Bows & Arrows

We've been studying the Middle Ages this year with Story of the World. Mane spent some time listening to the stories of Robin Hood, and we decided to make some bows and arrows when we had a friend over one afternoon!

 

  

We followed a combination of instructions. If you're interested, check out these links:

ikatbag

The Stuff of Success 

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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!)

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.

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.

Unschool

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!!

Johnny Appleseed

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

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.

We love to walk!

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.

The Run-Down from Last Week

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.

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.

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. ;)

Pyramids, Mummies and other things

We seemed to be immersed in ancient Egypt. Mane drew a picture of a mummy yesterday while I read to her about the pyramids from the Magic Tree House book. In the evening she looked for the pyramids on google earth with Mango. Oh the technology at our fingertips! She correctly identified Egypt, the Nile River, and the Nile River Delta on the map. This child totally loves maps.

Tomorrow we'll be finishing Word Group 1 from the 100 Words Kids Need to Read by 1st Grade book. I've been having Mane read the entire workbook, not just the target words. So, she's gaining proficiency. It's helping her handwriting, too. ...though I'm hoping to begin real handwriting instruction once our printer is fixed next week. I'm planning to teach her italic cursive using StartWrite by Draw Your World. I read that the second half of 1st grade is a good time to start formal handwriting instruction. So, that's my plan. StartWrite allows you to create your own worksheets. So, I'll be using words that Mane is learning to read or things she's working on memorizing.

Math has suddenly taken a nosedive. I'm thinking that Math U See is a pretty dry curriculum and Mane is bored. I'm troubleshooting with Mango to figure out how to keep up her interest. She's so kinesthetic and is too smart to go for many learning games (because she realizes they're trying to teach her something, and then it's not fun any more).

The Week in Review

I thought I'd sum up the last week, as I haven't had much time to write.

...so, last week Mane & I decided it was time to begin tackling "school" first thing in the morning. This means that we do math & reading right away. And then we move on to Story of the World and Five in a Row. It rubs against my philosophy a little, but I'm finding that we both need more structure, and I'm not sure how else to do it right now. I don't think I'd make a very successful "true" unschooler.

Anyway, Mane has been working through a book called, "100 Words Kids Need to Read by First Grade." This is fairly simple work. Mane knows about 75% of the words already. She needs something to be quick and successful right now, though, and this is doing the trick. The book has fun pictures and games. She also continues to work her way through the Bob books. I find her doing more incidental reading these days or signs and labels. It gives me hope that the reading is coming, albeit slowly.

For math Mane is nearly finished with lesson 21. I might even get her to finish it up today so that we can start the new school week fresh.

We've been reading about Egypt in Story of the World. Mane drew side by side maps of Africa and Egypt, and then she drew an arrow to show where Egypt is on the map of Africa. Her drawing skills continually amaze me. We looked up how to write her name in Hieroglyphs, too, and she copied that down off the computer screen. We've done a lot of talking about Egyptian gods & goddesses. I'm finding that, although I want to teach Mane to be gentle with people of differing belief systems, the idea of so many gods is just outright silly to her. It makes for some interesting conversation.

We've been reading from:



and...



On Tuesday we met up with the homeschooling group that we met way last fall. Mane had a great time, and we invited some people over to our house to watch birds with us in a few weeks. Looks like we're on our way to making some homeschool friends.

On Wednesday i had a friend over with her 2 year old, and she and Mane stood at the sink and washed dishes for about an hour. What fun! On Friday we had more friends over with all their little preschoolers. So, we had a fine week of socializing. I have a niggling feeling we didn't get enough "work" done, but, then again, the work can be made up and the socializing can't.

ASIMO Robot & Egypt

Have you all met ASIMO? http://asimo.honda.com/ Mane and I were reading more about Japan - about how they eat a lot of fish and rice, and they're know for being the world leaders in robot technology. We discovered ASIMO, which is a humanoid robot made buy Honda, and we happily spent about an hour reading and watching youtube videos of ASIMO. This led to long conversations of whether robots can really "think" and how difficult it is to program things like walking.



We also read chapter 2 of Story of the World about early Egypt, the red crown, the white crown, and the double crown. We found Egypt, the Nile river, and the Nile delta on the world map, too. Today we'll read some supplementary books about Egypt and add some things to the history binder about Egypt.

