Maybe it's the weather or the fact that my kids were at Grandma's last night and I missed them, but today is a great day here. We have lots of joy spending time together. Big Sis took the baby outside and ran around with her as she enjoyed the misty, cool air that is such a stark contrast to the weeks of hot and dry drought we've had.

Presently Brother has his nose in his second Judy Blume book that he can't put down and Sis is practicing her faster piano notes. She really is enjoying piano and I've noticed she goes right to it when she is happy and frustrated as a way to express herself. Oh, blessed success!! She's the one who is easily overwhelmed. We all can have similar tendencies, really, but with her it is such a challenge leading her into ways of re-direction. But, it looks like this is something she is getting better and better at, and she really enjoys and has the talent to get even better.


As we went outside today I decided today we will do our final entry in our science journal. I had the kids make some final observations and make a sketch of their specific plant now that they are yielding tons of good stuff.

They are learning how to care for a garden AND enjoying the harvest!!

pickling some peppers

we are eating lots of cucs  and they are so delish!!

The vacation of July

So the kids went on a big road trip with daddy in early July to see their first ever live baseball game!

I was home alone with one baby and lots of writing work. They came home a day early...we all missed each other.

After that, it was well...break.

They wanted a break and since we had schooled through May and June I let it go to have any sort of schedule. We did learn this past month, but we did NOT do a schedule. We did do some trash-to-art projects. And watched some docs. Played "cool math" games (www.coolmath.com) and some other awesomesauce things.

I had a weird funk of a time adjusting to writing and kids at home and schooling. I am so thankful we started school and now I know kind of in a clearer way how I am going to prepare for the year.

I promised myself that after my Sociology test was over I could think about scheduling for this year, but not before. The writing didn't come in as crazy as I thought but I still did quite a bit. I am finding out that the insurance agent I am writing for is actually editing all my stuff before it goes live. He told me he needs to catch up to my work. I guess I was going through the excel sheet of web pages faster than he thought. And here I was thinking that he was waiting on me. haha. He is a super nice person. I know this because he gives me little smiley faces in his emails.

It's the little things.

Anyway. And OF COURSE we need to post lots of awesome pics of our garden. We are eating so many good things. What a blessing to grow your own food! We are just now eating our cucumbers. We picked the first one yesterday and they are so flavorful and wonderful.

We will update our science journals and post pictures this next week. Promise.

Also, I am happy. Happy to have some supportive friends here and it is going to make all the difference in the world as we embark on this journey. Isolation may have been needed mentally, physically, and spiritually for a time, but it feels so good to be around the living again!

Next week I go shopping with another mommy of four as we stock up on some (hopefully) artsy and eclectic awesomeness for this next year. My budget is low but my awesome shall be high!  

Garden Picture

Garden growth - compare with June 6th

From the left here is the jal pepper plant, huge cucumber plant, and then another pepper all right in that first row you can compare with about three weeks ago. We also have carrots, tomatoes, and lots of greens. Brother measured a pepper growth of about three inches and I think we are ready to pick that. The lettuces are over ready and we will be picking and eating.

We spent just under an hour outside recording what we saw, observing insects, recording measurements, etc...then we went inside and worked in a science text and read about photosynthesis and they learned about how parts of the cells work and they group into tissues, then organs. They answered a few questions aloud and then did the review questions in their notebooks.

Mom note - working with the three year old was a little challenge. He is at the stage of wanting something that he can't have. Someone needs the measuring tape or mag glass - whine...I did tell him he'd be on his way to a time out if he didn't stop. He did calm down and we talked about the cucumber leaf and he wrote out the 16 in 16 inches for how tall we measured it, and then he drew a sketch of the leaf and veins. It's shaped like a heart so that was a cute little leaf!!

week's goals

Last week was me at my minimum with the kids. Flexibility of starting right away is being able to take breaks if I need to...I had lots of school work and writing projects that I had to speed through all week to not feel behind! It was good to work but I am spending time this morning re-organizing.

Fae will be given her social studies book.

We are alternating between science and social studies during the week.

This article is really helpful to explain the Charlotte Mason style of learning nature (what kids really need to be learning at this age). The purpose is to build observation skills, familiarize with note-taking, labeling, etc. Note that mom keeps lectures to a minimum in nature and prompts the child to make his or her own observations with gentle questions. I love it. We will be dabbling in a science text when we are inside to learn the parts of a plant. We are going out to observe our garden outside. Some lettuces are ready for picking and our plants are getting big! We are waiting on tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers, onions, and we unfortunately had tons of pigweed we had to pick and it killed our bell peppers :(

Charlotte Mason style:

http://www.squidoo.com/cmnaturestudy

and

Nature Journaling

I'm also going to be sending the kids links for math work from softschools.com and making decisions about our long term math format - online resource or textbook or both. I also found an awesome app that includes teaching, practice, and more practice that is really promising.

