tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-78328583936415821462024-03-04T23:30:57.059-08:00School of Noodlesmindyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18281399488401861671noreply@blogger.comBlogger78125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7832858393641582146.post-72363795785356340922016-03-02T15:51:00.001-08:002016-03-02T15:51:47.611-08:00BFSUWe are still very much enjoying our BFSU lessons, but sadly I got too busy and stopped blogging about them. <div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Today we did the lesson on differentiating materials today and had a good time imagining hinges and doorknobs made of fabric instead of metal, and trying to play sports with wooden or metal balls. We also described the sounds of plastic (thunk), glass (clink), metal (clang), and fabric (swish). We then watched several segments of How Its Made on YouTube (fabric, winter coats, glass bottles, footballs). We also made a chart of the different materials and examples of each (mainly ones that can be found at our house). </span></div></div>mindyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18281399488401861671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7832858393641582146.post-83960620870378478692015-09-24T17:47:00.002-07:002015-09-24T17:47:41.397-07:00BFSU A-3: Air is a Substance and the Concept of the AtmosphereI neglected to take any pictures today. Oops.<br />
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Yesterday we had something come up that interrupted our planned science day, but we did have time to watch some videos, so we watched the BrainPop video on Atmosphere and took the quiz. My kids really enjoy doing the quizzes (so much so that they fight over who gets to answer the questions..sigh) and I like the chance to review the concepts taught. Today we did the lesson from the book. One thing we didn't do was make a ruler balance and test the empty balloon vs. inflated balloon weight. I got out our digital gram scale and thought that would be sensitive enough. It wasn't. We did do the experiment where you crumple paper in the bottom of a cup and then submerse it (straight down, with the opening facing down) and the paper stays dry because of the air pocket that forms.<br />
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We finished up by watching the Bill Nye episode about Atmosphere. It was kind of a simpler lesson than some of the others, as we have done experiments with air before in our co-op.<br />
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<br />mindyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18281399488401861671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7832858393641582146.post-62601836382831810912015-09-21T15:15:00.001-07:002015-09-21T15:22:24.361-07:00Media/Experiment DayThese sciences lessons are great, but there is a lot to cover. I think I'll have to be better at splitting up longer ones. Today I decided we would do a Media Day and watch some relevant videos/read books that we hadn't had a chance to get to yet. We also got our first Tinker Crate delivery and it was somewhat relevant (carbon dioxide activities) so we decided to do a couple of those as well. <div><br></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSZgj3rZlD_NkeWVKtqVJR8fN3N6Weyko2LzpX9WgNDLCTiRGtQru1jcVy0-hqfYWnCHdU4WTW6BYobgLh1be4slcvVoJ79eeFYNEJigz1H8FQG59b4hwGGRPnQrNXUNCnG256grMmUBw/s640/blogger-image--1034170976.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSZgj3rZlD_NkeWVKtqVJR8fN3N6Weyko2LzpX9WgNDLCTiRGtQru1jcVy0-hqfYWnCHdU4WTW6BYobgLh1be4slcvVoJ79eeFYNEJigz1H8FQG59b4hwGGRPnQrNXUNCnG256grMmUBw/s640/blogger-image--1034170976.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm_lQLlTTqmFosLDCPZYW03V0Vo5uaT1MkE4zdW0dtXvWRbCiUou8EhT3i9xjkUhbNCHwLOSoflOFszNbbkxwT88hI7WyPIo_usgyrQmXN9U8celsRlDkmhltPbbc0UAb35oH1IXgcRho/s640/blogger-image--1204407957.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm_lQLlTTqmFosLDCPZYW03V0Vo5uaT1MkE4zdW0dtXvWRbCiUou8EhT3i9xjkUhbNCHwLOSoflOFszNbbkxwT88hI7WyPIo_usgyrQmXN9U8celsRlDkmhltPbbc0UAb35oH1IXgcRho/s640/blogger-image--1204407957.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEaz_0QFW1mGPsftgSH3MwfzCOUv4Us2LkyCrIcn1ohA_V8zIVoCaI7_zJ3w6o-sGAeGtMHbMzVI4whJLa9QC_KZzATg9myOgkoOKwIMAYZJmj-pReobauSepVfF_3hUtFhF3p3O0B0gM/s640/blogger-image--125519541.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEaz_0QFW1mGPsftgSH3MwfzCOUv4Us2LkyCrIcn1ohA_V8zIVoCaI7_zJ3w6o-sGAeGtMHbMzVI4whJLa9QC_KZzATg9myOgkoOKwIMAYZJmj-pReobauSepVfF_3hUtFhF3p3O0B0gM/s640/blogger-image--125519541.jpg"></a></div><br></div><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><br><div><br></div><div><br></div></div>mindyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18281399488401861671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7832858393641582146.post-79186479512429080492015-09-15T21:59:00.001-07:002015-09-15T21:59:21.832-07:00Story of the World, Volume 2We started volume 2 today, having quickly finished up the last several chapters of volume 1 last week. It started with a recap of the end of the Roman Empire, so I wanted to do an activity to make it a little more fun. I chose the "Make a Roman Signum" suggestion from the Activity Book. It was quite a hit, and really didn't require too much. I think I'm going to try and do history crafts more often. The kids enjoy them and it seems to bring an energy into our homeschool that isn't otherwise there. The kids were in good spirits and joking quite a lot today. Of course they may not be related, but it's worth experimenting with. The boys had a little too much fun making their dopiest faces for the picture. Zion pretty much nailed the idea of leading troops into battle, though! 😀<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfy2ZAnK5BqNdHt06en4CRvv84go_j80fReDPz3dFROGwi-OaHzpg_VZ2YZNAkF2DJNvadD8vqalwlTk9s0Z0surMFYVEFU6NLhALePNiZa0feqlMMuCTpU8dmpUgTnEgdxjoN5VB3MD8/s640/blogger-image--353860426.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfy2ZAnK5BqNdHt06en4CRvv84go_j80fReDPz3dFROGwi-OaHzpg_VZ2YZNAkF2DJNvadD8vqalwlTk9s0Z0surMFYVEFU6NLhALePNiZa0feqlMMuCTpU8dmpUgTnEgdxjoN5VB3MD8/s640/blogger-image--353860426.jpg"></a></div>mindyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18281399488401861671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7832858393641582146.post-33787781315053329892015-09-15T08:32:00.001-07:002015-09-15T14:49:18.369-07:00Solids, Liquids, and Gases and Change with Temperature (A-2)<div>We did this lesson after A-1/B-1, but I guess I forgot to post about it. </div><div><br></div>Started by asking the kids what the three states of matter were, which the older two knew. Then we went through and listed examples of each. <div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI7vR__TZlS3UNbtZ8ASBHVTypUu47aHt3euaFlyY85A6cMWrG7BbQYKhiZJiU7kOidpYn3csXfByFuLTS5pojIiM-TOpUvmkDMgDuoUw7vAK6OpkbaArHTmxGAgY6yjsxGvXly2-TBgw/s640/blogger-image--407791774.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI7vR__TZlS3UNbtZ8ASBHVTypUu47aHt3euaFlyY85A6cMWrG7BbQYKhiZJiU7kOidpYn3csXfByFuLTS5pojIiM-TOpUvmkDMgDuoUw7vAK6OpkbaArHTmxGAgY6yjsxGvXly2-TBgw/s640/blogger-image--407791774.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">We talked about the molecules and how they are arranged differently in each state, and did a little activity I saw online where we all linked arms in a circle and wiggled a bit to represent the solid, kept arms linked and flowed around the house to represent the liquid, and unlinked arms and just moved independently to represent the gas. That was silly but they all liked it. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">We watched a BrainPop movie about Matter Changing States, the Crash Course Kids 3.1 video "What's Matter?" and later watched the Bill Nye episode Phases of Matter. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">I got worksheets from a website (I'll try and find the name) and had Zion & Clive complete the worksheet and had Leif do a sorting worksheet of pictures. They all seemed to rather enjoy the worksheets, which was a bit surprising. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDgLSN-Hk0HP9VZLhw8r9EC3-QZIqxCZl9xoinzJ3XEqfmOsn45bwFYYGk4kvIfJw2u2ODrYlvaQiWaT_VCSKwcwwagIBDAC6Biv0FwHAnjeIDbyekUZDSOs33GTx3xLQ94ybtBMa4hbY/s640/blogger-image-2131405071.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDgLSN-Hk0HP9VZLhw8r9EC3-QZIqxCZl9xoinzJ3XEqfmOsn45bwFYYGk4kvIfJw2u2ODrYlvaQiWaT_VCSKwcwwagIBDAC6Biv0FwHAnjeIDbyekUZDSOs33GTx3xLQ94ybtBMa4hbY/s640/blogger-image-2131405071.