Weird Day

The fires in San Diego County are all around us, and since there are 8, it's not too hard to be surrounded!

Jason's work was closed for the day, so he has been home, which is always nice, but throws off our studies a bit. I thought about just playing all day but decided that we needed to have as normal a day as possible.

So here's what we did, more or less. Read a chapter from Story of the World about Egypt's Middle Kingdom. Is it possible to be tired of Egypt? It seems as though most of what we study in history is new and totally interesting, but Egypt is cool for a while and then just is kind of done. Anyway, we read and did a map and looked it up in a couple of other books.

After that I pulled out Benjamin Franklin by the D'Aulaires. Harry has been very excited to read it so it was a big hit. We read a few pages but not too far, I want the book to last. Harry narrated the pages we read--I'll post it tomorrow.

He played for a while after that. Jason took Sam out to get batteries and Harry and I got back into the math. He did both a page in MUS and his timed drill. I need to make sure he does the drill every day, I can tell by his scores if he takes days off of it.

He also practiced his writing. And we read the story of the Boy Who Cried Wolf. After that we drew some wolves that actually look like fluffy turtles!

A True Adventure

I've been feeling lately as if our Family Learning Adventure is, well, lacking in adventure. So I've been looking for ways to remedy that. A hs group here in our area sent out an email that they were going to have a nature walk this morning in a place a little less than an hour away. It didn't take me long to scrap our learning plans for the morning/day, pack a picnic, and set off.

The first sign that this plan might go awry was the place where the nature walk was to be held. It wasn't in some gorgeous park with trees and good signage. It also wasn't really in a great neighborhood at all. But we were on an adventure so we persevered on, making sure to lock the car doors.

We were the first to arrive--only a bit nerve-wracking when we realized that we were in a not-great neighborhood and even the coordinator wasn't there. Still, we were up for an adventure. And we wandered around the preserve. It was billed as a native-plant preserve, so I pictured some cactus, sage, stuff like that. And it was there, kind of. There were very few signs to tell us what we were seeing and of the signs that were there, most were broken. Also, quite a few of the plants were dead.

Honestly, I was thinking, "I wasted my gas for this, I put three kids in the car to see a few half-dead plants which we can't even identify? And where is the coordinator? Was the whole thing a scam to get pregnant women and their children into a remote, not-very-nice place?"

But I sucked it up and adventured onward, trying to have a good attitude for the kids while looking around the whole time for escape routes. They, on the other hand, had a good time finding neat plants and rocks, sitting on the various benches and rating them for cleanliness. They also sat down on one of the clean benches and drew pictures of one of the things they had seen that they liked.

Even I was getting into the adventure. Until the dog came...But you can read about that below.

Lame

What kind of person sees that his large dog is terrorizing three small children while their very pregnant mom is trying to pick all three of them up so the dog doesn't jump on them, and then walk leisurely over to get the dog? And then not even put the dog back on the leash which is in said lame person's hand and allow the dog to run more through the park?

Sometimes I get REALLY annoyed with people.

Terrific Tuesday?

Today went quickly. It seems as though the days do that lately.

Harry started off in Math--he did a page in his MUS book, actually he did two. It's hard--he needs the practice on these simpler problems, but at the same time, he's kind of past it. I want to start him on the next level, but I don't know if he truly is ready or it's me pushing him.

Anyway, he did his math in record time. I had a little thing for Sam and Annika to do, gluing letters onto some paper, and Harry joined them once he was finished.

Ahh, and the bane of Harry's existence came next. He HATES copywork. Actually he hates any kind of writing. But the only way to get better at it is to do it, so...he had some copywork next. It dealt with the weather which is what we are working on for science. It took him less time to actually accomplish it than it did to whine about how much he didn't like it, a point I made sure to show him!

Since we got home from speech classes late, it was lunch time, and we read yet more of Midsummer. During quiet time he and I looked up the weather around the country and our area.

And the schooly part of our day came to a conclusion!

Monday, monday

I was all set to post and blogger was down, so here's the Monday wrap up.

