Catching up #3. Our dig has begun

Finally I get to the point that our own archeological dig has begun.  I know I know I have you on your seats waiting.  If you have not read post #1 and #2 then be sure to scroll past this and get caught up with the process. 

We have about six acres, live in a log kit home that is about thirty-five years olds.  It is not one of those fancy log houses. I tend to chuckle that I live in a cabin so dusty floors are only natural.  There is a space to the south of me that is large open space and I call it the pasture.  There was a fence before we moved here as well and the prior owners had horses.  Long ago I met a man in a nursing home who was telling me about his hog farm when he was a younger man.  He did not know where I lived and we came to understand that this space was part of his holding.  Much of the surrounding area has been river edge fishing cabins and in the roaring times there was a honky-tonk down here that was only accessible via the Kaskaskia River.  I thought we would find a something of interest but had no idea just how quickly we would hit pay dirt.

We did not use some scientific method to choose our area to dig. It was merely determined by the geographical location of the property.  I knew we could not dig in the back half or we would be bothered by the donkeys the entire time.  If I wanted the blessing of my husband it would require not being part of his yard that he enjoys.  I picked a spot to the far south of the front pasture and away from groves of trees so I did not hit tons of roots.  I chose a spot that is near a peach tree that struggled and finally died.

 

I went to great lengths to let the children know that it would be weeks before we find something, if we ever did.  Then, suddenly, only a few moments into the process we hit a rock.  Not some small rock but we were pulling up rocks quickly that were small and white.  They reminded me of landscaping rocks. Not sure why but the large rock was gently cleared away.  We kept going as they got all excited and below that rock was another rock. Wait!  It is not a rock. It is a stone and they belong together. The area next to the stone will not dig away. We head to the left of the first stone instead of the one that it was stacked upon and decide that there is another stone there and the dirt that will not dig between them is not dirt but some form of mortar.  We brush away the dirt from the bottom stone and see that is has been manipulated to have a grove of some sort. 

You see in this photo the stones as we begin to uncover them.

 



As if that was not exciting enough we also found treasures within the dirt.  At Cahokia Mounds the girls learned to look at the dirt. Observe for color changes that might indicate something other than dirt had been there.  The watched for color changes in the soil. 

While we did find one really cool thing to be revealed tomorrow when I can get the photo uploaded that is a cool archeological find we also found a colony of some sort.  There were various stages in the larvae stage.  We then found an adult beetle.  "COOL!"  Better than that. As they tore into the dirt that they dug up gently they also found it in a pupae stage.  This photo is from that find as well.  This dig is not just about finding the history of our soil but we explored the layers of soil and live we found within it.  Science along with history makes homeschooling extra spectacular. 

Here is the photo of our insect stages.

 

 

 

 



 The best part of this day was that we shared it with some new, old friends.  A new homeschooler was six days into the process. She was a girl in my Girl Scout Troop as a child and now has three of her own children.  I met her kiddos and they all played together and got to know each other.  We will continue this dig as the months go on. 

I never did get to the Bird Man Tablet today. Guess it will wait for our great find within the clay on the next entry.-

Mother's Day Craft

 

I so rarely do crafts.  Art projects are the one part of our classroom that is left to their mother to teach. This year we did a project with paint and feet.  Each one is on a canvas and marked with their initial.  Each child got to choose the colors they wanted on their butterfly (feet). 

I think it turned out nice but glad I do not manage the art projects on a routine basis.

Trying to Keep UP

I am certain that there is no way that this aging woman can keep up with the energy and actions of children under the age of ten. I am sure I cannot even keep up with a person under the age of twenty-five if truth be told.  My wheels seem to be in motion all of the time. My mind is forever racing to think of new ways to make a subject interesting and my body is in motion to physically keep up. 

Today we anticipated more about our group weather class but nobody came.  The fact that I was under the weather a bit last week is likely to contributed to that.  I would have had pictures to post with the creation of anemometers and weather vanes, not to mention some cool experiments to show how cold air and warm air create a current of wind. So what did we do today instead?  FINISHED!  That is right, we finished our geography fair displays and speeches. 

Grace created a scorpion out of her Legos for part of her Brazil display. They each practiced their spoken portion of the display to be sure it was not too long.  Seems that last year the girls did an extensive display. This year, as they are getting more and more homeschoolers interested, there is a time limit. 

One more stop at the Dollar Store after gymnastics today so that Grace can title one more area on her board.  I checked the body count and apparently there will be 51 people attending the fair.  Girls are making a dish to share with them.  Faith will make Chinese Cole Slaw and Grace will make cornbread pudding.  hmm.... wonder if I can get their mom to make the grocery run for this?  I just run out of time every day.  I do think I need the perfect twin.  Now that the world revolves so much more on a 24 hour schedule.  Imagine what you could get done if you could double yourself just two days per week.

