Friday, September 18, 2009

So many activities!

I think with guitar lessons starting on Monday and bowling starting on Tuesday that will officially signal the end of the adding in of activities. So here's what we have:

MONDAY
10a-11:30a Jonathan has Speech and OT (Chris & Matt hang at the library doing
schoolwork and I take Nico grocery shopping)

3p-3:30p Matthew has guitar lesson (Chris stays home while I stay at the park with the other two)

4:30p-6:30p Chris, Matt, and Jon all have KSW (Nico and I drop and run home)


TUESDAY
2p-3p All four boys bowl
5:15p-6:15p Christopher has Young Actor's Workshop
5:30p-7p Jonathan has soccer practice
(Matthew can go to KSW or stay home and practice guitar in peace)


WEDNESDAY
4:30p-6:30p Three big boys to KSW


THURSDAY
10a-11a Matt, Jon, and Nico have swim lessons
4p-5:30p Jonathan has soccer pratice
4:30p-6:30p Chris and Matt have the option of going to KSW


FRIDAY
9:30a-10:50a Matt and Jon have pottery
10a-11:30a Nico has zoo class
3p-6p Chris has biology lab which I teach at a friend's house
Also sometime on Friday, Jonathan's speech teacher stops in for another session with him


SATURDAY
10:15-11:30a Jonathan's soccer game
11a-1p Chris, Matt, and Jon have Pan Moin at KSW (yes, I notice the time discrepancy for Jonathan, he's late every week to his practice for the competition)


So this would be why I roll my eyes when people ask about socialization. I worry a heck of a lot more about trying to find time for academics with them than I do about their social skills. Academic stuff is getting done but it's been a challenge figuring out how to work it in around all the other stuff. I'm really, REALLY hoping to find time to work on that schedule this weekend to get a better idea of what may be able to just come out and where we can trim and/or combine things. At least now I have all the materials so I can hopefully do better than just guessing on the last pieces.
I have to say tho, they are so happy with all their activities. Yes, scheduling it all is a challenge and it keeps us on the go more often than not. Yes, it makes it harder some days to find time for things like the three Rs. BUT, they are finding their creative sides and exploring them and THAT is what I want for them. The basic academics we can get to but letting them explore and create is something that if we deny can be lost forever and that is something too precious to be discarded. I'm so thankful every day that I have the opportunity to open opportunities for them rather than close them away behind budget cuts and state testing needs.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Thank Goodness for Wikipedia

Matthew started not feeling great again this afternoon but thankfully we were able to curl up on the couch and do our last bit of schoolwork today with the help of Wikipedia. We read our chapter in Little House in the big woods and then did research on oats, wasps, herbal remedies for fevers, and anaphylactic shock. We studied the scientific naming conventions of the oats and wasps. We learned where oats are grown and how they are processed. We learned how wasps live and what happens when you get stung and how that can lead to anaphylactic shock and what exactly that means. We talked about the different herbal remedies for fevers that people used to use (and many that are still in use) and what we use today.

Nicholas was cute today. His new thing is wanting to sit with me and read his stories to me. It's so interesting to hear his take on them.

I've been reading Christopher's art history book and I'm just beyond thrilled with it. I am learning so much from it that really adds to my understanding and appreciation of ancient art. Today I read about ancient Indian cultures and then went delving into ancient Egyptian and Greek art. I learned why the Egyptians drew people and animals the way they did. It was that they believed in order to preserve someone in the afterlife, you had to show everything of their body that you possibly could. That is why their bodies are in seemingly unnatural positions and why their head is in profile but you see the eye on the head from the position as it it were facing forward. It was all an effort to preserve the soul in the afterlife. The Greeks learned much from the Egyptians but whereas the Egyptians were using their art for a specific purpose with religious tones so their rules were rigid and unchanging, by around 450BC the Greeks were learning that there was so much more they could do and they didn't need to be bound by those rules and they let loose with a will. I had also never realized that so many of the "Greek" statues we see in marble are actually Roman reproductions of Greek pieces and were done cheaply. Many of the originals were done in bronze and used many different materials to color them and bring them from beautiful into something that was worthy of the gods.

Can't wait to continue reading this book and continue learning from it. I think it's a great course and I'm so glad Christopher is taking it.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

The Moon is Not Made of Green Cheese

I know it's been a few days since I updated but life has been very crazy with other appointments and we had some illness so we kind of kept to the basics and not much else but today everyone was feeling better and working well so we got to do a lot of fun stuff.