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6R27Xt8pLIOZ5ZYSGpDNRo1TMSBYLVAwF6AVa7en00hwtLA5r20l7qwP-Y45fz8AXtZz5l_HeHWCZkPka1VQIHJpSDl9-BwrnXYaa56aRtOlwdilu7DwPqJoeDZy9GanvJQlIZ2SH5Do/s640/blogger-image--1863276806.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6R27Xt8pLIOZ5ZYSGpDNRo1TMSBYLVAwF6AVa7en00hwtLA5r20l7qwP-Y45fz8AXtZz5l_HeHWCZkPka1VQIHJpSDl9-BwrnXYaa56aRtOlwdilu7DwPqJoeDZy9GanvJQlIZ2SH5Do/s640/blogger-image--1863276806.jpg"></a></div><br></div><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Then Zion and I did Notebook pages (which I still need to get punched and put in a notebook...) </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ5zzRn1YoA0uFs3cNCB8u2y1k1xl4DtdTLuQBMfTH4FAM0mHJZpropx9ymY5WeI9qXT25nAby4UyU21FTtkSa4x8T9GZOIJeRu-xnoKDVcXpYoX2KHYGnUsUEf-doRGSgUHQB828ytQw/s640/blogger-image-1174577608.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ5zzRn1YoA0uFs3cNCB8u2y1k1xl4DtdTLuQBMfTH4FAM0mHJZpropx9ymY5WeI9qXT25nAby4UyU21FTtkSa4x8T9GZOIJeRu-xnoKDVcXpYoX2KHYGnUsUEf-doRGSgUHQB828ytQw/s640/blogger-image-1174577608.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg8iLpgkhRnTXU2vW9tzKlvlWgZbUChLN_l3VH_09N9ppUSf6zFBD2xbf9LzRw0Gd9EFHfArgnrPhaPwV27SOBOkHtM82yWrkWZ3D1pYVlXVkgjOX5VvhLNwlXKJF5IGLZfpXxgk7aLnU/s640/blogger-image--661212464.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg8iLpgkhRnTXU2vW9tzKlvlWgZbUChLN_l3VH_09N9ppUSf6zFBD2xbf9LzRw0Gd9EFHfArgnrPhaPwV27SOBOkHtM82yWrkWZ3D1pYVlXVkgjOX5VvhLNwlXKJF5IGLZfpXxgk7aLnU/s640/blogger-image--661212464.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">I also sang them a silly song about solids/liquids/gases to the tune of The Wheels on the Bus. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">We talked about how most liquids are water based, and how states of matter change based on temperature. We used water and candle wax as our main examples, but also talked about metal and glass and lava/rock. </div><br></div><br></div><br></div>mindyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18281399488401861671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7832858393641582146.post-4823763678557706632015-09-14T15:29:00.001-07:002015-09-14T15:35:40.057-07:00Distinguishing Living/Biological, Natural Earth, and Human-Made Things (B-2)We did the bulk of this lesson outside on our front porch so it was easy to observe a mix of biological, natural earth, and human-made things. We started out by reviewing what we covered last week (states of matter), and then I said we were going to learn about another way of organizing things and introduced the idea of living/biological things. Right then a spider crawled by our feet, so that was a fun introduction. We saw a bird fly by, and also talked about the trees and plants. I talked about how items made by living things are also biological, and of course Leif eventually mentioned poop. We then moved into talking about natural earth items and found them a little harder to come up with than biological things. Dirt, rocks, mountains (which Zion pointed out are made of dirt and rocks), volcanoes...I mentioned air and water. Then we talked about human-made items and after a bit it came up that all things are made of either biological or natural earth materials. Zion was surprised to learn that rubber comes from a tree, but Clive and Leif seemed to know that already (maybe from Wild Kratts). Each kid had a paper with three sections labeled with each of the groups and they took notes or drew pictures of the different items we mentioned.<br />
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We came inside and watched this video: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giWqEPNLtBo" target="_blank">Cookie Monster discusses living vs. non-living</a> . I was hoping for a BrainPop or Bill Nye video on the subject, but hadn't been able to find one. We then brought up the remaining characteristics of living things listed in the book.<br />
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Final point I brought up was technology and we discussed early human technology (arrowheads, spears, pottery) and modern day technology. We looked at the tags of everyone's tee shirts to see where they were made. Each of them were made in a different place. Vietnam, Cambodia, Guatemala, and the USA. We looked through this <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/slideshow/2013-08-18/14-smart-inventions-inspired-by-nature-biomimicry.html" target="_blank">article about inventions inspired by nature.</a> We skipped over some of the more detailed/complicated examples.<br />
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mindyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18281399488401861671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7832858393641582146.post-25899262268984591452015-09-05T10:46:00.001-07:002015-09-05T10:46:03.233-07:00Finished up A/B1Yesterday we wrapped up our discussion on classification by talking about how things are organized at Costco (a familiar store for us). We brought up how they don't just have all the dairy products together because some need to be refrigerated and some need to be frozen. I hopefully made the point that different organizational systems are chosen because they work. We talked about possible ways to organize clothes. <div><br></div><div>We watched the BrainPop video on Classification and took the quiz. We also watched the Crash Course Biology video on Taxonomy. My 6 yo commented that he didn't really understand much of the Crash Course video, but I figure it is still exposure and good for something. Plus I'm sure that the older two picked up more from it. There is also a BrainPop Jr video that we didn't watch but might as a review next week. </div>mindyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18281399488401861671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7832858393641582146.post-13954841135620877982015-09-02T13:19:00.001-07:002015-09-14T15:35:23.325-07:00BFSU A/B-1 Organizing matter<div>
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">I had each of the kids gather 7 assorted items, and I did the same. Then they worked on figuring out how best to categorize the items. It got a little heated, as things tend to when both my oldest kids are involved.</span></div>
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As categories were suggested or tried I wrote them on the white board. After unsuccessful attempts to come to consensus, we decided to let each person have their own attempt to categorize. Here are the results: </div>
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After we finished, Zion wanted to try sorting them by color. </div>
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The sock and the cast iron bird statue seemed to be the most challenging items to find a good grouping for, according to the kids. </div>
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This part of the lesson took a lot longer than I anticipated, but the kids were enjoying it and pretty engaged, so I think it was time worth spending. We will hopefully wrap up when we have our next science class. </div>
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mindyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18281399488401861671noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7832858393641582146.post-39804910487662141262015-02-09T13:27:00.002-08:002015-02-09T13:27:44.461-08:00HaikuFor Poetry Teatime today we read haiku poems and discussed how to write one. These are the ones the kids came up with:<br />
<br />
Noodle:<br />
<br />
Chase it chase it dog.<br />
Accidental backflip, oops!<br />
Who put that hole there?<br />
<br />
<br />
Spud:<br />
<br />
Ok here's a haiku<br />
about a turkey vulture<br />
that's all for now<br />
<br />
<br />
Sprout:<br />
My giraffe farted<br />
And it was very stinky.<br />
His butt exploded.<br />
<br />
<br />
I wrote a few, a couple of them inspired by my boys talking (you can probably guess which ones).<br />
<br />
Elephant, large, gray.<br />
Eats pounds of grass daily.<br />
Makes many big poops.<br />
<br />
Tugging and twisting<br />
A brave battle fought daily<br />
Getting toddlers dressed.<br />
<br />
Round, brown, and crunchy.<br />
To dip and dunk, delicious.<br />
More Oreos, please.<br />
<br />
Long grasses swaying<br />
The smell permeates the air.<br />