We started out by reading more Midsummer. Not a whole lot, but enough to advance the story. Harry really thinks it's funny. I love it. While I was reading he painted a picture of the Fairy Forest in the story and when I was finished with our reading for the day, he told me all about it. I'll post his story in a little while when the kids aren't right here. Plus I have to go downstairs for it and I really don't want to again.

After Harry and Annika went outside to play for a few minutes while I got set up for our next thing. Which I suddenly don't remember. We read some Aesop's Fables, he narrated one. We also read Horatius at the Bridge from 50 Famous Stories Retold. He narrated that too.

Harry watched the next Math-U-See lesson on subtracting from 10 and did the page in his book for that. He also did his timed test for the day.

We picked up Sam from preschool and did some shopping. (Harry needed new church pants and a white shirt for Sunday). I ended up without a white shirt but with church pants and a couple of outfits for the new little girl that will be joining us soon. That was fun!

In the afternoon we did a neat craft that involved acrylic paints and a chrysanthemum. The boys made "Mum Prints." Annika painted herself with blue and purple kid paints. I'm not about to give her something that's going to stain.

That's about it. It was a pretty nice day.

I didn't realize

it had been quite so long.

Yikes. Well, in my defense, there has been learning happening here, I just haven't posted about it.

So without further ado, here's what we've done this morning:

Math--one page of his current lesson in MUS. I also decided that Harry really should know how to grip a pencil correctly, so we worked on that.

We read a bunch pages from Midsummer Night's Dream. The version we are reading is really interesting and fun, Harry keeps asking to read more. Sometimes I do, but most times I don't--I have to make sure he understands what is happening. (True story: Harry just saw me writing this and, I quote, said, "I wish we were reading Midsummer right now. I really like it. So, does Oberon think that Puck is funny? I don't, he plays mean tricks on people") I think he understands it pretty well!

I had them color and cut out a bunch of autumn shapes yesterday so we strung them onto a ribbon for a decoration. Today they had to match up some leaf stickers by shape and size so we could make it even prettier.

Play and snack time.

I got out the play dough and everyone joined in. We read a chapter from Story of the World about ancient China--farming, pictograms, and dynasties. We used play dough to make up our own pictograms and talked about how life was different back then. Harry and I used the SOTW activity book directions to begin making our "Ming Bowl." Once it dries, he'll paint it blue and white.

Lunch time and Child's History of the World. We read a chapter on the Egyptians. This led to another chapter also on the Egyptians and a discussion about if these people were alive at the same time as people in the Bible and Book of Mormon. I really need to get started on some kind of a Book of Centuries or time line. Things will make way more sense.

It's quiet time and Annika is asleep. Sam and I are going to play a game he got from speech (I'll have to write about that soon) and then I'll get both boys up to paint with acrylics. Not something I'm willing to do when Annika is around!

After that is an early dinner and soccer practice.

Thursday is our "day off," we only have Sam's speech class which ends at 8:25. Then we get to go home and do fun learning things. I love Thursdays!

The Day Before

Annika's 2nd Birthday!

I decided not to plan much school-type stuff on Thursdays. Harry will do math and copywork, but that's all that's on the schedule. Instead, it's our "day out." It's the only day that we don't have preschool or later speech appointments. So we go play.

Although, after saying that, today we are home. It's just too hot right now for me to have any desire to do anything. I know that we could head to the beach, but even the beach is too warm. Also with Annika's birthday tomorrow, I wanted to get some stuff done around the house--make her cake, clean, make some banners, clean. Stuff like that.

Today we did tomorrow's learning work. We read some of This Country of Ours, looked at pictures of the earth, inside and out, talked about the atmosphere, played a math game, and did some copywork. All-in-all, it took about an hour, maybe an hour and a half. First grade at home is wonderful.

I have to say though, that part of why it's working so well is that I'm organized and I'm using a curriculum that I believe in. There are parts that I've changed--we are doing more organized science and I've cut out a book that doesn't work for us for religious reasons, but more or less we are following it. And it's wonderful. Harry is asking interesting questions, making connections between things, and in general learning a lot. I'm learning to be a little hands-off and let him make the connections and be responsible for his own learning.

We're Back!