The big things are, as usual, from our Prairie Primer. Today we were studying the moon, it's cycles and effects on the tides, as well as many of the legends and myths that surround it. I tried to get the boys to blog about it but Matthew had already done his blog for the day and Jonathan is too wrapped up in his big sleepover in 11 days to care for such trifling matters. LOL At least Matthew will blog about it tomorrow.

We also did some studying on the skin and all it's many layers and the purposes it serves and how it does those. We read about how they made cheese in the 1800s and I will be trying to find the ingredients to make our own cheese later this week. Doesn't look like an easy process but it should be interesting to see if we can recreate it in some small part here. If you know where I can get some Junket, please let me know. I'll skip on the rennet. LOL

I got a chance to work with Nico a bit today as well. Kid LOVES to draw circles but other shapes are just not nearly as interesting to him. LOL But we worked on identifying them and hopefully he'll start realizing there is more to life than just round shapes. He did great with his workbook and had fun with a couple of projects. We had a lovely time reading "The Little Rabbit" which was one of my favorite books growing up. He really enjoyed it as well and insisted on reading it to Matthew afterward. So cute! He's also getting into doing the calendar and days of school with me and reminds me when we do the first one that we need to do the other as well. Gotta stay on top of mommy you know. She forgets stuff all the time. So glad he's figured that out already. LOL

I've started reading "The Story of Art" so I can do all the art discussions with Christopher. I've done most of them and yes, I could get away with not reading the book but if feels like cheating somehow so I'm reading it. So far I've gotten the introduction done (which he didn't have to read) and am just now starting the text but what I loved reading was what the author wants you to come away with is exactly what I want Christopher to take from it. I was hoping by going with a curriculum that tends to think that way, I'd get that but it was nice to have that confirmed. I think we will both enjoy this course. Now if only I could get caught up with his History reading. Unfortunately, I don't think I can get away without reading that one. Maybe it will be really interesting too?!

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

What's osmosis got to do with Little House on the Prairie?


Well, more than you'd think. Today we read about "sugar snow" which was when you'd get a late frost after the maple sap had already started moving so you'd get more sap out of the maple trees. To demonstrate how the sap runs through trees and brings the water up, we first taped 3 straws together to show how it was much harder to suck water up through 3 straws as opposed to 1. Then we cut a potato in half and put it in some water with a shallow hole scooped out. We put food coloring in each half and sugar in one half so tomorrow morning we can observe which one has drawn more water up.

We also tasted log cabin syrup and compared it against real maple syrup. We talked about the ingredients of each and the price difference. It was decided that the real maple syrup was definitely worth it.

Friday, September 4, 2009

Pinch Pots and Cheek cells

Matthew and Jonathan started their new clay class today. It came recommended by Linda and her son Ian takes the more advanced wheel class so of course, they wanted to do it too (and hopefully catch up with Ian quickly). Today they started out with the most basic of things, the pinch pot. I couldn't get many details out of them (this is the disadvantage of boys) except that they had fun and are looking forward to making coil dishes next week. I have to drop them off on the way to Nico's zoo class so I'm unable to stay generally but next week we have a break between sessions for Nico so I'll be heading over with my camera to check it out.

Nico had a fun class learning about Aye-Ayes and even got to pet a 2yr old Alligator named Tabasco. Very cool but sort of creepy at the same time.

Christopher and Ian are studying skin, hair, and teeth this week so the lab involved preparing cheek cells and looking at them under a microscope and drawing what they saw and then labeling the parts of the cell. It took several tries for them to prepare one good slide as they kept not scraping hard enough and kept knocking the slides and making a mess and having to start over. But we finally got a good sample from Linda's cheek and were able to view it at 40X and the boys both got nice drawings of the cell with all it's parts. I was so pleased when Christopher was able to label the whole thing without referring back to anything. Again, I plan to get pictures of them working in lab next week. It's really cool to see them, one at a microscope and the other preparing a slide or doing some research on the computer. Well, when we can get them both to work at the same time. I tend to set Ian off into a giggling fit and Christopher is easily distracted by their cats. Hopefully with a few more weeks together, those will stop and the labs won't take quite so long.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Still trying to work things out

Not quite sure where I'm going wrong but we are still having problems getting everyone where they need to be doing what they need to be doing in a timely manner. Thursdays are just plain going to be hard between swim and soccer practice I think and Tuesdays won't be much better once bowling and acting start up in conjunction with soccer practice. Is it bad that I'm already over the whole soccer thing and the first game is this Saturday? *sigh* We'll work around it like we always do but I'll feel much better when I have a real schedule in place. We were gone most of the day yesterday so have decided between that and the short week next week to take a few days off from our Prairie studies to catch up on a few other things. Matthew and Jonathan start their art class tomorrow and I'm still waiting to hear back about Matthew's guitar lessons.