Big elephant fart.<br />
<br />
<br />
The kids really enjoyed it, and I was happy to see that Spud wanted to copy his over again because his first draft was quite messy. Then they wanted to laminate them and make frames with colored electrical tape. Sometimes things turn out better than you expected!mindyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18281399488401861671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7832858393641582146.post-29485950142412724262015-01-06T14:23:00.003-08:002015-01-06T14:23:58.335-08:00Fresh StartAh, January. It's a good time to evaluate how things are going. How grateful I was for Christmas break this year to take some time and make some changes. I think what works for me and homeschooling is to steadily make gradual improvements by tweaking areas as necessary. It's really hard to change up a LOT of things at once. Keep what works, fix what doesn't.<br />
<br />
Spud is rather behind in writing. After trying a variety of different approaches, I was able to figure out that he needs the following:<br />
1. Clear instructions<br />
2. Predictability<br />
3. Not to feel pressured to be overly creative<br />
4. Not to feel worried about mistakes in spelling and other mechanics<br />
<br />
I asked for input on the Well-Trained Mind forums and had several people recommend Essentials in Writing as a potential fit. I read some more detailed reviews and it was mentioned to be good for the reluctant writer. We have been taking a Brave Writer approach to more things, but I realized that the writing assignments given were a bit too open ended for him to feel very confident with them, and it was a bit too dependent on me to give very clear instructions, which is not really my strong point. I can explain things well, but Spud wants things EXPLICITLY DETAILED, and he has very little patience for adding things like, "Oh, I should have mentioned XYZ," or the like. So a scripted curriculum works best. We are two days into Level 3 of EiW (I opted to start a grade level below so as to give him more chances to succeed before it gets beyond his understanding) and so far so good. I actually asked him if he would be willing to do two lessons/day since they are short (at this stage) and he agreed to that.<br /><br />To address his other major issues with writing, handwriting and spelling (the big one!), I ordered a Handwriting Without Tears cursive book and pulled out the Logic of English materials I bought 3 years ago but didn't really get into at all. It was too much for Spud (then a 1st grader) and wasn't very essential for Noodle (then a 4th grader), so I shelved it. I actually think it's going to be really beneficial for Spud now and he is going along with it nicely so far. He is actually excited to be doing the cursive book, which is kind of amazing since he's never been a fan of handwriting. I told him I wanted him to learn cursive so he could at least read it, even if he chooses not to write in cursive. I think he likes the novelty factor of it.<br /><br />Both Noodle and Spud have been using Teaching Textbooks for Math this year. Sometimes it would go well for Spud, sometimes not. Finally, after another math meltdown yesterday I told him we were returning to Math-U-See for him, because he did well with it and it worked. He got very frustrated with the spiral nature of TT, with a ton of review in each lesson. I told him that with MUS it was set up to be a lot easier to move forward once material is mastered, so I think he will be glad to use it again, even if right now he's still kind of bothered about it.<br />
<br />
Sprout is doing Math Mammoth 1 for Kindergarten math and he likes it quite well. He is also doing Dreambox, which he likes okay. I was doing Life of Fred with him, too, but he didn't seem to love it. <br />Additionally, he is working through Explode the Code 1.5, HWOT Numbers & Letters for Me, Rusty & Rosy Learn With Me (we paid for a subscription because it worked so well for him for preschool), reading BOB Books and I See Sam books, and joining us for Story of the World - Ancients and Spud for science.<br /><br />The twins are going to a babysitter in the mornings for about 2.5 hours. From Sept-December they went 3 days a week, but that sitter moved and we found a new one, so now they are likely to go 4 days a week. It has been a huge help to have them out of the house while we do Math, Language Arts, and History/Science. Since they still take pretty good naps, we get another 1.5 hours or so in the afternoon to have some good school time. It has been a sanity saver.<br />
<br />
Oh, just to finish out what we are doing for curriculum: Noodle is using Uzinggo for science, which I have been pretty impressed with. We are focusing on Life Science this year, and I think they do pretty great coverage for a middle school level. She isn't super into science, but she enjoys it well enough.<br />mindyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18281399488401861671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7832858393641582146.post-54824693357717461232014-09-25T11:20:00.001-07:002014-09-25T11:20:23.620-07:00PyramidsKids asked how regular Egyptians were buried, so we looked that up. <div><br></div><div><a href="http://www.ancientegypt.co.uk/pyramids/about/otheregy.html">http://www.ancientegypt.co.uk/pyramids/about/otheregy.html</a></div><div><br></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu6XYSVmcAdVkaICdgvstPlZBxhtHWmBXNXYZRtVlC7-5PCtanXnqj0yapwl0uwlCXWrmhLkvpKess15BPV-sr_UPw3qDeF7xuQqfolI4AkUCCr8H_yt-Mikne-C4bYd-eOggInvo_MMY/s640/blogger-image-5491367.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu6XYSVmcAdVkaICdgvstPlZBxhtHWmBXNXYZRtVlC7-5PCtanXnqj0yapwl0uwlCXWrmhLkvpKess15BPV-sr_UPw3qDeF7xuQqfolI4AkUCCr8H_yt-Mikne-C4bYd-eOggInvo_MMY/s640/blogger-image-5491367.jpg"></a></div> Sprout's coloring page. </div>mindyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18281399488401861671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7832858393641582146.post-56121321122919151222014-08-25T22:17:00.000-07:002014-08-25T22:17:22.708-07:00Thoughts...Today I sent the following IMs to my good friend Laura who also homeschools:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span class="_5yl5" data-reactid=".3e.$mid=11409006144065=274d3477270c920fa79.2:0.0.0.0.0"><span class="null">Sigh....I'm
getting that anxious feeling that I get when I feel like I'm not going
to be able to DO IT. I want so much to do this awesome mashup of
Brave Writer and Project Based Homeschooling but I'm afraid that it won't
feel enough like "learning" to me and I'll sabotage it. I am afraid to
trust it, even though it really seems philosophically sound.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span class="_5yl5" data-reactid=".3e.$mid=11409006144065=274d3477270c920fa79.2:0.0.0.0.0"><span class="null"> </span></span> <span class="_5yl5" data-reactid=".3e.$mid=11409006196066=274c2ce6bd285a4ec86.2:0.0.0.0.0"><span class="null">I
don't want my kids to be "schooled" I want them to learn how to learn,
but I only have an example of being schooled...at least until graduate
school. And in my regular, non-school based life.</span></span></blockquote>
<br />
After a nice chat with Laura more time reading today and corresponding some with Pam (Noodle's super fantastic writing tutor/mentor), I'm feeling better. I'm actually feeling pretty excited, but I'm trying to keep my excitement real since by now, going into my 8th year of homeschooling, I know that reality has a way of kicking even the most delightful plans in the shins. But I am excited, and I hope that I can remember to have a more Zen approach to the hiccups and interruptions that are inevitable in any life, but especially in a life with twin toddlers. <br />
<br />
