, and
Heather Siirtola.
This our third year following Jessie Royer and our second year following Melissa Owens. Melissa Owens is only 19 years old. Her first Iditarod was last year. I have informally followed DeeDee Jonrowe both years. So, I decided to keep a stat sheet on her this year, and that means that Mane is following, too. And Mane wanted to follow a 3rd musher just for fun. So, she chose Heather Siirtola. Heather is running the race this year in dedication to her mother, who has been fighting cancer for the last 18 years.
We've been talking lots about how this race, particularly, is not so much about racing and winning. It's about endurance, perseverance, dedication, planning, and just plain fun.
I = Innovation
D = Diligence
Mane is learning the words and hearing stories from the Iditarod about each of the traits. She's also made pages in her notebook for each of the mushers we're following in the race (all women, by the way):
Jessie Royer,
DeeDee Jonrowe,
Melissa Owens, and
Heather Siirtola.
This our third year following Jessie Royer and our second year following Melissa Owens. Melissa Owens is only 19 years old. Her first Iditarod was last year. I have informally followed DeeDee Jonrowe both years. So, I decided to keep a stat sheet on her this year, and that means that Mane is following, too. And Mane wanted to follow a 3rd musher just for fun. So, she chose Heather Siirtola. Heather is running the race this year in dedication to her mother, who has been fighting cancer for the last 18 years.
We've been talking lots about how this race, particularly, is not so much about racing and winning. It's about endurance, perseverance, dedication, planning, and just plain fun.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Routine
Finally...FINALLY, we have a minimalist routine around here. We've been needing one for a long time, and I'm finally figuring out how to make it happen. It isn't rocket science, people, but I need some organization. It isn't because Mane isn't learning anything. It's that I feel scattered and have a hard time planning if there's no routine. I've resisted routine up to this point, but now that it's here, it's helping.
So, right away after breakfast we get dressed and do a half hour of some kind of reading work. Then there's math, with some cool new blocks. And then we read from Story of the World or some book associated with whatever we're covering in Story of the World. In the afternoon I read aloud to Mane in the sunroom, and I'm working on adding one more session of reading work on the days when we have time.
And, by the way, reading is HAPPENING. I mean, it's still slow, but I'm definitely seeing progress. Mane is reading some of the Berenstain Bears early readers now, which are a huge step up from the Bob Books.
We haven't rowed any books for the last month, and I'm planning to add that back into the afternoons. History seemed to take the place of rowing for a while because, in doing history, we've also covered a fair amount of science, geography, social studies, etc... I'm not sure what book we'll be rowing next, but I think it won't be until after the Iditarod Sled Dog Race. During the race, we'll be reading books and doing activities related to the race somehow while following some mushers and watching the video clips.
Today I sat at a coffee shop with Mane and the math blocks and we practiced some subtraction. Then we went over counting by 2's again and talked about odd and even numbers. I had her practice adding doubles in her head. And I had her practice counting backwards from various starting points. I'm starting to see how her brain works on these things, and about all I can say is that she's a lot different from me, and I'm learning a whole lot, too.
While driving in the car we had a long talk about what credit cards are and how they work. Last week, while in the car, we ended up talking about how it works to pay interest on things. Mango has been helping Mane count money, too. So, I guess we're having some little economics lessons on the side.
Tonight Mane played math bingo with me, and then she hung out in the living room listening to Little House in the Big Woods on i-tunes. She's now got quite a collection of her own books and stories on i-tunes. It keeps her entertained for hours when she's allowed to select her own stuff.
And, yes, I'm still working on getting some more Spanish and art into the routine. I don't know why homeschoolers ever claim to have more time than anyone else. ;)
So, right away after breakfast we get dressed and do a half hour of some kind of reading work. Then there's math, with some cool new blocks. And then we read from Story of the World or some book associated with whatever we're covering in Story of the World. In the afternoon I read aloud to Mane in the sunroom, and I'm working on adding one more session of reading work on the days when we have time.
And, by the way, reading is HAPPENING. I mean, it's still slow, but I'm definitely seeing progress. Mane is reading some of the Berenstain Bears early readers now, which are a huge step up from the Bob Books.
We haven't rowed any books for the last month, and I'm planning to add that back into the afternoons. History seemed to take the place of rowing for a while because, in doing history, we've also covered a fair amount of science, geography, social studies, etc... I'm not sure what book we'll be rowing next, but I think it won't be until after the Iditarod Sled Dog Race. During the race, we'll be reading books and doing activities related to the race somehow while following some mushers and watching the video clips.
Today I sat at a coffee shop with Mane and the math blocks and we practiced some subtraction. Then we went over counting by 2's again and talked about odd and even numbers. I had her practice adding doubles in her head. And I had her practice counting backwards from various starting points. I'm starting to see how her brain works on these things, and about all I can say is that she's a lot different from me, and I'm learning a whole lot, too.
While driving in the car we had a long talk about what credit cards are and how they work. Last week, while in the car, we ended up talking about how it works to pay interest on things. Mango has been helping Mane count money, too. So, I guess we're having some little economics lessons on the side.
Tonight Mane played math bingo with me, and then she hung out in the living room listening to Little House in the Big Woods on i-tunes. She's now got quite a collection of her own books and stories on i-tunes. It keeps her entertained for hours when she's allowed to select her own stuff.
And, yes, I'm still working on getting some more Spanish and art into the routine. I don't know why homeschoolers ever claim to have more time than anyone else. ;)
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