Jonathan is enjoying his new math. He is doing Saxon for the first time and it's a lot of review right now so I'm letting him do every other one for the moment to get him geared up into it. He's doing well with writing the problems out for himself so that is also good. Still having real problems getting him to settle down and work without me standing over him. Makes it very hard to deal with Nico and him at the same time. :(

Nico is really enjoying the whole workbook thing. I've found several different books that have caught his attention, mostly Kumon and Critical Thinking. I was checking out a new Critical Thinking book for him today, Building Thinking Skills Beginning and we had to do 30 pages before he started getting too goofy to work with and even then he didn't want to quit. There were some tough things in there for him to work on so that was good because they really are developing his analytical and listening skills. Listening skills are definitely something that all my children can use work on. LOL

Matthew is actually finally working well independently this year which is great. I'm really hoping it can continue but it's been a huge relief knowing that when I ask him what's been done at the end of the day, there is a good chunk of stuff done and if something isn't done, he usually apologizes and gets right on it. That right there is a HUGE thing for him to have learned!

Finally had time to do our Art History discussion with Christopher today. He's doing well with the material but to make sure he's getting it all, I need to make sure I read his texts as well. So now I get to read The Story of Art and The American Vision in addition to whatever he's reading in English so I can keep up with him. Who knew I'd be taking these classes over again?

This weekend my big tasks with the long weekend are to get our schedule going and make sure I'm caught up on all my reading and discussions with Christopher. I may need to tweak my expectations a bit as well again. We have so many outside activities between acting, soccer, KSW, therapy, swim, science classes, labs, art, zoo class, bowling, and guitar (which yes, I know we haven't added yet but we will) that it's hard to find time for all the cool school stuff I want to do with them too. I have to say, I really shake my head at the people who ask me about socialization. The only day we don't HAVE to leave the house is Sundays. I would LOVE to be home all day keeping my children away from the big bad world so I can do nothing but instruct them but we are definitely much more of a hands-on kind of family so that's not going to happen. I just need to find a little bit of time to work on some of that traditional school stuff too, somewhere between all those other things.

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Shedules? What are those?

Still don't have one and so many things are cropping up to keep us from getting into any kind of groove but we are just going with the flow and doing the best we can. Today we were actually home for most of the day so it was good and things got done. Jonathan and I worked on the first two lessons of his new math book. It's really basic review right now so I didn't feel bad about letting him do every other problem while he learns the new system. The big thing is going to be getting him to write out his own problems instead of me doing it all for him. I'm hoping to start off having him write as many as he can and then I'll take over and just gradually having him take over until he's doing them all. I just have no idea how far to push him with his writing but I know if I have him overdo it, he's a mess and all work will be over for the day. I need to talk to his OT about how much is a reasonable expectation.

We had fun with our Prairie lesson today. Got to pull out the science book and talk about how breathing works with the exchange of oxygen for carbon dioxide. It was sad tho as Pa keeps talking about all these stories his dad told him of his youth and when I asked the boys for stories about their grandparents, they couldn't really think of any. That will definitely be high on my list of priorities, to have them go and ask their grandparents about their memories of when they were young. Maybe have them ask their great-grandparents too.

Nicholas was hilarious today. Didn't want to work with me at all. Finally he chilled out and settled down. He glued ribbon onto his apple to study the letter A. He spent the whole time insisting I sing "The A says..." and he would yell "Ahhhhh". LOL Then we read The Blue Boat which he enjoyed once I got his interest. He was mad it wasn't Yellow Ball still. Thankfully once I started reading aloud while ignoring him, he decided it wasn't so bad after all. After that, he did some coloring in one of his Kumon books. I misread the directions and told him on the second pages to draw a line while hitting all the shapes on the page. So he did that. Then after 5 pages of this, I reread the directions and realized he was supposed to do it WITHOUT hitting the other objects on the page. So I told him I made a mistake and that he needed to draw a line while going around the shapes, not hitting them. So his next several ones were done while having the line literally circling every single shape on the page! The first time we all laughed so hard that he just kept it up for the laughs. He had the biggest grin on his face doing it too. It kept him busy for quite a while tho so that was good.