One thing Laura mentioned was that she has an easier time feeling productive if she blogs about what gets done. I relate to that as well. Even though in retrospect I find it amusing how I blogged about our little accomplishments and projects when Noodle & Spud were in early elementary, I felt happy and productive. As they've gotten older, I've felt more pressure to do things that seem more like regular school, and in the process a lot of the joy has left. One of my primary goals this year is to make room for that joy. To cut out what really doesn't need to get done and spend time learning as a family. Less school-at-home and more cultivating learners. In public schools we spend 12 (usually 13, more if you include preschool) telling kids what they have to know and what is important to learn. But throughout those years we are constantly asking them what they want to do or be when they grow up. Do we really expect them to know when we don't give them a chance to develop their individual skills and talents now? <br /><br />I have a talent for school. I was always an excellent student, and most of the time that corresponded at least somewhat with being a pretty decent learner. But I haven't been in school for almost 10 years now (I defended my masters' thesis two weeks before Spud was born), so that talent of being a student doesn't serve me that well now. The talent of knowing how to learn does, though. A major mistake of traditional schooling, as I see it, is that the talent of being a student is the only one that is really measured, and therefore valued. There is a parallel track of being a good athlete or a good performer, but there are so many other talents that get ignored and go undervalued. We give every student the same box of tools while ignoring their natural gifts, and then expect them to do great things and have new ideas. I just don't think that's the best approach. <br />
<br />
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<br />mindyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18281399488401861671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7832858393641582146.post-32664580795621481302014-07-06T20:08:00.001-07:002014-07-06T20:08:58.242-07:00Engines<h2><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; ">Sprout sat down next to me while we were eating our dessert and said, "I want to talk about cars and motorcycles and how they work."</span></h2><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Me: "Hmm. Okay, well I don't know very much about that."</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Spud: "Okay, well just tell me about how engines work."</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Me: "How about we find a video?"</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">So we watched these two videos and I learned quite a bit! </span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><a href="http://youtu.be/0Ko0U8oTLRs" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000">http://youtu.be/0Ko0U8oTLRs</font></a></div><div><a href="http://youtu.be/aAWxZRuBXtw" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000">http://youtu.be/aAWxZRuBXtw</font></a></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Hooray for the Internet and YouTube! </span></div><div><br></div>mindyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18281399488401861671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7832858393641582146.post-5106667935153136452011-11-04T12:06:00.000-07:002011-11-04T12:07:11.785-07:00Lattice MultiplicationI'd inadvertently downloaded a lattice multiplication app a couple weeks ago and thought "Huh?" when I looked at it. But yesterday I watched the <a href="http://www.khanacademy.org/video/lattice-multiplication?playlist=Arithmetic">Khan Academy video</a> on lattice multiplication and now I'm sold! <br /><br />I'd never heard of it before, but I think it is a really nice way to do multiplication of multi-digits. Better than remembering the 0 in the standard way--so nice to do all the multiplying then all the adding. Plus it's kind of fun. It feels like it is too tricky to actually work, but it does.mindyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18281399488401861671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7832858393641582146.post-71899563699774640672011-09-29T20:25:00.000-07:002011-09-29T20:26:26.051-07:00We are really liking Real Science Odyssey: Life ScienceI got an MS in Zoology, so it's a favorite subject of mine, but I have a hard time sharing my interest with my kids (besides catching bugs, having lots of pets over the years and reading National Geographic...) This year, on some recommendations from a couple of people here, I got <a href="http://www.pandiapress.com/?page_id=50">Real Science Odyssey for Life Science</a>. I have really liked it, and the kids have, too. So far we have done some good observational activities (outside doing a plot study and studying the parts of an egg) and some fun models (jello models of plant and animal cells and this week a karo syrup based model of blood). I love that the lessons are one page of text. I feel like it hits the key points of the material, plus gives a good explanation, but keeps it short enough so the kids stay interested. We've been supplementing with relevant Bill Nye videos and the Discovery Ed streaming stuff (the kids dig Slim Goodbody) and I feel like it's a really good curriculum for my kids.<br /><br />Anyways, just wanted to share as I've seen lots of science threads pop up lately. You can download a pretty good sample at their website. I'd looked at the sample before, but it didn't win me over. Really doing it, though, has made me a fan.<br />__________________mindyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18281399488401861671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7832858393641582146.post-18180760812489382112011-01-24T20:47:00.001-08:002011-01-24T21:03:10.107-08:00still chugging alongSo I started working part-time from home in mid-October (the astute among you might notice that that date coincides with the date of my last blog post here), so it hasn't left a lot of free time for blogging. Yes, I do set my own hours, but with money always managing to find uses for itself, I don't spend a lot of free time blogging or otherwise enjoying the internet like I do when I'm not working. <br /><br />Homeschooling is going well, though. I introduced "Independent Folders" to each of the school age kids, into which I put any of the stuff for the day that they should be able to do without my assistance. It has really helped us get started more smoothly in the mornings, as they can just open their folders and get to work. Then I can jump in between assignments if I want to do some of the work they need me for. Right now, Spud only has math, a maze (for fine motor skill development plus some fun), handwriting practice on a lined white board, and Explode the Code in his folder, but it is enough to get him going. Then we do reading time and a computer program for reading together. <br /><br />Noodle has her math, cursive, Latin worksheets (2 per week), spelling, and sometimes math or Latin flashcards in her folder. She also does her piano practice and independent reading time on her own as well. I work with her on grammar and writing, and we all do history and science together. <br /><br />I am feeling pretty good about our current curriculum setup. It is always a temptation to see if the grass is greener on the other side of some hill, but there is SO MUCH OUT THERE that I find it is better not to look for something new unless there is a legitimate reason to do so. So, I try and not look for problems. I am trying to figure out an approach to geography, though, as I'd like to do more of that. <br /><br />We've started working with Sprout to learn his ABCs, and he seems really interested. he calls letters "ah-ees." I made a simple ABC book that I'm having printed, and I also compiled an ABC playlist on youtube. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=6EDBBEB826DAFF0A">Youtube Playlist</a> It's my hope that with a lot of exposure he might just kind of "pick up" on reading a bit more than the other kids have. It has been quite a bit of work getting the other kids to learn to read, so anything that makes it easier I figure is worth a shot.mindyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18281399488401861671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7832858393641582146.post-49898485010328489802010-10-13T22:39:00.001-07:002010-10-13T22:43:55.522-07:00happy reader(s)So Noodle was a bit late to the whole reading game. A year ago at this time, we were diligently working through beginning chapter books (like the Rainbow Fairy series) by having her read aloud to me for a while every day. It was quite tedious at times, but I felt that she just needed to keep practicing to improve her skills, more than more phonics work, so that's what we did. Now she is at the point where she really does enjoy reading, and she is skilled enough that she does okay reading on her own. She started Scout, one of the Puppy Place books last night at bedtime and then finished it off today, all on her own! I was thrilled! I will continue having her read as part of our school day, but it is just so rewarding to think of the progress she has made over the past 18 months. <br /><br />Spud is also doing really well with his reading. He is really getting his beginner books down solid and he is much less intimidated when encountering new words. He is working through Explode the Code book 1, and I think that is a really good way for him to practice & review.