I am continually amazed at how much Harry is getting from Story of the World. I know I wrote about the change in my last post, but I kind of wondered if he was just interested because he knew some of the story already. Today we read a little about Hammurabi and his law code, which I know none of my kids have any prior knowledge of. It was amazing. Harry was really into the story. Even though some of it was dry, he was still interested in it.

The best part is that he's asking questions--good questions about why and who. I asked him if he thought the examples of the laws were fair and he thought for a minute, said no, and then told me why. It was interesting to see his mind work. He's still so little and in his mind it is fair to pretty much do what you want, even if no one else thinks it it. I truly expect that to change in the next few months--the egocentrism that is. Hopefully not the thinking about things part.

We spent about an hour doing our academic-type stuff. He did some math; how come subtraction makes way more sense to him than addition? Then we read SOTW and did some of the sheets for this chapter. I really wanted to get some copywork/grammar done, but that will have to wait until later. We had a snack at 10 and read a bit about Henri Matisse, our painter of the month. Then we did a painting project of our own. I'll take pictures of the paintings later when they dry.

Now the kids are playing Monopoly together while Annika does her King Kong impression and walks over the board with her hands behind her back! I have to get a crown put on this afternoon, so we are picking up our babysitter after lunch.

In the Beginning...

We've gotten our books, I've begun to plan, and in my enthusiasm, couldn't ignore that copy of Story of the World just sitting on the table. We did some from it last year, but it seemed like drudgery. I ordered it again this year because I wanted it to work so badly and I'm pretty sure that it was only drudgery because I made it like that. I planned and planned and thought about how wonderful it would be to do the projects in the activity book, and then when they didn't go exactly like I thought they should, I got discouraged.

Wow, look at all of those "I"s in that sentence. See it was me, not the boys.

Anyway. I pulled it out and decided to start roughly where we left off last year (Ch. 6 if you're keeping score), and proceeded to tell the boys the story of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. It went amazingly well! Probably partly because Harry has heard of all of these prophets before. He has some prior knowledge to hang the new information on. Whatever the reason though, both boys were really into the stories.

It did seem wierd to me to tell a Bible story out of a history text and have that be a lesson (and not in the way of "let this be a lesson to you, boys"). But I got over it when they both could discuss what I had read. As the culminating part of this lesson, I cut out robe shapes and the boys glued colors to them, making Joseph's Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoats!

Starting Back

We did a little math on Monday. Just got everything put away from breakfast and grabbed the math book. It wasn't so bad--I gave Harry a couple of review pages to work on just to get him started. I think we'll try to do some review every day for a week or so and then get back into the new info.

It wasn't my intention to take such a long break, it kind of just happened and I think I need to get back into the swing of things kind of slowly.

20 July

Harry says he doesn't like picture books anymore--he's too old. Sure, little boy hanging on my knee engrossed in the pictures. Much too old.

Read Picasso and the Girl with the Ponytail to H&S. Mostly to Harry while Sam sat at the other side of the table drawing great white sharks. Annika also there--eating crayons. I'm aghast--not the crayons, you just don't do that to perfectly innocent crayolas. When I get the good crayons, I'm hiding them from her.

Looked up Picasso in another art book we have. Funny picture of him with bread hands--Harry was a bit disturbed by it. Went to the computer, but we'll have to finish in a while. Remember Usborne Quicklinks, Children's Book of Art, pages 44-45. All about Picasso.

Must get Annika dressed and get to the library before she is too tired and will fall asleep in the car. I need a nap today too!

under construction

Pardon me while I mess around a bit with this template. Hopefully I'll finish soon, before I have anything real to say!

A Morning Spent in Scotland

We are reading Little House in the Highlands by Melissa Wiley. It is historical fiction written about Laura Ingalls Wilder's Great Grandmother who grew up in Scotland. At first I thought it blasphemy to try to write novels about LIW's family, but I love the books. They are incredibly descriptive as far as life in Scotland at the end of the 18th century and just fun to read. Plus the boys really like them.

So this morning we had porridge and cream because that is what Martha had for breakfast every morning in her nursery with her brothers and sister. Harry pretended to be Martha's brother Robbie and Sam Duncan, another of her brothers. Annika got to be Martha, although I'm pretty sure Martha never dropped most of her porridge down her dress--maybe she did at almost two. While they ate their breakfasts I read a chapter that described the tenant farmers' cottages, so now I'm trying to find a picture of what one might have looked like. Not that easy, really.