Now to find some time to go over Christopher's art study with him. I feel bad sometimes that the other boys get so much of my attention but I sort of pick and choose which subjects I pay close attention to with Christopher but I make sure to hit everything and do all discussions with him at some point. Just not all get done weekly as they should and that is yet another area I need to improve on.

Monday, August 31, 2009

Molasses-on-Snow Candy and Quantum Workshop

Didn't get a chance to update on Friday after everything else that went down that day. The kids had a good time at the Quantum workshop they did. I really wish I could have stayed and paid attention to it to get more details of what they did but I was busy chasing Nico at the park next door. From what I gathered when they came out, they set different kinds of salts on fire to see where they showed up on the light spectrum and how that corresponded to their place on the periodic table of elements. I'm hoping to get them to write a bit more details on their own blogs since after that, they were too into the idea of playing and then I was too involved in getting my keys back out of my locked vehicle to find out anything more.

Today we had my nieces over after therapy so things were a bit bonkers. It was lots of fun and I had saved one of our Prairie lessons from last week to do with them today. We read the chapter in Little House in the Big Woods about Christmas and then made our own Molasses-on-Snow candy like they did. Well, sort of.
First off, it's not snowing here right now. And the odds of it ever snowing here are slightly above that of me giving birth to a baby girl. As in, it isn't happening. So we had to figure out how to make our own snow. Ice meet Mr. Cuisinart! It sort of worked. LOL I would say that if you wish to try this in the future tho, run the ice through first and then stick it in the pans in the freezer while you make the candy. Trying to oversee the kids making snow while I was boiling the candy and trying not to burn it while 5 kids were arguing over who got to put the ice in and who got to push the button was not something I would care to repeat. Much better to oversee each one separately.
Once we had the candy and pans ready tho, it was easy to get them to settle down to make it. I don't think I had it at quite the right temperature and it was hard to work with, especially with 2 kids to a pan but they all seemed to have a good time and much laughter was heard from my living room.
It tasted okay too. Not my first choice in things to reach for but not bad either. And I think it was really good for the kids to hear about how the children in the story considered this such a treat and how for fun in the snow, they made pictures by falling off a stump and trying not to disturb the print they made of themselves as they got. How for Christmas, they were happy to get one piece of peppermint candy and a pair of new mittens in their stockings and it was a huge gift for Santa to leave a real dolly. So much different from the sense of entitlement so prevalent today.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Slowly but surely

That's the way things are shaping up around here for our school year. I don't think we've actually gotten everyone to do everything I want to see done in a year but it's getting there. I admit to blaming myself completely because I still don't have a schedule down, it's only loosely in my head, and with my back and neck being out it's been hard for me to get and stay motivated to be on everyone's case to get everything done. It's not that we aren't getting things done, we most certainly are. It's just there is always so much more that I want to do. And maybe that's something I need to look at as well. I know I tend to schedule things too tightly and underestimate how long things can take for different kids. I need to work on this when I do the schedules as well as know that if not everything gets done, that's okay too.

Christopher gets everything done every day. He's awesome like that. Very sturdy and reliable when it comes to his schoolwork.

Matthew's too laid-back to take his school (or much of anything) seriously. I have seen great improvements already in his ability to work independently on certain subjects, especially if I can find fun ways of engaging him like having him draw a comic for his essay question rather than having to actually write an essay. Yes, I know his writing needs work and I need to find ways to address that and have him work on that but his true love is art and music and it's a great way to engage him and really get the material into his head to stay because after he spends 2hrs on a comic, he'll remember it so much better than if he spends the bare minimum time writing the barest essay he thinks he can get away with. LOL

Jonathan has definitely hit the 8yr phase of not wanting to do anything that he's supposed to. *sigh* I've dealt with it 2xs now and it doesn't get any easier. I need to make sure that much of his time is spent working near me so I can stay on top of him. He can do the work but he definitely has a harder time remembering things and getting his head back into his schoolwork after the summer off. I usually have them do some work over the summer but this year that didn't happen and I'm really seeing the effect of having that time completely off most in Jonathan.