Next post should have pictures of the projects so far.

Visualizing the Early Stages of Life

Our duck eggs have life. We candled them and we have eleven with signs of life. Eight of them were not fertile and two of them did not proceed maintain life. We candled them all and were amazed that several of them were clearly more advanced that some others.

Both girls were amazed. You can actually see the blood vessels and in most of the eggs there is clearly movement as well. I did not intend for it to become a lesson about when life is life but God seems to have made it one. Both girls, especially Grace, see a living creature. Grace actually referring to it as a precious life.

No band wagons about right to life issues here as that is not my soap box. Just an honest conclusion to what the girls see and how it makes them feel.

How I Have Come to Love Mondays

Another Monday has passed and it was once again painless. We continued with the lessons about penguins since Faith had requested it a few months ago. We have now spent time watching the movie MARCH OF THE PENGUINS, visited the zoo for the specific purpose of going through the penguin display. It is amazing how much more we all enjoyed the display with a lesson prior to going. The display of written material made me look really smart too.

So last Monday we worked on some globe issues and found where each penguin lives. Today we read and reinforced the material so that we could begin a lapbook. I love the "Hands of A Child" lapbooks that I come across but I also have found lots of other material that are lesson related to enhance the experience. I imagine it will take two more weeks to complete the lapbook.

We discussed it and feel that perhaps it would be good to learn about Arctic animals. There is a new series on Discovery Channel called Frozen Planet and I saw the premier last night. Girls think it sounds like a great idea. Lots of books to get in from the library as I rarely pay $20 for a book but found several at the zoo we all liked.  I tend to write down the ISBN and then go look it up. I can often find it at a much reduced price as well if I choose to buy it.

Today we also did a homeschool class at the zoo. One of the classes at Lyceum includes bird study and recently we took a great field trip that introduced the girls to bird nesting habits. They seem to be pretty fascinated with the topic as well right now. You know if I teach them how to have many irons in the fire now they should learn the skill of multitasking.  SO they attended a class called BIRDS FOR BEGINNERS and loved it. It got them into a classroom environment totally away from a parent. They made a book of observations, they handled three different kinds of birds and made a cute set of binoculars. The class for both girls (using my zoo membership) was only $32.  Of course, this is not something we can do often so we generally take advantage of the free stuff at the St. Louis museum scene. 

Duck eggs have not begun to stink so I imagine we are free of any rotten eggs and the experience will be a positive one. I must get the chicken coup repaired as I am suddenly down to only three chickens left out of thirteen. This is disturbing to me but fortunately the chicks are cheap right now. (ha ha to myself  ..cheap cheap little chick) 

Other projects we have recently done to reward the days work is to plant the strawberries. They are growing and in one more week the roots should be settled enough to hang them as they are intended. I also got a roll out butterfly garden that we will put around the tree when the get their work done this week.  I will plan to do this on Thursday with them. These things cost little as I get lots of things from the dollar store or plant starts from friends. 

I cannot express the joy I feel getting this opportunity to teach the girls. Soon Owen will be crawling around and of course learning begins with play.

OH yes!  We are absolutely going to move school back to my house. The classroom is going to be a toy room for the girls things that Owen will have the potential to get into. It was a toy room before it was a classroom.  I have a nice sized out-building that is attached to my back deck. We are going to make it into an old fashioned one room schoolhouse but with modern technology. I have Internet so they will have access to lots of things. I have a large wooded yard that is near much to explore. They have a nice big yard but it is surrounded by corn/soy/wheat fields and it use to be a wheat field. Their swings and toys are fun but recess here will be OK too.  The room will have storage as well so that items can be saved and brought out in cycles. I am excited as it means that I will stay here and they will need to come to me. I know it is a whole eight miles lets face it. I am not getting younger and walking down to their basement lately has been more difficult for me.  I am playing with some floor plan ideas to place things. 

Lyceum is all ready half over and I am working on enhancing the class I have planned. I am pleased with the content so far but find one boy not so enthused. You know that means I need to find a way to touch him.

That is all for now!

Catch up post, packed with too much at one time

Let me see what to start with.  I like to sandwich good stuff first, mix the bad and then follow with the good. It leaves me feeling hopeful and doesn't block my absorption at the beginning. So here it goes!