I have this sneaking feeling that we will be incorporating more and more Scotland into our summer--mostly food, probably. But we'll do more than that as the little people in our home want to. It's just fun.

This morning

We're reading Pagoo--a really wonderful book about a hermit crab growing up in a tide pool. It's full of a lot of information about tide pools and the animals that live there. What's more is that the kids really like the book and it's sparking an interest in tide pools. Which, for where we live is pretty good.

This led to looking at other animals in tide pools, trying to figure out how the tides work (I knew it had something to do with the moon, just not exactly how), and inexplicably, looking up how fireworks work.

All in about 30 minutes. (this was actually yesterday morning)

Why Preschool?

The short answer--because Sam needs it.

He doesn't really know how to deal with people his own age, or around his own age. And nothing I was doing was solving this problem. Everyone his age that I know is already in preschool. I also wanted him to have a place where Harry isn't. Although, Harry did go to the same preschool and they all know Sam as "Harry's Little Brother." So there's a slight flaw in the system. Sam's teacher is new to us and didn't know Harry though.

All-in-all it's been a good thing for him, even after only two days. Sam tells me a lot about his day. Tonight he sat on my lap and ticked off the things he remembers from the day. He had snack, rode a bike, made his project. There were about five or six things that he told me about. His teacher said he didn't say much but he did talk a little. Which, frankly for me, was amazing.

I don't know if I truly underestimate Sam or if I just worry too much about him. I know he is incredibly smart and loving and funny and oh-so-stubborn. But I didn't think he'd take to preschool as well as he has. I thought he'd have a harder time relating with the other kids--instead tonight he told me that he played with a "nice boy in a red shirt!" I didn't think he'd talk for a while, if ever.

I am just so incredibly proud of Sam. He has worked so hard just to speak clearly and here he is off in the world by himself, proving me to be the overprotective mom that I am!

The Outside; inside and stuffed

Today we headed out to a local nature center to see what we could see. It was a taxidermists dream. Fortunately my kids all seem to be future taxidermists. They had all of the birds we've seen in our back yard, plus their nests and in some cases their eggs. There were also stuffed gulls, a Great Horned Owl and lots of other things that should normally be flying or creeping.

Along with all of the things the kids couldn't touch, there was plenty they could. Apparently when animals die, people bring them to the nature center. So there were bird wings, feathers, dead lizards (ewww) and all kinds of things to discover.

Since the nature center is by a lagoon, there is also a path partway around where you can see pretty much nothing! The reeds are so high it's a little like being in a corn maze. We were able to watch a little bird jumping around in some mud eating some "most delicious bugs. Yum, yum." That was fun. And the kids saw a couple of ducks as we were driving out.

We had a good, low-key time. The kids did like seeing all of the animals and feeling what they could, but they also had a lot of fun squeezing all of the stuffed birds so they could hear the sounds they make. This doesn't really explain it. Maybe this will help: http://www.seattleaudubon.org/natureshop.cfm?catID=366 . They were toys, not the real birds--we got a mourning dove because they were the first birds we identified when we got the feeder.

This post is getting long. It was just a fun, easy time. There was no pressure to have fun and they could all enjoy themselves at what ever level they are at. Next time you visit, we'll take you there. (All of you. I promise. If you visit, I'll take you all over the place!)

today...

was a very good day.

Harry had his art class and "Kids' Club" over at his little school. He loves his art class and is learning to do so much. He also likes Kids' Club and hanging out with his friends. He needs this outlet too.

Sam had speech where he didn't just talk to his therapist, he talked with her aides as well. I see big changes in store for my reticent little--sorry--"medium small" boy!

And Annika napped for more than an hour. I love it. I used the time to tuck Sam into bed for a nap and do lessons with Harry. We got so much accomplished. I love days like this.

I'm going to bed, but I'll write about Sam's first week at preschool tomorrow. Such a big kid!

Why won't she talk?