I think the biggest surprise has been Nicholas. He's understanding that there is no playtime until schoolwork gets done but more than that, he's finding that working with mom can actually be fun! I've tried for so long to get him to play with me (his work) and he wanted nothing to do with it but now, he will voluntarily grab out workbooks and tell me I need to work with him. He loves his mazes and the new cutting workbook I found for him as well. He's also really getting into being read to and trying to read to me which is so cute. He's also finally getting into art projects so I've been able to set him up with paints or markers or the preschool art projects that I have, and he will happily do them and frequently want to go far longer than I would expect. I usually have to find ways to expand upon the pre-built projects as he wants to do more with it so I find other stickers he can use or things he can glue to keep it going. Such a huge difference from even 6mos ago when he wanted nothing to do with any art project I could think of.

I'm hoping to have our schedule worked out and down on paper this weekend but looking at how our weekend is getting booked already, I know I need to be realistic in my expectations for myself as well and figure it's more likely going to happen over the 3-day weekend when we have nothing planned. So long as we keep moving forward, seeing little bits of progress every day, that's just going to have to do.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Homemade Butter Day!

Today things went a bit awry so we opted for the original plan of trying our hands at making our own butter using the directions from the Little House on the Prairie Cookbook.

Want an easy way to keep 4 boys entertained and out of trouble for 20-30min? Have them shake the jars until they have large lumps of butter in them.

Everyone got in on the action for the shaking and it gave me a few minutes of much needed peace. LOL
After the shaking Matthew and Jonathan continued with the rest of the steps to get the last of the milk and then came the fun of putting it into some of mom's candy molds. It was a really fun time and I'm glad we did it. It turned out well tho I think we should have used a bit more salt but we now have many butter penguins hanging out in our fridge which is all good according to the boys. LOL

In other good news for the day, Nico had a great time painting today! This is the child who would scream and run any time I suggested it before which always made schooltime hard because there was very little he would do that didn't involve my direct attention or a video game of some sort. I definitely see this as major progress. He was even very happy to sit down and read with me today and took his own hand at reading to me! I'm so glad that I'm able to spend time doing fun stuff with him now and he's gotten to the point where we can reason a bit with him. Yeah!!!

Monday, August 24, 2009

Starting Week 2


Still working out the kinks but it's getting better. I've decided to forego having Jonathan do any of the history with Matthew. It seems to be just a bit too high of a level for him (go figure, it's written for middle school) and while it sometimes grips him, more often it doesn't and it just leads to frustration. Add in that once we get all of our supplies in, I have no idea where he would find the time to do it! LOL I figure he is getting US History circa late 1800s in with our literature and we discuss history in other places like when we went and saw the Samurai exhibit so it will sneak in. He's in 3rd grade so I want to keep it fun. He has such a hard time with his reading and spelling, no sense making something else hard for him.

Today we started on our Little House on the Prairie curriculum. Nico didn't make it easy but we got through Day 1 with reading the first chapter and discussing it, reading up on bears, talked about the toys they played with (it said we could make a corncob doll but I didn't think the boys would be super interested and I wasn't interested in making a pig's bladder balloon....ewwwwww!). I did pick up the stuff to make homemade butter and molasses-on-snow candy for later this week. Hopefully that makes up for not getting the pig's bladder. LOL

We also read up on interrupting, what it means to interrupt, how it makes others feel when you do it to them, and what you can do to avoid it. It's definitely something we have a problem with here so it was nice that this curriculum includes talking about those things when they come up.

Another thing I really liked was that there are only 4 lessons a week. I was so worried how it would work out with field trips and such since things are broken up by week and planned out accordingly but since there are only 4 lessons a week, it makes it really easy. I've told the boys that if we don't have a field trip for the week, then we'll use that extra day to do science experiments and delve into whatever they want to learn about. Poor guys. LOL

I have to say that I'm pretty happy with how this morning went and will keep it going. I took Jonathan to therapy at 10a and dropped Christopher off at the library to do the research for his biology class. Nico and I did the grocery shopping and errands while they were occupied. Matthew was able to stay home and work on his math, history, and other things that didn't require my help. The only downside is that it leaves me very little time to work with Nico on Mondays but hopefully with a little more tweaking, that won't be a problem. We did find some time to work on two of his workbooks a little bit and we did FIAR and he mostly listened when I was reading to the big boys this afternoon. I'm going to be happy with that from him. LOL

Speaking of Nico, I just got in our first Preschool Projects pack and I have to say I'm very happy with what I see! Is it September 1st yet?! I don't want to wait to get started on some of these things. 20 projects, all prepped and ready to go, in individual baggies, with instructions, a calendar with suggested use, and a teacher's guide talking about what exactly they are learning from each project and how to maximize it's use. Wow! I'm trying very hard to calm down and NOT go ordering the rest of the year right now as I do want to make sure that Nico enjoys it as much as I hope he will. He is starting to get much more into his workbooks and art projects tho so I have reason to hope.

