Make your own Bubble Tea!

After a trek to two different Asian grocery stores, we came home to make our very own bubble tea! Mane was pining after some good bubble tea after standing out in the hot sun this morning. She's a particular fan of mango smoothies with lychees jellies and tapioca pearls. I'm not a fan of spending $4 for a beverage at the bubble tea place. So, we set out to have a cultural cooking experience and make our own!

Our first stop was Shuang Hur Oriental Market on Nicollet Avenue. (This is where we bought banana leaves to wrap the lembas for Mane's Lord of the Rings birthday party.) We found lychee jellies at Shuang Hur. Here's Mane dropping them in mango orange juice (not quite a mango smoothie, but still very yummy):

Clearly, we have enough lychee jellies to last us for quite some time! We could not find tapioca pearls at Shuang Hur, though. So, we headed over to United Noodles, right off Franklin and Cedar. There we found, not only tapioca pearls, but also a giant assortment of tea, Chinese herbs, sauce, rice noodles, incense, curry, etc, etc, etc... We came home with rice wine for marinading chicken, bok choy, ginger, and snap peas. Mango is planning to do some cooking tomorrow!

Multi-Colored Tapioca Pearls!

We are looking forward to visiting United Noodles again very soon! Shuang Hur was smaller and had a meat market that didn't smell so great. They are still totally the place to go if you need banana leaves or if you want to see a live lobster. But for a bigger, cleaner store, we recommend United Noodles, which smelled a lot like black licorice...

Power of Play

I recently finished reading Free to Learn by Peter Gray. The book's subtitle says it all: "Why Unleashing the Instinct to Play Will Make Our Children Happier, More Self-Reliant, and Better Students for Life." The book has a very unschool-y bent, as it features the democratic school of Sudbury Valley. I don't "buy in" to unschooling, as it has been presented to me, though I've had a couple of other people state that they view us as unschooling. I don't see it that way, since we use curriculum, and I have certain expectations for covering material each week. On the other hand, I work for Mane's "buy-in" with the curriculum. I try something else if the thing we're doing is making her hate the subject matter.

But I do "buy in" to the power of play. Mane has clearly had artistic potential from a very young age. I've signed her up for art classes from time to time, and she's enjoyed them. BUT, she hasn't taken time with her artwork. She hasn't focused on creating a finished product that is truly the best she can do. She simply hasn't been interested. She wants to have fun and didn't see a lot of point in doing a great deal of work to turn out a masterpiece. Until Recently. Recently, she and her friends have developed a fantasy play game that they play regularly when they get together, and they needed a "blueprint" for a bronze dragon. Mane spent the better part of a day drawing a dragon blueprint, using the book cover of one of the Percy Jackson books and several images off the internet. I was totally impressed by what she turned out. I honestly didn't know she had THAT kind of potential. Once it fell into the category of fun, she far exceeded what I even thought was possible. I've also been seeing her read...and read...and read because she wants fodder for the same play mentioned in the above paragraph. Play is fueling her "work."

In Pictures

Studying Math & Geometry Concepts

Spread out the Presidents Timeline on Election Day

Adding to the History Timeline in the Sunroom/School Room

Christmas Craft - Middle School

Christmas Craft - Preschool

Bead Snowflakes

Chilly morning at Peregrin House

Family Story

We spent spring break with my mom, who was on her 3rd of 4 rounds of chemotherapy. She taught Mane to customize clipboards:

 

 

And then Mane read stories to Grandma when she was tired at night...

 

We went for a walk (run?) at the nearby county park while Grandma took a nap in the afternoon...

 

And observed all the signs of early spring here in MN...

 

We had a little science lesson about Fens...

 

And we spent hours and hours talking about family history with Grandma. We dragged out the binders Grandma has full of information on hers and Grandpa's families. We started those binders back when I was in 4th grade! We looked at old birth, marriage & baptism certificates, letters from WWII, newspaper clippings, and photos. And we took Mane to visit the cemetery where Grandma's parents are buried, along with 2 of Grandma's siblings, an aunt & uncle, and my cousin's husband. We took photos of the gravestones to add to our family history binder.

 

I have a feeling that Mane will remember this spring break for a very long time. She flew kites with Mango, got a remote controlled helicopter delivered to Grandma & Grandpa's P.O. Box in their little town, ran around outside A LOT, listened to stories, camped out in the living room, did craft projects, invented new games, crocheted, went to bed early, got up early... I'm glad we have the freedom and flexibility to take off and spend a week with Grandma!

Life Lessons

The last few months have brought us:

Visits to the library that made us feel like we were in the Griffindor Common Room...

 

Two visits to the History Center for the 1968 Exhibit (one on our own & one with Mango and the grandparents, who felt that there should be chairs for them to sit in and be part of the display also)...

 

A trip to the Minneapolis Institute of Art with friends to celebrate The Year of the Dragon...

An afternoon at the FIRST Robotics Competition...

...And a whole lot of experience working with people and businesses! Mane has accompanied me to my place of employment, where I was the temporary manager while the owners were out of town for a month. She learned to greet people, make polite conversation, attend to small requests, and anticipate the needs of both the employees and the customers. She was a great help, and this was a fantastic opportunity for her to learn what the management of a small business looks like. She was right there with me while I was answering calls, scheduling appointments, ordering supplies, cleaning, organizing, and problem-solving!

Mane has also launched her own small business designing and building custom computers for people. She and Mango have built her website over the last several months, and last night they delivered her first computer to her first customer! It took them about 2 weeks to work with their client, set the budget, research the component options, order the parts, and build the computer.  Mane explained the various internal components of a computer to me yesterday. Mango supervised the building of the computer, but she did all the work herself.  

NOT back to school

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!

Neighbors

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...

 

Back Yard Homeschooling

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...

Beginning

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

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....

Clocks, American History, and Bird Watching

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.

********************************

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!

********************************

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!!

One on One

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.

Goals, Deadlines, and Planning

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!)

Slow Blog

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

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

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.

Weaving

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. ;)

Odds & Ends

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

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

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.