G and F are very excited about the birth of their baby brother O.  He was born Nov. 20th and they are wonderful big sisters. His birth has been a great learning experience for them.  The biggest change is the increased responsibility they have learned. After all, if you recall their mother had some issues afterward and had to use a wound vac all this time. But now it is almost completely healed and this week the wound vac was removed. In the mean time each girl has become more responsible for their dirty dish, their dirty clothes and actually can now prepare their own bath water to the correct temperature.  They are using the phrase "A mess by the inch is a cinch but a mess by the yard is hard" as their guide.  I am even hearing F say that when she realizes that if she does not stop now the mess will no longer be a cinch.  It is true that during this phase we have not accomplished near as much lesson time as I would have liked but it does not mean that learning did not take place. While living life we find time to have little spelling bees and math facts. At K's house there are strict rules about television and when we all got exhausted we sat back and watched a lot of national geographic shows or the typical children educational television.  We also read several Magic Tree House books together and discussed them afterward.  Intermittently during this past month we did our curriculum as well.

You may wonder why it was so disruptive. Well, between mother's home nurse visits, doctor visits and such we also had some children who did not feel well. They went to MONKEY JOE'S for a play date with some friends and soon they were ill.  That takes away a week right there alone.  Then there is the baby.  Seems O has a  little problem of his own and was not thriving as he should have been. It is so odd!  At the time he was born every other baby at the hospital was in the NICU but baby O was in the regular nursery and roomed in with mom and dad.  The neonatologist even told K that O was the heatlhiest baby in the nursery.  He went down in weight as they all do but gained it back.  He was at the doctor every other day for a weight though as he gained it back so much slower than they had expected.  Then one day it was clear to K that he was not doing well at all.  She blamed in on the illness of the girls thinking that he must have caught a little something too.  He ended up being admitted to St. Louis Children's Hospital where a few things in our life changed. He struggles too much at the breast to breath and swallow so he must be fed with a faster flow nipple in a more upright position than at the breast.  He got rehydrated there and his weight began to come up big time. He had lost more weight again and was once again below his birth weight.  They heard a heart murmur and checked it out with an echocardiogram. There were other test that they wanted to get completed but he was just to frail to perform them.  So the plan is to see the cardiologist at the end of the month and assess his readiness for further testing and the surgical correction of a double aortic arch.  Of all CHD this is a very rare one effecting only 1% of children.  God lead K to help at the right time.  It may otherwise had gone undetected for a very long time.  His symptoms are just little things right now that we noticed but thought them to be "just him".  His voice sounds like he always has a sore throat and there are times his breathing is loud.  It seems that the aortic arch creates a circle with his trachea and esophagus trapped in the middle.  It does not effect the function of the heart at all. 


G meets O




F meets O




O after his bath and lotion applied by two happy sisters

So you may ask--how are you going to catch up?---  I am not!  We had all ready discussed the fact that we enjoy our early fall time and hate the thought and pressure to do school when the days are so wonderful and we could be camping or hiking in the midst of fall weather.  We planned to do a longer school year and take a July, August, September vacation instead. This will just justify to the girls why we are still doing school in June. Let's face it, they can do school and still hit the pool after lunch time. Where I live the pool does not begin to get direct sun until around 11:00 and it creeps slowly across the pool. 

So back in full swing again and the girls are eager.  G is begging for a test every day. I think she is worried that she will have forgotten material but she is doing great.  I am thinking more and more that we will not seek to complete the first grade material this year anyway. F just turned 5 in October and I am going to take her as she shows ability. With that said, she was excited yesterday. She was introduced to the idea of compound words. She did great with little direction but we only did half of the lesson as it was true work for her. She felt so accomplished!  It seems that G enjoys proof reading.  She is having fun finding all the capitalization and punctuation mistakes and correcting them.  Language classes just come naturally to her.  For math class yesterday we priced items in the house and she went shopping. She is doing remarkably well deciding how to pay. She is finding the may ways to get to the total.  She also seems to like the fraction intro and carrying numbers.  Maybe she will like math more when it  has more action to it.  Today we will begin teaching G guitar as well. 

One of the things they both enjoyed was the chapter on pioneers. They were not to interesting in colonial times but the west is different.  So I went to the library last night and gathered up some other books on the topic.  I know at this age much of social science/ history is introductory but they seem to both enjoy this topic so I am going to stop in the book for a while and go a little bit deeper today and Tuesday.

It has finally turned bitter cold and we have snow.  I use to love this stuff but my house is so cold this year. I refuse to pay another winter of heating bills as high as I have been doing.  Bundle up, lay with the dogs and hope for an early spring. That is my plan.

How to keep them out of the lesson room

Nice title but no answer. I can tell F over and over again that the lesson room is not a playroom. Still I find over and over again little dolls in the desks and drawing on the boards. My expo markers dried out once again for the misplaced lids. Not to mention the overall mess that then builds in the room overnight. Yesterday we had to clean before I could teach.

Then there is the schedule I put on the wall at the beginning of the year. Yesterday F made sure I followed the schedule. That darn thing halted my creativity. 