So even with therapy for Jonathan this morning, we got most of the days work done before I took them to KSW. They should be able to finish the rest when they get home or just after dinner without too much hassle. Hopefully once we get things going a bit more smoothly, schooltime will generally go from 9a-3p. But I'm still going to definitely consider this day a total success!

Thursday, August 20, 2009

I know they learned something today

I'm just not entirely sure what. LOL Matthew, Jonathan, and Nicholas all had swim this morning so that was something. I worked with Jonathan on his math facts a bit with one of his computer games, Math Blockout. It's a bit harder than I was expecting but even after 15min he was starting to get the hang of it and understand the rules and I think it will be good as it not only makes him use the functions but think it through in order to use the functions most effectively with a given set of numbers. After that I had to disappear to work on laundry so Matthew helped him with the Riddle Spiders while he did his math. I read with him a bit before we headed out to KSW and then he and Matthew did History when we got home while I worked on dinner. Something about Chimpanzees? I'll be sure to ask him tomorrow to see how his recall is. LOL

Christopher worked on his History of Art class today and seemed to actually enjoy it. I'm still trying to figure out our schedule so I can get in time to meet with him and go over everything he's done this week. I'd ideally like to have at least 30min a day to do that but we'll see, especially as soccer, bowling, and yaw have yet to figure into our schedule and those are all going to be on Tuesdays.

No working with Nico today as we were running around so much. :( Again, this is where that schedule is really needed. I have got to find time to work on that this weekend to fit everything in. Right now I know we could be more efficient with our time which will be needed to fit in the science experiments that Matthew and Jonathan want to do, the Little House on the Prairie lessons I want to do with them, and all the fun creative stuff I want Nico to have the opportunity to do. But really, for the first week back with no schedule in place and no gradual lead-in to the start of school like I normally try to do, I think we've done pretty well this week. Stuff is getting done. We have been reading together almost every day from Robinson Crusoe. Jonathan has read to me twice this week already and is definitely increasing his fluency from last school year. Matthew is balking only a little bit but it learning to work with Jonathan and get his work done. Nicholas is accepting that the TV is no longer going to be on all day and is starting to work with me a bit. Christopher is jumping right back into the swing of things for the most part.

All in all, not a bad start to the year.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

A few things are coming together

Still fairly slow day today. It's still a challenge to get everyone moving in the right direction, especially without our schedule and I was very slow moving today. Jonathan did get his math practice in and he worked much better with Matthew on history today and Nico even allowed Jonathan to read to him so those were all good things. Matthew learned to work better with Jonathan on the history and was thrilled when I told him he would only get history tests once a week and could draw a comic for the essay question. I figure we'll have plenty of opportunities to practice essay writing but this would help to make history more interesting and would help to cement it in his head. The two of them have spent a good portion of the day constructing houses out of copier paper. Measuring, cutting, taping, making furniture. It's been good seeing them find a way to do something creative together.

Other good news for the day was that Nico worked with me again! He sat with me for our Five in a Row reading and we looking for items in the book. He again had fun dressing our "Jesse Bear". He listened to Jonathan read him a Wow-Wow Wubzy story and then listened a little to Matthew reading him Z is for Zamboni. I pulled out the Bright Minds Beginning Mathmatical Reasoning and Kumon Easy Mazes. He did a couple of pictures in the Bright Minds book but he decided he LOVED the maze book. He did 77 out of 80 mazes and didn't finish because he "wanted to leave some to save for ever". LOL He loved it so much that I ordered a few more different Kumon maze books from Amazon which should get here on Friday.