<br /><br />Hooray for books!mindyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18281399488401861671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7832858393641582146.post-19027125538992917242010-10-03T17:43:00.001-07:002010-10-03T18:42:19.974-07:00Term A, Week ThreeHighlights from the week:<br /><br />We have been getting together with some homeschooling friends in the neighborhood one or two mornings a week for some "P.E./recess" type fun, and this week we biked down the River Trail to Utah Lake. I had never biked out there before, and it was really fun and beautiful. The kids did great. It was 4 miles round trip but nobody got too tired or complained (I think that's an advantage of doing these things with friends). It took a couple of hours, and we didn't get started doing "school" until after 1, but it was worth it. <br /><br />On Friday we had arranged a field trip up to Tracy Aviary with the Boys Club I coordinated. It was a follow up activity to our owl pellets a couple weeks ago. David was able to come with us and we had a great time. My favorite parts were seeing the birds in the bird encounters (a red-crested turaco and an American Crow), seeing the HUGE Andean Condor basking with his wings open (very zen-like) in the sun, and hearing the family of five kookaburras laugh and laugh and laugh. I don't know if I knew (if I did, I'd forgotten) that they are called <span style="font-style: italic;">Laughing</span> Kookaburras. <br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrHTlvYvd21W8RHp8KTU8Vn94pia8G0NbMSifqFDtvsj1HzAJ7LcOBD92Gp6Fwl4MbxVRzp1HtaaiHMFD_y-t_SLmMDAEz_oFR2G4SPE62gu_sLXE0Um5dt3IDwy2Ayey99UMKUCiynbs/s1600/04AUS-20348-Kookaburra-kingfisher.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 245px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrHTlvYvd21W8RHp8KTU8Vn94pia8G0NbMSifqFDtvsj1HzAJ7LcOBD92Gp6Fwl4MbxVRzp1HtaaiHMFD_y-t_SLmMDAEz_oFR2G4SPE62gu_sLXE0Um5dt3IDwy2Ayey99UMKUCiynbs/s320/04AUS-20348-Kookaburra-kingfisher.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5523986557750321538" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:180%;" >Kookaburra</span><br /></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_bJY5lYbjno6QyKITKloUbF1vU9FS4-_HFV8p01u5oDK7bOh644yZmj9qsnjbX3RfqZ71ZbfpReBFMeUhxVt_wrjIhg8ghWMCQCFpfl4SXD5uEJhh-HaOInSnUu_0WovP0kvoYhTlsz4/s1600/Red_crested_Turaco___Close_Up_by_lokinst.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 229px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_bJY5lYbjno6QyKITKloUbF1vU9FS4-_HFV8p01u5oDK7bOh644yZmj9qsnjbX3RfqZ71ZbfpReBFMeUhxVt_wrjIhg8ghWMCQCFpfl4SXD5uEJhh-HaOInSnUu_0WovP0kvoYhTlsz4/s320/Red_crested_Turaco___Close_Up_by_lokinst.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5523986551733425042" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:180%;" >Red Crested Turaco</span><br /></div><br />Kookaburras have long been one of my favorite birds. I think they are just so cute and chubby. I learned that older offspring often stay around and help care for their younger siblings. David said he read that on a couple other bird species' signs, too. So neat! The kookaburras at the Aviary were a mom and dad and their three youngsters, all hatched this past spring. The chicks were already full-sized, though. <br /><br />In other news, Spud is doing really well reading his beginning reader books. We have quite a number of Bob books, which he likes okay, but he really likes the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Nir-Clever-Critters-Advanced-Reading/dp/1584766662/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1286153571&sr=8-3">Clever Critter books by Nora Gaydos</a>. We only have the Advanced Level One set and one of the Level Two sets, but I am tempted to get more because he likes them so much. I think I should probably just check out other first readers from the library and save the $. I've reinforced to him over and over that if he doesn't know a word he can either sound it out or ask me (or both), so he has stopped doing his, "Uh, uh, uh.." pathetic thing when he gets stuck. That is big progress!<br /><br />Noodle finished her math on the Green Track (I'll explain more later) so she was able to earn the cute hedgehog she'd picked out at This is the Place Park gift shop, <span style="font-style: italic;">plus</span> an extra four dollars. The idea is that she controls how quickly she moves forward with math and if she can master the material faster, and have a Green Level Effort (finish with minimal mistakes in an appropriate amount of time without needing reminders to focus), she can earn rewards. If she moves at our old pace, one chapter a week with many "focus reminders," that's a Red Level Effort. In between is a Yellow Level Effort. Probably sounds a little more complicated than it is. Anyways, her math covered some new ideas the last three weeks and she is doing well at understanding them. I think she needs to solidify her add/subtract facts, though, so this next week we are going to do review and drill. I'm hoping that it will be easier for her to stay on task when the small tasks that make up the problem can be completed more automatically. <br /><br />We are using <a href="http://www.memoriapress.com/descriptions/prima.htm">Prima Latina</a> for Latin this year (only Noodle and I, though Spud does listen in some), and I am really enjoying it. I think Noodle enjoys that we are learning it, though she kind of grumps when it is time to do it. As we learn a bit more vocab and can talk "secretly," though, I think the allure will be stronger. But I'm enjoying it a lot!mindyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18281399488401861671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7832858393641582146.post-47067105265314947642010-09-23T22:12:00.000-07:002010-09-23T22:38:43.313-07:00Week TwoSo, I don't think I have it in me to maintain an exhaustively detailed update of everything we do. Especially since I am kind of cutting back for now, seeing what we can handle, and then will add back in "extras". Some notable things from the week, thus far:<br /><br />Spud has done REALLY well this week with his lessons. He has only had one "poor attitude" incident, and that was today. I tried to help him shake it, but in the end, I asked him to go to his room until he felt ready to continue with a happy voice and happy face. He came down and did just fine after that. I talked to Noodle about the importance of responding to him with kindness, as I think her rudeness earlier in the morning had put him in a bit of a funk that he just wasn't shaking. During lunch prep, we had a nice conversation about how you can always look for things to be angry about. I said, "You could wake up every morning and think of a new thing to be upset about, and NEVER run out of things." We went through a number of examples, mostly ridiculous like, "Today I'm upset that I don't have my very own horse to ride," and "Today I'm going to be angry that I don't get to eat all the chocolate I want," but I think it made the point. Not that they'll remember it, but I plan to revisit the lesson in the not-too-distant future. I said that we can also look for things to be happy about, and told them how people who look for things to be upset about aren't as healthy because their bodies spend so much energy dealing with the bad emotions that they get worn down. <br /><br />One thing that seems to work really well with Spud is explaining the why behind some of the parts of his schoolwork that seem pointless. He is definitely not a kid to do busy work. Also, when he asks me if he <span style="font-style:italic;">has</span> to do something a certain way, or at all, I will explain to him what the idea is, and allow him to do it "his" way as long as it accomplishes the same goal. For example, in his Explode the Code book, yesterday he said he couldn't read the sentences because they were too small. I am