G has made great strides in her math. I decided that she was beginning to get bored so I skipped a few review lessons and introduced no concept yesterday. She was excited to learn something new now that her math confidence is increasing.  I just have to give her time to process the information. I find that if she does not answer me right away I ask it again and she gets frustrated. I must give her time...but her time frame is so much slower than mine. 

There new baby brother, O is now one month old and mother is still battling her open wound from the infection. Overall, she can now tend to most matters in her home except of course the most physically demanding. We still must be careful that she does not cause the wound to open more so the girls are getting a great lesson in laundry.

I plan to do lessons next week on Tuesday though Friday. We have so much to get done since we lost so many days to a difficult labor and pregnancy, not to mention the pneumonia that F had.  So I was thinking to ease the week we would create a New Years celebration in the classroom. I have all sorts of ideas in my head that will help bring in the year while also teaching about earth's rotation and time overall. With the start of winter I believe I can even include the tilt of the earth to teach about the season. It will be fun.  I plan to use baby O as the sun and have them rotate themselves slowly around him while turning to face him for the day and away from him for the night. Then use our globe to show it as as well.  We will see if it works of if baby O gets stepped on. 

I feel like a muppet movie

I recall a song with Kermit and Fozzy Bear--movin' right along-chug a lug chug a lug--footloose and fancy free.
Well that is how I am feeling these days. Each girl is moving along in their educational process and filled with joy just like the song. I recall a "fork in the road" and realize we hit that fork often is class as well. When I visualize the fork in the road of the muppet movie I chuckle each time.  Same goes for the forks in the road of our class times together.
Some enjoyable moments of the week include attending a 4-H Christmas party and going to an assisted living center for conversation and cookies. The girls enjoyed meeting the older generation and talking with them. In our classroom we had fun with math graphs and making a game of collecting data for the graph.
The new baby is also a fork in our road was our schedule is off big time. Plans for this week include a trip to The Butterfly House in Chesterfield. I will take G and F but will also take two of their friends who are also homeschooled.
Tonight I plan to create a game to help reinforce the capitalization rules for G. She has completed all nine rules but when she gets them all together it can be overwhelming. So I will make sentence cards that will match each rule. I will let you know how it works.

Hodge Podge of Stuff

As it turns out, I made a good choice to keep F out of lesson time when she became totally unruly. The next day she did her lessons with serious effort and enjoyed the day as well.  So just what is happening in our lesson time these days?

G is advancing in he knowledge of our language. Her writing skills improve each day and we are at capitalization rule number 5. Seems she likes the structure of each rule gradually being introduced. He spelling in naturally improving as well.  Math has not been tears for three days in a row. She really seems to enjoy our classroom money and we are going deeper into how to count your money. Yesterday she got a huge pile of coins and first separated them and learned to count coins by beginning with your largest value coin. She has great reading comprehension for the short stories in her book but also for a timed reading lesson.  It is funny that she has added on an extra class to her routine. She does not have a phonics lesson now but a little review from time to time. Well, she got a book as a gift that is too easy for her but does take thought to complete. It is a great review for her and she has begun each day with that book on her own. If she wants to take on more why not let her but it is a real confidence booster for her.

F is doing well but still that drag it out reader. I like that she blends her words but dislike that she blends every single word before she reads it. I think she would enjoy reading if she would just let loose and let it flow.  Her phonics are newer concepts and I think I will need to slow down as they are becoming so many special sounds that it is beginning to clutter in her thoughts. I will probably spend more days on each sound for a while. Yesterday she kept getting confused with TH,SH, and could not think it through when it was at the end of the word. I am not concerned about when she completes first grade. I thought it would take two years for Kindergarten but maybe this will be the grade that she settles for a bit and gets closer to her real age level.  Her math skills are better than G so we will move on. I just hope that she does not pass G in math level as I know that will be hard for G to take.  I am seeing more and more age level actions in F.  I think I need to bring down my methods a notch as she wants the "baby" and fun preschool type of stuff too.  I ordered a Blueberries for Sal from the library and will do the FIAR lessons to go along with that book. 

We got a few little fall time crafts to do which will be on the agenda for today. I disliked the lessons in the book for nutrition and got a book called  The Monster Health Book: A Guide to Eating Healthy, Being Active & Feeling Great for Monsters & Kids! and it will be a great fun book for years to come. It covers lots of impotant nutrition and eating habits material in a fun manner.

Tonight is our coop meeting and the 4H club has arranged for a group of reptile handlers to be there to discuss the animals. Girls are looking forward to this but G has a girl scout meeting. Her scouts only meet every other week and it really makes it hard to feel like a group that way.  G wants to go to the coop meeting so K will let her make her choice. The SCCCHE coop also has a family night next weekend that will include hayrides and bonfires. Sounds like a great night! 