Mid June - One Month In!

We recovered from last week's bad attitude from Sis...she turned in her draft but I sent it back and am teaching her that it's best to not rush through editing. She is going to keep it another day because she edited all the errors but then turned it in without a read through. Overall she did great with her information and I felt like she supported her claim pretty well...I will post the finished copy soon. I want to stress that last year she had less than a handful of writing assignments the whole year. She will have probably dozens and dozens each year at home.

What does writing really teach?

Not just typing or handwriting/neatness but planning, supporting your claim, finding reliable sources and citing them, critical thinking, research and development of ideas....and pretty much the only way you are going to pass college is knowing how to write a good persuasive paper.

She's still reading; she is in book 6, I believe, of Harry Potter. She is loving it. Also, I found a super cool book I will be getting at the library that tells you how to reclaim paper into usable items and art using glazes and other techniques. I'm hoping sister will love that...she is very tactile and loves to work with her hands and loves paper crafts. 

The checklist of activities everyday is going well. They are still doing chores, playing games, and doing activities that build math and or creative skills.

Every Tuesday is piano lessons!! She was intimidated at first but she is working through those feelings (yes a theme with all my kids and those feelings) and learning the piano!

Big brother is still working his social studies and we are using the writing questions to work on editing. He wasn't nearly as behind on multiplication as he felt. He knows most of his facts but is shaky. This week he needs to work on his facts for eight.

Friends - both kids spent time with their bff's this week. Brother's friend and his super nice mom met us at the splash pad and park and I got to know her a little more. Today Sis's bff picked her up and they watched a movie and hung out.

Little Y and I have been learning card games. He's really becoming a little guy! He listens and can follow the rules of a game. He's just such a sweetie. For Father's Day we played Settler's of Catan, which of course he didn't really participate in because it is a complicated game. It also lasted for about two hours. It got intense.

Natural Sciences -

Scarlet Tanager

We saw this Scarlet Tanager when we were at the park last week!! It was amazing and this red does not do it justice. Much more saturated than a cardinal.











And coming up soon - each kid is tracking a plant from our garden and measuring it and making observations. We did our initial measurements two weeks ago and this week we are going to see how much they have grown. This is going to kick off our natural sciences unit!

 Our plant that conveniently shows the stages of bud to pepper!

image: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Scarlet_Tanager/id

Garden

Sis recording in her science journal and Baby E being all cute.

Today the kids started writing and observing for their science journals.

We talked about the 5 main questions to ask and observe in science, talked about how it's always important to label, date, and describe.

We measured the perimeter of the raised garden bed and they had to sketch what they saw in the garden and date it. They will sketch again in two to three weeks any changes, and write down the changes that they observe as well.

We also saw creepy crawlies and the butterflies  were really interested in our plants!!

We planted parsley that didn't make it into the garden (whaaat!?! That was MY favorite, humph!!) into a pot and Brother wanted to plant some basil in a very tiny pot. Sis planted a white bean in the front and it is also sprouting.

I actually captured the butterfly!!!!

So...... things are growing around here!!

It was a really peaceful time outside and we were also able to relax and get fresh air. Sis was really happy and said, "We're actually doing REAL science!!" I'm telling you, I really can't believe how as she's getting older, she is finally connecting that all that crazy larger than life energy has can be used for good and not "ebil".

Really great. Really huge. Happy Mom!

Summer begins

Goodbye, school year!!

The new journey starts now. This blog is a place for me to record what they do...part of what they do. The part that I need to recognize as apart of their education and to hopefully catch any gaps as well as recognize our achievements...and maybe discuss some struggles.

I may post educational articles and insights...I am not sure who my audience is and what I'll be comfortable sharing. Am I just recording what I do or sharing what I'm learning? It may be both.

I need to catch up from last week:

Everyone started on their summer/early fall workbooks through this line of books:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1609963326/ref=rdr_ext_tmb

*edited to fix link

Little Y is going through about a letter a week

He learned to cut with scissors

The older two have assignment checklists each day:

Three pages of workbook
Mental math practice on softschools.com
draw a sketch
read for about an hour
one hour of Skyrim
1/2 of free internet time
chores for each (for age level)
devotion time

Today Sis made bread independently which is a great skill!

Tuesday was library day and Sissy spent the day with her b/f/f

Our first garden is live --- learning first hand about life sciences and developing a love of nature/environment