pretty sure that his eyes are fine, but I know that smaller print can be hard for beginning readers, so I didn't push it and allowed him to skip that page. I asked him if I could type the sentences up and print them larger so he could do the page, and he said he thought that would work. So I did, and he did the page without problem today. Also, today he was supposed to "X" the box that went with the correct sentence, but he only wanted to do a slash instead of a full X. Since this is something that obviously doesn't matter, I allowed it. Also, I haven't been requiring that he do the pages where you have to write the words out, since his fine motor skills are not quite there yet. But he has chosen to do them, after asking me if he has to write in lowercase letters. I told him that it is preferred, as most of our writing is, in fact, in lowercase letters, but that he can use capitals or a mix of capitals and lowercase if he wants. I figure this isn't a penmanship exercise (no way I'm touching that right now), so it really doesn't matter. He is sufficiently exacting upon himself that I really don't feel the need to be at all critical of his writing attempts. He has been very good at asking how to write the numbers he doesn't know, and has been amenable to my gentle suggestions that he might find it easier to do them in such and such way. <br /><br />Today we did something that I've been wanting to do for a looong time and we've just not really done it before (at least not quite so thoroughly). Noodle picked up the most recent National Geographic magazine that was on the counter since it just arrived this week, and asked about something on the cover. We started looking through it, and we looked through THE ENTIRE MAGAZINE together, reading photo captions, answering questions, etc. It was awesome! And it was interesting to all of us. We learned about the oil spill in the gulf, talked about kids born with cleft palates (there was a Smile Train advertisement in there), talked about mountain climbers on Everest, a paternal mouth brooding fish, Jane Goodall and what she's helped discover about chimpanzees over the past 50 years, prehistoric animals of New Zealand/Australia, and problems of overfishing in the ocean. Pretty fabulous science/geography/current events lessons, methinks. I know they won't remember all or even most of it, but I love the analogy of the grammar school years giving kids "pegs" to hang future information on. They need exposure to a lot of information, and they will be able to start to organize it and develop interests. I am actually amazed at how much they do remember. <br /><br />One last thing, then I've got to get to bed. Noodle is doing a karate class with a couple of friends at a local charter school two afternoons a week. After talking to David, I realized that I really need to give Spud more attention. So on Tuesday, after Noodle left, he asked (as he always does) what he could do while she was gone. He's usually hinting around to watch extra cartoons and such, but this time I said, "Why don't we start reading your Captain Underpants book?" He was pretty excited about that, and he chose to read it up on his bed. We read the first 14 chapters (they are short chapters) and the next day he was so excited to read more. On Wednesday, we also went on a walk to collect cans from the neighbors and came home and made pudding to eat after our reading. It was a lot of fun to spend some quality time with him, and I look forward to continuing it. Captain Underpants is a pretty fun series. Noodle started reading it at bedtime tonight because she wanted to be in on the story, too. I'm a fan of all things that promote reading!mindyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18281399488401861671noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7832858393641582146.post-58193297277854714802010-09-17T19:19:00.000-07:002010-09-17T20:03:16.190-07:00Week One - We survived!Monday was rough, as it seemed that whenever I was in the middle of something with Spud or Noodle, the only thing that kept Sprout happy was wreaking massive destruction. The older kids did well on their lessons, but I was beyond frazzled by the end of school that day. <br /><br />Tuesday was good but crazy and not super productive. We hosted Boys Club that afternoon, so we had the house to tidy and things to get set up in the backyard for that. It turned out really well, so I'm excited. The plan is for the Boys Club to have an activity and a field trip together every month. I am so glad it all came together, as it was hard to organize something with a bunch of people that I'd not met before. I think it will be a good mix, though. All of the parents who came seemed like pleasant, agreeable, fun people. Spud seems to me making connections with some of the boys, which is my primary goal, so hooray!<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLGPrCXjh07_hEfIRVYupaEWN1Z0q-osr0zHnZkM9wPjGY40ChsKq2TjU7rp3C0CpFcQ1pHCMxGQtV-19nUdBzW3dkx0MqC6NV7uEpI3Q_3_5bnpQglLoJlNvYNvZP6ELqM_WU9Q_cIQE/s1600/owlpellet+3.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 264px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLGPrCXjh07_hEfIRVYupaEWN1Z0q-osr0zHnZkM9wPjGY40ChsKq2TjU7rp3C0CpFcQ1pHCMxGQtV-19nUdBzW3dkx0MqC6NV7uEpI3Q_3_5bnpQglLoJlNvYNvZP6ELqM_WU9Q_cIQE/s400/owlpellet+3.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5518083632495756050" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGvvsUTYhefmJL0FoCeHv_i7DMDkn_cKvHrmbXsSLI7P5XdmBK9j6X31Hxf0Cqb7dCi8IVOguMKADs9dF3rhkzynsrtFAcXtD8V4thiL6p024Xlvz0vzGA1mPm-oKYKuF7HZiVeu6ugkM/s1600/owlpellet+2.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 264px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGvvsUTYhefmJL0FoCeHv_i7DMDkn_cKvHrmbXsSLI7P5XdmBK9j6X31Hxf0Cqb7dCi8IVOguMKADs9dF3rhkzynsrtFAcXtD8V4thiL6p024Xlvz0vzGA1mPm-oKYKuF7HZiVeu6ugkM/s400/owlpellet+2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5518083622683432050" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1VFKVQ37r5sWGDC2ZXbdtK4VF5N6mM5oLVRAxvclTLcoWr3ij02eQsthg-yVmgRpVkfklnC5EzhrYR195_RfYVxdr8Oupa9yaqkpcl8L_ejtpq1haY7ZTbqY4tf1Wky2dEbxbn4hc2ls/s1600/owlpellet+1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 264px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1VFKVQ37r5sWGDC2ZXbdtK4VF5N6mM5oLVRAxvclTLcoWr3ij02eQsthg-yVmgRpVkfklnC5EzhrYR195_RfYVxdr8Oupa9yaqkpcl8L_ejtpq1haY7ZTbqY4tf1Wky2dEbxbn4hc2ls/s400/owlpellet+1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5518083619811114066" /></a><br />Wednesday was AWFUL. For reasons unknown to me, Spud is the sort of kid who really needs expectations spelled out explicitly. David and I had talked about this, and I was trying to implement a system of using a script to spell out expectations with our various school activities, but I didn't have one for one activity, and I don't know what triggered it, but he kind of went nuts. I could re-post what I wrote on a homeschool forum I'm a part of, but I don't feel like rehashing it. Suffices to say, he was very determined to NOT do a certain part of the lesson/exercise, and went crazy, screaming that I was torturing him. Then, after getting to the point where we finally completed the lesson, we had another explosion during lunch preparation. So, a couple people recommended a book called <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Explosive-Child-Understanding-Frustrated-Chronically/dp/0061906190/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1284777689&sr=1-1">The Explosive Child</a>, so I ordered it used from Amazon. It's gotten a lot of good reviews, so I hope it will have some specific strategies that might help me. Most of the time, Spud is really easy-going, but when he gets "stuck," it's terrible. <br /><br />Thursday and today were both good days. We discovered today that Noodle definitely needs to do her math in the morning, as today a single assignment took over an hour, and she made a lot of errors. Most of the week we'd been doing it first thing, so I think we'll set that as the standard. <br /><br />For Spud, here's what we are doing for Kindergarten:<br />Explode the Code Book 1 - I am requiring a page per day, but I think somedays he will voluntarily do more. One day this week, he did three. I think ETC will work well for him because it allows him to learn/review some material on his own. I did get the teacher's manual (I didn't have it when Noodle did Books 1 & 2, but found it was useful when