As I stated in my last post, Annika will be starting speech therapy soon. I'm not entirely sure when, but it will be in the next couple of months. (It would be sooner, but we won't be available for a while.)

After all that we've been through with Sam's speech and confidence, we kept an eye (or ear) out for anything similar in Annika. And sure enough, she isn't talking yet. Which in and of itself is probably not much to worry about, but with our family history, for Annika it is. She isn't trying to talk--she grunts here and there and has a couple of baby signs that she uses, but overall, she is quiet.

So I took her in to be evaluated by the people at Early Intervention (EI). EI is for families who's children are delayed in any way or have an issue that could affect their development. Going in I really wanted them to say, "no problem here, she'll catch up soon." But they didn't. Instead she is at a 7-9 month level for speech. I can't tell you how disheartening this is. I really wanted them to send me home and laugh at me for being such an overprotective mom. I also know that a speech issue that will be "fixed" fairly easily is nothing compared to what most of the other families at EI go through. But, like every other mom, I want my children to move easily through life. I don't want any of my children to struggle--especially not with something as basic as communicating.

In any case, Annika will be getting services soon. She goes in for a hearing test next month and for an actual speech evaluation then too. After that we'll know exactly what we have to do to get her at age level.

On the other hand, she tests at 36 months for fine motor skills!

The Decision--New and Improved

After writing my last post here the other day, I thought and thought about sending Harry to school. It just bothered me that there were so many reasons I could see to keep homeschooling and doing what we are doing and so few for sending him back. I also kept thinking that I should keep him home--you know the good old feeling that something isn't right about the decision.

So, I decided to follow that feeling. We are keeping him home next year. It just doesn't work to send him back. Sure, the class size is only 20, but here there's only one child in first grade. Here we can set out a bird buffet, pretend to be Jenny Wren, talk more about Erik the Red, do all of the subtraction we can take in one day. All of those things that make learning at home fun and joyous.

It's still going to require some juggling. Sam will have speech and he will still go to preschool--that'll be the hardest thing to deal with, schedule-wise. Annika will also start speech therapy, so there will be another thing to worry about.

But really, the benefits far, far outweigh the negatives. Like, I can't even see the negatives in the rear-view mirror!

yes, we really have done stuff...

really.

But between me being sick every other week and Easter...well, I just haven't been on here much at all. Obviously.

Also, there is that one little issue of Jason coming to me one night and asking me if I was planning to send Harry to school next year. I looked at him, completely shocked, and said, no...why?

So that started me thinking again about school and if I should send him next year. All of my being screamed NOOOOOOOOO. But I still decided to think about why not and also why it might be a good thing.

Reasons why not:

1. I don't want to. I don't want to lose the closeness that we have developed. I like what we are doing and I'm comfortable with our little home-based existence.
   
2. I can do a better job teaching him than a teacher with 20-30 kids.
3. It's a lot of fun opening up a book and exploring it with him.
4. We can do what we want when we want.
5. I don't have to worry about being late for school, packing a lunch (ugg) or getting him dressed.
6. He's really interesting to be with and getting more so the older he gets--why would I want to miss any of this?
7. I discovered that he has a talent and interest in creating art--something that wouldn't have been discovered in ps.
   

Reasons to send him:

1. He wants to go. He is very social and misses his friends.
2. In first grade the classes are limited to 20 kids.
3. It will be nice to have some more one-on-one time with Sam and Annika. And specifically for Sam to get out of Harry's very long shadow.
4. It'll be easier to get stuff done in the middle of the day--it's full day school and I won't feel quite so scattered. (Hopefully)

And the decision is...

Tentatively, Harry is going to First Grade and Sam to Preschool.

The decision was really driven by Sam's need for friends. He's been going to speech for over a year now, but that's just 30 minutes twice a week. I honestly don't know anyone who has a child Sam's age that we can get together with easily. Also, with Sam's personality quirks, he needs to get together with children more.

The preschool Harry went to and that Sam is going to is a coop, meaning that I have to bring snack once a month and "volunteer" twice a month. In order to be able to do that, Harry needs to be in school. Or I need a nanny.

In a very long blog post, my thought process and my decision. I'm okay with it some days and not others. But this is long enough for now, so good night.