On a final note, the baby's room is all decorated. I need to get some photos of the room but it is all fireman theme including a mural that K and her friend painted on the wall. That same friend is holding a baby shower for her. They do not have any boy items and K loaned (gave away) so many of her baby items to help others out that she finds herself without. Seems when she loaned out her very nice swing to a friend who had twins that it did not come back but instead that friend loaned it to a sister and that sister gave it to a friend. Sharing is a valuable trait to have but sometimes it sure can bite you hard.  I am old fashioned and do not geneally consider a shower for your third child proper but her friend put together a cute theme that clearly revealed that the frills are being put away and there is a need to welcome this boy.  K has a friend who is about to have a daughter so she has clothers from 12 months to 4t that she will give to her. That will clear some space in her house as well.

Well, off to make my oatmeal and get my day flowing. Have a blessed day to any and all who read my blog.

Can't hold back!!!!

So F is done with her entire portion of language arts classes (language, phonics, reading) in 17 minutes. She looks at the chart for the special sound and listens to me tell her what makes is special, I flip the chart and she reads every word. I do this on three different sounds today. She goes to her language book and does the page in less than 5 minutes, goes to the phonics book and has it done in 3 minutes. I wonder if I should move along or take it as the lesson plan has it. Gee, I want her to feel accomplished and she does but really wonder if she should be given more and move along. THEN I remember that I am willing to take two years to do first grade if she needs it. So if she is done with all the lessons for the day in only one hour is that going to be enough? 
I need a consultant!  Not that she is a fast reader, she still goes very slow as she sounds out nearly every word.  I am conflicted.

Same goes for G in her 3rd grade language. I know it is review time but remember we skipped 2nd grade language study. She enjoyed the class very much but after reinforcement of instruction her workbook page was completed in 4 minutes. I wonder if she could do two lesson per day.  I know that when you home school then it is all up to you. Go as fast or as slow as you want to. But I wonder if I should speed it up.  K thinks I wait and see how the first couple of weeks go before even considering it.  She is the mom and I will do as she wishes. That does not stop me from wondering what is best for the girls. I want only the best or at least the best effort put toward them and from them.

IT was a great day in the second day of school.  K and I spent a few minutes in the room with the girls to play for a while and gathered our thoughts and steps for the first half.  When we opened the door and said "ding ding ding class in session"  there were two girls dressed up. One was Cinderella w/ a crown and the other was an Princess of India complete w/ a shear scarf across her face.  We eagerly said....come on in princesses we have a lot to do today.   hehehehe...little did I know that they would be done quickly. We began late again but were completed before lunch.

Overall a good day but as usual I wonder if I am doing my best for them.

First Day of the 2011-2012 School Year

Have you seen those t-shirts that say things like "I survived the worlds largest roller coaster"?  I deserve one for today. This is the first time that we were coming back to our school. Last year it was met with lots of enthusiasm as it was new and exciting to NOT be in school. Apparently we did such a good job of it last year that the newness is gone. F was excited with each new first grade book but G was not phased by it.  Everything went smooth with the girls. It seems the tie up was two teachers who thought they were more prepared than they were. Too much looking into the lesson plan and delaying the flow of the day. So why do I get a shirt for something that went with so much ease?  Simple indeed: because I stressed myself so much that I created a huge climb to the top and a plummet downward with a hard twist in the middle.  Funny how a person can do that to themselves.

You see, G and F did not expect great things from K and myself.  They just expected it to begin, to flow, to learn and to end.  I had hoped to see jumpy girls that would need a calming voice to encourage a positive learning environment. Sure, they had a couple of moments that they got off track in a little conversation but not any huge distractions. It was funny as today I referred to K as the principal of Geralds Learning Academy and the girls giggled to hear that. It got us all off track as K explained that she was many jobs as a mother of home schooled children.  Do you find that it is easy to get off track too?


The poor little weather frog got some clothes on but not much. It was a hot day and F put on some sunblock in his hands.  We reviewed all the field trips that are planned so far and they wanted to know if that was all we are going to do this year. Their eyes lit up when the heard we would do the Magic House Home school Monday again and are looking forward to the Wolf Sanctuary.

What to do tomorrow is the next point to address. First, we will get to the room before the girls and review quickly together the intent of the lesson plans. F's plans are simple but G's become a bit integrated together as we advance her onto her level of ability. K did a great job at making lunch a joy for them as well by having them make their own little pizzas.  It makes a huge difference having the house organized before the lesson began as living in a home that is less cluttered just feels simpler to me.  I am proud at how well the girls addressed their first day of school as we actually did complete lessons today, unlike most first days in the brick and mortar school that has to first cover all the rules and orientation to a new room and teacher. 