I ordered it when she started Book 3), so I do hope to be able to do short instructional lessons with him (if we can avoid future meltdowns), but it's nice that it is fairly independent. His writing ability is really lagging, but I'm not worrying about that at all. He is trying to write, and doesn't seem too bothered by the fact that he can't make all his numbers/letters correctly, so I'm not going to stress it. I did print out and make a handwriting exercise book for him. I'll see if I can interest him in it eventually. We are doing Treasure Hunts from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Learn-Read-Treasure-Hunts-Skill-Building/dp/0761103309">this book</a>, though I've typed them up and made my own. We do one every morning, he earns a sticker, and at the end of the week, he can trade in his stickers (though I don't actually require him to give them to me, as we put them in his sticker book) for a "Mystery Car" (a hot wheels wrapped up in decorated butcher paper). He really likes these. For the early ones, there are a lot of pictures, so they don't actually HAVE to read, but he is learning some new words and being willing to try sounding them out, so I figure it's a major step forward. We are also doing Math U See Primer, a page a day. Finally, we are doing "Reading Activities," which is a bin I put 5-8 different activities in (beginning readers, flash card sets, things from Happy Phonics, Talking Words Factory DVD, Phonics Concentration (a simplified version of <a href="http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Phonics/concentrationgam.html">this game</a>, and other stuff as I find/come up with it). He can pick 1, 2 or 3 activities. Two activities/day puts him on the "Yellow Track," three/day puts him on the Green Track, one is on Red Track. For Yellow or Green (or in between) he can earn a special prize at the end of three weeks. For Red, nothing special. I am doing a similar thing with Noodle's math to help her feel motivated to work independently and at an increased pace. He has been quite cooperative with the Reading Activities, so that's been nice. He is also doing lessons on <a href="http://literactive.com/Home/index.asp">Road To Reading</a>, and he likes those as well. I figure we'll keep working on those as long as he is interested and enjoying them. <br /><br />So, that's our Kindergarten. He also joins us for Story of the World, Vol. 2. We didn't start Science this week, but he'll join us for that as well. <br /><br />I'll post Noodle's studies later. I'm tired of thinking about school.mindyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18281399488401861671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7832858393641582146.post-90536584419258024142010-09-10T23:50:00.000-07:002010-09-10T23:53:01.100-07:00First Day of School, take twoSo, after a less than auspicious beginning a couple weeks ago, I decided to bag it all until after my niece's wedding (where I was the photographer), wait for David to come home to help me strategize some things, and just let the kids enjoy the tail end of summer. So, we start afresh on Monday. I'm frantically trying to finish the last of my preparations, mostly some motivational things and whatnot to help them track their progress and stay on course. I'm hoping to get Noodle taking more charge over her math and hopefully coming to like it more. We'll see.... Main goal for Spud this year: READING! As soon as he feels confident and/or sufficiently motivated, I really feel like he'll be able to take off like crazy. It's just a matter of finding that motivation.mindyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18281399488401861671noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7832858393641582146.post-24383351601409546652010-08-24T12:58:00.000-07:002010-08-24T13:09:33.841-07:00starting off with a whimperWell, I'd hoped to start the year off with a BANG, but it is turning into more of a whimper. Sprout has been sick since Saturday night, we were up from 3:30 to 5:30 Sunday morning, I didn't sleep at all Sunday night, and the fever/crankiness continues. Yesterday was one of the worst days in memory. Not because of the kids, really, just because there were enough little things that I couldn't handle in my sleep deprived state. We did have a nice walk along the river trail, though. <br /><br />Last night's sleep wasn't much better, so when Tina came in this morning to take Sprout, I slept until 10. Then after I got out of the shower I saw that I'd missed a call from a friend. I called him, and he told me that our neighbor had been killed this morning in a plane crash in Nepal. The kids and I went over to hug them and give them our condolences. It's devastating.<br /><br />So, we've started some things this week, but a lot of it will probably wait until next week. I ordered Explode the Code book 1 for Spud, and I think he will like it. He seems to really like doing the same stuff that Noodle does. He is enthusiastic about his math work, though, so far, so I hope he keeps liking that. I wish I could help him feel strong in this whole learning to read process. He is so worried about making mistakes that he gets worked up about even trying sometimes. It's hard.<br /><br />Today they were both working on their math assignments (yay!) but then started fighting at the table. I thought, "Seriously? This is how it's going to be?" ::sigh:: Their fighting drives me to the edge. But they seem less affected by it than I am, and I need to figure out how to keep it as their problem.mindyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18281399488401861671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7832858393641582146.post-30355740747541172012010-08-22T15:14:00.000-07:002010-08-22T15:22:21.264-07:00updateSo, in case you are curious, what we ended up doing for summer was this:<br />Noodle continued reading aloud (some Encyclopedia Brown books and others) a few days almost every week, did a couple weeks more of Writing With Ease and a couple chapters of Math. Spud kept working on his Progressive Phonics flash cards and stories. Other than that, we've had a lot of unstructured time, so it's been good.<br /><br />A few months back, we started checking out books on tape/CD for the kids to listen to at night, which Noodle absolutely loves. I think Spud falls asleep too fast most of the time to enjoy the stories much. Noodle just finished listening to all four books in the <span style="font-style: italic;">Dealing with Dragons</span> series, and she told me last night that when she is ten, she wants to read all the books by herself. I think she chose age 10 because it seems far enough in the future that she feels like her ability will be up to it by then. I thought that was great, and I was so happy that she is so excited about the books. Books on tape have been great because I have a hard time carving out read-aloud time with them. We can usually get two or more picture books in during the day when we are "in school," but after history and the other reading I do with them, I'm tired. David typically reads a chapter to them at night from a book (they've done all the Chronicles of Narnia a couple times in Noodle's lifetime and are presently reading the 3rd Alcatraz book). But, her love for these Dragons books has really shown me the power of books on tape. She is so interested in them, which is awesome!mindyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18281399488401861671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7832858393641582146.post-73233870497698032052010-05-04T14:13:00.001-07:002010-05-04T16:32:13.131-07:00we are still alive!!Just busy! Homeschool stuff is going well, though I've kind of streamlined down to the essentials for now. I'm not getting a lot of "extra" books at the library for science or history, but we have consistently worked on our math and language arts. We are still doing our science and history, but without so much accessory stuff. Especially as the weather is nicer, I prefer to give the kids a lot of unstructured time. Plus, the first weekend of April Noodle got her new puppy, which she named Orbit. She wanted a space name, which I think was inspired by our current study of the Solar System and outer space. It's a great name for him, especially since he can and does run circles around the rest of us. That's been both fun and a little crazy.