Next week Mane will be staying with her grandparents while we go to Mexico. So, Peregrin House will be kind of quiet. I think they'll do some math & reading together and probably check out some of the library books from the library book bag in our living room about Egypt & Valentine's Day.

Magnet Board!!

Today we played around a bunch more with the magnet board. We've essentially gone through lesson 73 in the Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading. Mane was already familiar with silent "e" and most of the two-letter words. She read the first Bob Book from set C, also, which begins working with silent "e" words and a few more sight words.

It seems that the magnet board is really the way to go. Mane has always been a kinesthetic learner. So, it's no surprise that manipulating letters on a board is both more fun for her and helps her to learn better. She can stick with a lesson a lot longer, too.



Here she is working on a food pyramid:


And our timeline:


The trouble is that now we need the timeline to go way, WAY back, and we only went back to A.D.!

In keeping with our studies of nomads & ancient culture we read the book One Small Blue Bead by Byrd Baylor today:


It's the story/poem of a boy who volunteers to take over the work of an older man in his tribe while the man goes off to look for other tribes of people. The boy's tribe doesn't believe other people exist, but the boy dreams of there being other people out there. There's quite a bit of historical information in the story about hunting and nomadic life. It was a fitting read for our current studies.

Math, Reading & Nomads

The title about covers it! Mane watched the DVD for math lesson 19 yesterday, did one practice page, and took the test today. She's amazing. Then she read me a book called Bears, Bears Everywhere by Rookie Readers and played with her bears for a loooooooong time.

Later in the day we started reading Story of the World. We finished chapter 1, which we had already read when we first bought the book last year. I was amazed at how much Mane remembered from the first reading. I guess she found it interesting! I asked her the review questions out of the activity book to be sure she understood the story. Then she colored a map of the fertile crescent. We defined the words "fertile" and "nomad."

Not much else to say. Today we'll be covering more about what the nomads and early people ate and then talking about the food pyramid.

New Year

I'm sitting here tonight in my big green chair next to the fireplace making plans for the new year. We're somewhere around halfway through first grade...whatever that means...and there are some new things we're getting ready to start. Mane's grandparents very graciously gave us the activity guide that accompanies Story of the World for Christmas, and, so, we're going to slowly begin walking our way through history...chronologically. Until now we've hit on a variety of historical facts and persons - presidents, the first airplanes, Laura Ingalls Wilder, 4th of July, various saints (Valentine & Patrick, for example), the pilgrims & the Mayflower, Jamestown, slavery & the civil war. Now we're getting ready to begin at the beginning. We'll still be rowing books and talking through the historical events surrounding the books. Story of the World will just be a new addition to the weekly studies.

Alongside those things, we're planning to spend more time in Bible stories, Spanish, and poetry. Fridays have been deemed "hot chocolate day" at our house. I think we'll begin reading poetry, doing some artwork, and listening to classical music along with our hot chocolate! I'm excited for that. Yum. Nourish the body, nourish the soul.

Today I also procured tickets to a Sweet Honey in the Rock concert for us! Someone from ECHO organized a "field trip" to the concert for Minneapolis homeschoolers. We've been listening to Sweet Honey in the Rock since Mane was little, and she's also seen a DVD of one of their performances. They are incredible performers, and they encourage lots of audience participation in their concerts. The concert isn't until March. So, we'll be listening to lots of their music and preparing to go later on this winter. Come to think of it, we'll be right in the middle of following the Iditarod just then. What a crazy juxtaposition of studies we'll be having. Yikes. It's a wild ride.

Also, later this month we'll be going to the MN Orchestra concert "The Bernstein Beat." We have enjoyed MN Orchestra concerts so thoroughly that we tell everyone about them now. So, please, if you're interested, go check out: Young People's Concerts with the MN Orchestra. There are still shows with tickets available. You don't need a group to go. Homeschoolers are totally welcome!

Finally, we'll be preparing Mane this month to spend a week with her grandparents in February, as we'll be traveling to Mexico with Vespera for him immigration interview at the consulate. Yes, I consider this part of her education. We'll be talking lots about grandparents & what special people they are, how many days we'll be gone and how to read the calendar, and how we can pass the time apart from each other.