I did spruce up the reading corner a bit but the wall decor remains the same as is the calendar wall and weather wall. These items are perfect for them still and no need to redo the entire thing. Other wall decor changes as the lessons and season change. The shelf above the reading corner has been filled with some items we use but the closet in room is a tiny step in with shelves all on one side that we can keep our items on and the clutter of it out of sight.  G liked the direction that the third grade language was going.

Oh yes, even with the teacher delays we were finished by 1258 with quality education and lunch.

First day of summer program

F was a typical four year old not a child that has completed the Kindergarten course work. She was fussy and pouted a lot. When I finally put the book away she cried out...but I do want to read, I do.....

Now some may turn around and say good. I said to her that she had her opportunity to do so and that class was now over for the day. The only class I am doing with her in the summer is phonics/reading.  She began to make firm demands of me to let her do the work. I reassured her that I was not angry and that her lack of participation did not effect me at all.  I did firmly let her know that I am the grandmother and teacher, and we do not take our directions from little girls. I reminded her that God tells us to honor our mothers and fathers. Being a grandmother that holds especially true. Again, more reassurance that we can try again in class on Wednesday.  I held firm and did not cave in.

I did some review w/ G but the room was a bit distracted. I hit her up right away with a test.  She has all 100% in math being fresh and new from lesson to lesson. Today she got an 81% and all due to careless attention. Her math itself was all correct but she carelessly marked the time on the clock, and lets face it---if you get the hour hand confused w/ the minute hand then the entire thing will be wrong.  She did two correctly but then was distracted and did not review what she had done.  Her skip counting was also all correct but she did not use the correct function in a word problem so of course the answer was also incorrect. It does not take long to see those points reduced.  We also began completion of spelling and went to the spellingcitty.com abeka list for her to play as well.  I am not sure it will teach much spelling but she liked the site. 

That will be all for now.  I am headed to bed, sleep has been my enemy.

Friday will be our last official day

I am finding that it means very little on one hand as we have summer work that is going to be completed. On the other hand they seem to like the thought that we will not be engaging into routine class time.

I find that I am still planning lessons. G has accepted the fact that her math will not be completed and we are going to take is slow so she is successful in the process.  I think she is even looking forward to the math summer program. I will bring home the whiteboard/chalkboard easel so we can work with it during lesson. Lessons will not be in their class room but at my house. Since I have the pool they will be here most days and we will do lesson before jumping in and then workbook during the after lunch wait period.

She took several test that I had not given in math and did very well. She even did it without the puffy cheeks and stiffened arms. She does so well on the test that I know we could move along faster if her emotions would just change about the word  M-A-T-H. 

G has only three stories left to read in her last reader for first grade and will have completed the Letter and Sounds book by Friday. She will not have all the Language book completed but most of the book at the end is about creating sentences and stories. I offered her to work more in that book which she really does not like the book much. She finds it repeating to the point of aggravation. The other day it had several pictures and wanted sentences that described the picture. She did o.k. but not great. Then the next page had a large blank wanting to tell a story about a subject. Instead I asked her to write about the zoo trip we made last week. She was so excited!  AND she did a good job with it.  So we will call it quits with Language book as well and she is eager to practice sentence structure with a journal/diary for the summer.

F has only a few pages left in her K math book. She has several in he phonics book and has more readers to get through. It does not seem to bother her at all. She is enjoying the book but does not find it as fun as the math book.  Perhaps I was wrong to pace her differently in this book but I let her be the guide here as well. Some days she did not want to touch the book but would do several lessons in the math book.  She is 4yr 7mo. now and I feel she is doing well with phonics and reading but we may very well be finishing this level by next October. We will see.  When she does not have anything to do but phonics/reading she is likely to really take off this summer.  WOW that sounds like she did not take off which is not what I mean to say about F.  She is eager and bright but she is also a hot head and when she is tired her four year oldness shows. One cannot win a fight with a tired four year old.

We join the health/science/social studies/art all into one combined class. Which means F is doing first grade learning here.  We finished the last of each book. F did read all the questions herself and answer them. 

So what about my failure with spelling? Well I am heading to www.spellingcity.com/abeka and going to use it this summer and in the future as the current method does not even get the subject done.  This will be a summer thing too for G to complete the first grade lessons that we stalled on. 

I wonder if other parents/grandparents stall in spelling at home too or if it is just our own failure. No one seems to ever complain about spelling class on other blogs. A lot of math issues and some curriculum issues out there but no spelling issues.  I guess our little Academy is unique in this.

I imagine that this summer I will blog maybe weekly or every other week.  I will go online to see what is happening in the blogs I follow.