<br /><br />I'm in the process of forming a boys' activity group. Last month, Spud's best friend moved to Colorado, and another family from our homeschool group (with 2 boys) moved to Idaho. Our group has kind of dwindled now, and it was small to begin with, so it either needs an influx of new blood or I've got to figure something else out. But the guy needs some more friends. There aren't a ton of boys his age in the neighborhood, really, and he is the sort who doesn't really feel comfortable just going places alone to play. I have gotten quite a few responses of interested moms, so I'm hopeful we'll be able to get something fun going soon.<br /><br />Other than that, Noodle is now reading and enjoying the first <span style="font-style: italic;">Encyclopedia Brown</span> book, which is fun for me since I really enjoyed those books as a kid, too. She and Spud have been playing Detective on and off the past week.<br /><br />I'm trying to figure out what we'll do during summer. I know I want to keep Noodle moving forward on her Writing With Ease lessons (we started Book 2 last week) and the math, but I think we'll largely take a break from formal history and science. We are nearly at the end of Story of the World 1, and I think I'd rather just start Volume 2 in the fall. Maybe I'll get motivated during the summer and really prepare for some cool "extras". I'm not sure what we are doing for science next year. I think we might do Life Science, since I never did a formal thing with Noodle and Spud will be at a great age for that. I still need to do some research.<br /><br />And here's Orbit, for your enjoyment.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvJFNv3C8-cQEbquVoXFy1-dXkh7avlwvoFuDhgCtH8ClYOMumVZbPPaGbUDpULkQvExQ7WizlaFydXccXHquCor9McW5bTMD_hNv7QIeADvyjky94J3MOAwxS1mCKbIBWZmuChH8stuw/s1600/doggies+3.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 266px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvJFNv3C8-cQEbquVoXFy1-dXkh7avlwvoFuDhgCtH8ClYOMumVZbPPaGbUDpULkQvExQ7WizlaFydXccXHquCor9McW5bTMD_hNv7QIeADvyjky94J3MOAwxS1mCKbIBWZmuChH8stuw/s400/doggies+3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5467529039387439266" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC1QhmjhnhZu1X42Wi5wSk1w6l9LxVQlcq_-3yEn-LMmhDVCxZ9GnKFzU5jWUT0rBxR-HKJ21CBO74gfhvy2QVmCvwGGvxswXKYnDhyphenhyphen3f1w7GxdWHLL5KDDBgqqUjY8_qvXzKwZsix3_8/s1600/doggies+4.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 266px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC1QhmjhnhZu1X42Wi5wSk1w6l9LxVQlcq_-3yEn-LMmhDVCxZ9GnKFzU5jWUT0rBxR-HKJ21CBO74gfhvy2QVmCvwGGvxswXKYnDhyphenhyphen3f1w7GxdWHLL5KDDBgqqUjY8_qvXzKwZsix3_8/s400/doggies+4.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5467529029921589666" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx7Rmzl06PB8bIR1UsHQO8en9VMcVtevbJ3Qz8xV_WtB0sohuoBIzJiTLREHdqeZ5iAeY5NUFU4wFc4IXWR126b_JO73GEZOibf-6RMxQ-f2cYQNje815ZmspbYvFHNjIoYjiWBpvpj3Y/s1600/DOGS+5.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx7Rmzl06PB8bIR1UsHQO8en9VMcVtevbJ3Qz8xV_WtB0sohuoBIzJiTLREHdqeZ5iAeY5NUFU4wFc4IXWR126b_JO73GEZOibf-6RMxQ-f2cYQNje815ZmspbYvFHNjIoYjiWBpvpj3Y/s400/DOGS+5.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5467529028176963266" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgozouf2CAE1SmE_aKgYseUQ94e5-l_VJMzt80bC-1n8ZMywI0P_PZAeQSRSmBu2xfWNIaCYL5iBJxLbKvYOApg5SVTC4jfVDanpPT-dbLcOfxw8sLDnJr4pTsIVJOMspai1tfQ7I8IYyg/s1600/DOGS+4.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgozouf2CAE1SmE_aKgYseUQ94e5-l_VJMzt80bC-1n8ZMywI0P_PZAeQSRSmBu2xfWNIaCYL5iBJxLbKvYOApg5SVTC4jfVDanpPT-dbLcOfxw8sLDnJr4pTsIVJOMspai1tfQ7I8IYyg/s400/DOGS+4.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5467529018810413442" border="0" /></a>mindyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18281399488401861671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7832858393641582146.post-26983819236060635102010-03-15T14:24:00.000-07:002010-03-15T14:43:33.120-07:00Term D, Week 5 Report<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/14290000/14297365.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 185px; height: 270px;" src="http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/14290000/14297365.JPG" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />We had a pretty good week last week. I hadn't gone to the library to get the extra books for our Science & History topics, but I figured it was not going to kill us NOT to learn extra. But since we were learning about Buddha, and I like Buddha a lot, I picked up some books near the end of the week, and we'll read those this week.<br /><br />Noodle has been reading <span style="font-style: italic;">Rascal</span>, a book from <span style="font-style: italic;">The Puppy Place</span> series. (She finished it today.) I'd read her the first book in the series a couple of years ago, but we opted to start with this one (#4 in the series, we don't have #2 or #3), rather than reread the other one. She liked it, and I thought it was good because it actually has some training pointers. Since she'll be getting a puppy for her birthday this summer, it seems like a good idea to read some puppy related books. There weren't any pictures inside the text, but that didn't bother her too much after the initial disappointment wore off.<br /><br />I also asked the librarian a couple of weeks ago for a selection of books at the level of the Rainbow Fairies and Puppy Place books, and the librarian was so helpful. Last week, I picked up some "graphic novel/comic book" style books for her to try. Today she read from <span style="font-style: italic;">Fashion Kitty </span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5xrp86HcOCbzW4KOhwscWodk7jPd3i5_XcIq2mZixJ2RoS7EnhtybWUxBuuSd-loUNNOvaD0AiA6WEEMdyRFCXX7PmungVYRppxbi8hADtxWsQ6uL4hHR_y3wA9DzWOu6VdrNmhQqRS0/s1600-h/2148-1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 140px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5xrp86HcOCbzW4KOhwscWodk7jPd3i5_XcIq2mZixJ2RoS7EnhtybWUxBuuSd-loUNNOvaD0AiA6WEEMdyRFCXX7PmungVYRppxbi8hADtxWsQ6uL4hHR_y3wA9DzWOu6VdrNmhQqRS0/s200/2148-1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5448976798740076882" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;">versus the Fashion Queen</span> for a half hour during Reading Time. That is something we started last week, too. We didn't do it every day because of some other schedule constraints, but we did it 3 times. I started with just 15 minutes, but soon bumped it up to 20. I think we'll stay at 20-30 for now. Spud looks at books or listens to Noodle read, and I read a book silently to myself, but I'm available to help Noodle with any words or meanings she needs explained. She was not super keen on the idea of MORE reading, but she seems to be warming up to it very nicely. I sure like it. I'm making steady progress through Jim Trelease's <span style="font-style: italic;">Read-Aloud Handbook</span>, and he's the reason that I felt okay getting Noodle these comic-type books to read. She is such a visual/picture-oriented kid that it seemed like a good fit. And Mr. Trelease says the most important thing is to get the kids hooked on books, even if those books aren't classic literature. If they develop the skills and stamina required, they will eventually be interested and able to read the classics. I read scores of Babysitters' Club books in grade school, and it didn't ruin me as a reader, so there must be something to that notion. <br /><br />Oh, two weeks ago we attended a Lego Party at a homeschooler's home in the next town. I didn't know either of the other families who attended, but the kids had a great time and I really enjoyed talking to the other moms. We oddly had quite a bit in common. I guess similar types are often attracted to homeschooling. It was really fun, and the hosting mom said she'd like to do it again. The kids were introduced to Bionicles, which they now think are the coolest thing ever. <br /><br />Last Saturday we went to a St Patrick's Day activity at a local learning center/preschool. Even though we had to wait quite a while for the "premier" attractions, the balloon guy and face painting, the kids had a fun time and I was glad we went. Plus, we found out today that Noodle's name was drawn in the drawing for a prize! <br /><br />So, things are going well. We are trying to get outside on the warmer days. It gets up to low/mid-50s sometimes lately, so that's been nice.mindyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18281399488401861671noreply@blogger.com0