Game Schooling - Puzzles

I know many seasoned homeschool parents who will say that their number one must-have homeschool tool is puzzles. And there's a fair amount of research about the educational value of jigsaw puzzles. Puzzles provide practice in deductive reasoning, categorization, analysis, sequencing, problem solving, spacial awareness, and scanning - skills that transfer especially well to the "academic" subjects of reading, math, and science. For the kinesthetic learner, puzzles can also be a hands-on way to work with subject matter. Example: We recently picked up a puzzle map of New York City. We'll be visiting New York this summer, and the puzzle is providing all of us with a hands-on way of familiarizing ourselves with the city.  We're developing a sense of the direction, distance, and general layout of places in the city. The puzzle is a conversation piece, as we discover street names and buildings, and it's a starting point for new learning about the city.

AND, "puzzling" is a fun social activity:

Game Schooling - Sequence

She won!

Sequence comes in a bazillion different forms (States & Capitals, Letters, Numbers, Bible, Travel, Jumbo...), but all we've got here is the original playing card version. I realized as I was playing with my friend's 5yr old the other day how valuable this game is, not only for number recognition, but also for eye scanning and tracking skills (same principle as word finds). This is helpful for both the pre-reader and readers, who are building fluency. Having read a whole lot about dyslexia, I'm aware that eye training exercises can be part of skill-building and therapy for kids with dyslexia. Hats off to another fun learning game!

We let the little guy have the edge of the board for his tokens!

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."

For our little friends ~ Preschool Activities

This year, with the help of pinterest, Mane & I found some learning activities that she could make for her little friends & cousins. Win-Win: Craft project for Mane, learning activity for the little friends...and a positive, structured activity for them to work together! Here are a couple of the things we came up with:

This is paint in a bag! We put duct tape around the edges to strengthen them & keep the bag from bursting. Use a q-tip or a finger to practice letters or words!  If I ever did this again, I'd do something to make the paint thicker. It tends to run back into the spaces too quickly. This is a great kinesthetic, tactile pre-reading/reading/spelling activity!

I think this one is my favorite because it's SO PRETTY! Paint samples from the hardware store make an excellent color matching game!

Match up clothespin letters to spell words! This helps kids practice the scanning skills necessary for reading - scanning over the clothespins to find the matching letter. The clothespins also make it a great fine motor & finger strengthening activity (pre-writing skills).

Backwards Alphabet

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



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

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

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

I'll keep ya'll posted!

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!

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.

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. ;)

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!

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!!

A Day in the Life

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

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

Monday

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

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

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

Horses

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

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

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

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

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

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

Maps & An Apricot Seed!

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

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

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

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

First day of 2nd grade photos:






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

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





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

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

Summer Reading Program - Take 2

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


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

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

Summer Reading

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

Summer Break is Over

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

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

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

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

Psychology

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.