Photos on Friday

We went to the zoo yesterday instead of the class so finished the plant book today. Here are photos which of course are nearly alike but I must show each child's book.  Next week we will go back in the science book and do the insect section followed by another trip to the zoo at the insectarium and butterfly house.  Then science book will be 100% completed.

Not sure if I am more excited or the girls

So in a simple plant lesson I expanded once again. I hate to call it a lapbook as it is very very simple. I will call it a folder lesson I guess.

I am on my way to their house to see the end results of our white flowers and food colored water. The lesson was indeed simple. Soil, water, water cycle, sun, seed, roots and they will cover so much or this over the next two years as it builds on that we discussed the job of the stem.  I know, I know--simple indeed but for a 4 yr old and a 7 yr old it was exciting.

By the end of the day yesterday the rose and the carnation had begun to change color while the others had not.  Last night I hear there were more changes happening.

Off I go to see how it all worked. I will post pics later

dress up for homeschool

No, not like getting all dressed up at all.
F got a new dress up outfit to be dressed like an girl in India. She came to class like that. Then G, who get pretty silly a lot came dressed in a banana costume. They were both eagerly invited to work with the calendar and say the Pledge Of Allegiance. Then class began.

F got right to work in her phonic book and after a little direction did two pages independently. In the meantime G had to face her dreaded math class.  She had a bit of fun today as we continued to add three numbers, she found the puzzle in each one that made it possible rather than impossible.

But math went on...and on...and on....OK that is an exaggeration.  She counts by tens just fine but has a huge block if counting by tens from 15 or 38 etc.  So after finding some fun ways to do it she finally got it.  IT was exciting. She got a big star stuck to her forehead. We then began to buy the banana. I marked her with a price tag and made a story that kept increasing the price by ten. SHE loved it and she did well.

I should have stopped there!  We then went to do the book work and she did great until she had to add a quarter and a dime. WHAT ?  We just spent the entire class time on this skill but when it got put to her in a different fashion she was stumped. I ended up congratulating her on a good class effort and said we were way past time and so we stopped math. 

I would like to post all the fancy good parts of school and teaching but then I would not learn  from it and I do not want those who read this to think that homeschooling is about great achievements all of the time. There are real hurdles to jump, real frustrations.  I am so thankful to teach her math at home. I believe she would have been left in the dark and fake or fail her way through it.  After all, just because a child does not achieve well in one class does not stop them from going into the next grade.

After math G worked independently in reading, phonics, language and writing. She is such a great learner overall.

F wanted the same fun attention in her class as well. F is nearing the end of the Kindergarten math book and I really thought we would be doing this Kindergarten thing for two years. NOT THE CASE!  So I found a fun way for her to use the ruler and measure things. She began as a sour puss but quickly brightened up the room.

I continue to not be doing well in my health so I did not spend as much time to do the lessons overall.  Still they did all core classes today.

They are making a garden with K in the backyard as well.  I find this exciting, their yard has been the least of their concerns since they moved in. Now that K is a homemaker she is trying to make in nice overall and find pride in it.  She was a paralegal before and found pride in a job well done.  I know she will feel it as the yard becomes more home like as well.

Baby is growing

Today was a joyous day for our family. K is off of bedrest but on light duty mothering. I know, we can all get a good laugh at that one. Fortunately, I am able to help her a lot.
Today they could not see any more signs of the clot or separation of the placenta and found a growing baby with a heartbeat of 183 bpm.
We know that this is great news and we find hope in it. We also put our trust to God and will not worry about this soul. God all ready knows His plan and we can only hope it is the same as our desires.

G and F are excited to get a bit of mommy back. I do believe it was a challenge for all three of them. 
We had not choice today but to take the girls with us to the doctor office but there is a large common area just outside of the office and so of course I took out lessons and we went to work on one of the table. I expected questions but did not find any asked. I guess it was clear that there was real learning taking place.

I have decided we got a bit stagnated so i am going to us a lapbook lesson for our plant study.  They seem to enjoy creating these.

Setting a date for the last day of school

Today I showed G how much book work was left to be completed by the end of this month. It was clear to her that math would be a year long class but she is also pleased that she will get a break from the rest of the subjects.

We discussed doing math while spending the day around our pool.  She did not seem to upset with the news.  She could clearly see that she was not going to be able to rush through the lessons.  I must say though that I think they drag some lessons on and on.  Math has not been my subject to teach and K has been following the lesson plan to the T.  Now that K is on bedrest upstairs I am modifying it to my teaching style.

I also gave up on a spelling class.  It seems that it was to much of a requirement on the lifestyle of this unique family to complete as I would want. Therefore, I decided some time ago that I could do spelling during the summer a bit and it would reinforce the phonics that we all ready know.  NEXT year it WILL not be that way. I am going to get firm about the matter with both the students and the parents. 

Tomorrow we will go to a material display and purchase the curriculum for next year. They offered free shipping in April but you could not do the flex pay system unless you went to a display. A few months ago we wanted to complete this tasks before the known price increase but just did not have the funds prepared to do so. This means we will pay more overall but the value in my opinion is great.

In Illinois you must attend for 176 days which was slated for May 19th  However, we ended up with some unexpected time away so we will have formal lessons until May 27. 

On Saturday G had a birthday party and one friend stayed overnight. It was the first time she has finally had a friend to arrange this with.  She enjoyed her day very much.

F has really been making progress but today she was a stinker. Fought me all day with every lesson until I finally suggested the nap. I know neither girl got enough sleep with the busy weekend. G was also clearly tired, her eyes showed it. So she went to her room to rest and read. She began Charlotte's Web but I have not seen her yet to know how she is enjoying it.

I will post some photos soon as my blog is looking boring. 

I continue to have therapy on my left shoulder and today the ortho injected the joint. WOW that smarts and has me in a lot of pain today. I will continue doing therapy and see him at the end of May.

No more seeds for you!!!

Due to our unexpected break prior to Easter we hit the books today. It was just me again to teach the girls. I really enjoy it when I do not have K's voice doing a different lesson in the background but I also missed her presence as it was of course twice the effort on my end. The girls each get a great one on one attention when we both teach.  I do not know anyone who gets to team teach in their home like we do, which means that the teacher in each home has to work that much harder and plan so much more than I do. 

I must say that it worked out well since G is a pretty independent learning in all subjects but math.  I spent a brief period going over the directions with her and gave her several pages to complete. She did so with total independence and without an error.  I had not really prepared for the day either so tomorrow will be better.

We have had a strange thing happen with our planting experiments. The girls planted sunflower seeds in a pot during their 4H Clover bud meeting.  G's came up just exactly as expected. It was a text book picture. F's began to come up but one seemed to stop. The other seen began to grow as a loop with both ends buried in the dirt until suddenly the one popped up but is tall and weak.  Then there are the beans they planted in the Ziploc bags to observe. G's is once again a text book project with the roots turning downward then the stem going up and finally today it has leaves reaching to the top of the bag and a strong root system.  HOWEVER that is not the story for F's bean. Initially the root began to emerge but then as the sprout was coming the entire thing got mixed up and it is wrapped around itself not sure where to go. It is as large as G's but is in one big ball with roots twisting all around and the green leaves looped downward.  We have joked that F is a little demon sometimes and I held back all the jokes so as to not discourage her and we found a long moment to laugh at both of her plants.  We also told her that she was only going to be permitted to pull weeds from the garden this year as we need that food for our bellies not for the grubs and critters that live underground. 

I have been very busy today as I manage two households right now.  I hope to help keep things flowing well in both homes. M  is working evening shift this week but I still have to be there in the morning or F would not be able to learn in the afternoon as well.

We have had massive storms around here for the past four days. Several tornadoes in the area as well with lots of damage. It even shut down the St. Louis Airport.  My eye is on the river as it rises and think it may be an impassable road to the house soon.

So much to say but no umpf to get it done so I will say good night.

Blogging at Monkey Joe's

So today K went with her dear friend to try to walk in the friend's labor after a MD appointment. That meant it was just me. WOW I do not recall how we did so well with just one teacher but I sure missed K today. I know the girls are getting a lot more done and improved understanding having nearly 1:1 attention all during lesson time.

SO how, you ask, did I end up at Monkey Joe's and blogging?  We it is winter here in Southern Illinois and the girls clearly need some good activity time. So we will have a PE afternoon jumping in the structures and sliding down slides, climbing up inflatable walls.  They were looking forward to coming but have never been here with there are few children and lets face it, G does not have anyone her age here as there are all still in school.  It is a treat for them, this place is a 45 minute drive from home and although we are now in the "big" city I might be able to stop by the parent-teacher tool store and see what tickles my fancy today.

I class we are still struggling with the fact that G has an immediate stress and --can't do it-- feel to her math.  She had new addition family added today and felt like she could not do it right away....told her of course not that is why it is new. Now get the hair out of your face, stop squirming in the desk, look at the board and the problem and say it with me.  WHAT?  I can't heare you, as a matter of fact the only one who heard you was the Lord.  Let's look again at the magic of math.  HAhahaha she just does not take to this well.

F took a little advantage of the fact that I was teaching two at one time today.  No worry she is way ahead so far anyway. One day will not make a difference. I just wish she was not such the manipulator that she can be. I must say it is getting better.

So that is all for today. yesterday they got to paint and tomorrow is the Art Museum. G plans to take her painting and donate it to the museum. We will see how they respond.