Christopher had a headache yesterday and was still a bit slow this morning. He got most of his work done tho not all of his history for the week. The week is light enough that he can finish up later and we'll be on track. I still need to finish up this week's reading of A Separate Peace so we can do that discussion. I'm guessing I'll likely end up reading a good chunk of his history and art texts too so I can have intelligent discussions about those as well. Who knew I'd be reading high school texts again so many years after graduation?! LOL

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Asian Art Museum Field Trip

Our first field trip of the year! There is a gorgeous exhibit called Lords of the Samurai at the Asian Art Museum and when Matthew found out, it was deemed necessary that we go. Twist my arm kid. LOL What made this display even more incredible was that everything was from one family's collection. They had been samurai and daimyos for over 600 years and there were pieces dating back from the 1300s. We went with Ian and Linda and Linda had the great idea (having researched things before hand unlike me, so glad one of us is organized LOL) of having the boys do a scavenger hunt for the family crest. While Jonathan didn't fully participate in that having him write all the information down would have been a nightmare, he did go around finding it and then showing them to me. It definitely made it a bit more enjoyable for them making it into a game. The symbol was everywhere but sometimes worked in so subtly that you really had to look for it.
I really wish we were able to take any pictures at all as they had some of the most incredible things. The armor, while spectacular, was what you would expect but my favorite piece of the entire collection was probably the wakizashi with the intricate carving on the blade. It was gorgeous. Well, everything was. I am always impressed with the intricacy and detail of even the ancient pieces from the Orient. I think the boys had the most fun in the dress up room. There was a samurai helmet they could wear as well as an assortment of kimonos and mens robes. Of course, Chris is too cool for all that and stuck his nose in a manga instead. *sigh* Teenagers.
In all, it was a great time. I brought the stroller and packed Nico's DS and Leapster in his backpack so he played through the entire exhibit. We ate lunch before heading to the dress up room and then afterward we wondered through the second floor of the museum. He started getting impatient as we'd been there for 4hrs but still, that is nothing short of a miracle for him. We took them to the park across the street for a bit before heading home but that was brought to an abrupt halt when he fell and bashed his face.


But it was a great time and a great exhibit. Apparently this is the only stop it's making in the US and will be over on Sept 20 so if you have a chance, I really recommend going. I bought the family membership so we can go back with Mark and hopefully see more of the rest of the museum. Looks like we will be trying to do several more field trips with Ian and Linda this year. Have I mentioned how glad I am to be with OG where it feels so much easier to take the time off to do these things. Don't forget to check out the boys' blogs and get their impressions of the exhibit as well.

Monday, August 17, 2009

First day of the 2009-2010 School Year

and I am determined to keep up on this blog. Last year it was fairly important to me because of Christopher being on his own path but this year it's even more so as we said good-bye to CAVA and are now doing what we feel like through Ocean Grove. It's so liberating (although I have to remind my kids that it does not mean just laze about all day, that's only good for one subject max LOL). I'd like to start off this school year's blog with a brief overview of what each of the boys will be studying (at least as of right now).

Christopher
10th grade
He'll also be doing Young Actors Workshop again this year.

Part of the determination to move to Ocean Grove was the ability to combine some classes between Matthew and Jonathan as well as have them pay for some classes that would otherwise be outside of our budget.

Matthew and Jonathan
  • The Prairie Primer: Literature based unit study program utilizing The Little House on the Prairie books to study literature, history, art, and science.
  • The World in Ancient Times history series
  • Clay Classes
  • PE: consisting of swim, KSW, and bowling
  • Critical Thinking
Matthew
Jonathan
And then since Nico hates to be left out:

Nicholas
Now if I can just get our schedule together in order to make it all work...

Wish us luck and a wonderful school year!

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

We are an Ocean Grove family!!!

At long last, they finally found all the paperwork I sent in months ago and got their acts together and we signed our paperwork with them to officially enroll on Feb 27 and got confirmation of our funding being available today so we can start ordering curriculum. Since their school year is only 175 days and starts 2wks before CAVA, we will be wrapping up this school year just before Memorial Day or about 50 days from now.

So now we are busy trying to figure out what we need to order for next school year since by the time we get the materials it will be another couple of weeks which will leave us little time to do much this school year.

Since it's going to take a while to get funding in and it's very little this year, we've decided to just sort of cobble some of the LA2 stuff together for Jonathan w/o their literature piece and just do what looks interesting. I'm going to be slow to return their math book tho since we are 75% done with it and I don't want to waste the funds to buy it just so we can finish. Maybe they'll have that one at the resource lending library for OG in which case I'll borrow it from them but if not, CAVA can live for a month or so after they send me the return slips.

We will be continuing on as we have with Matthew, using the borrowed materials, leftovers from CAVA, and then whatever else looks interesting around the house. We have some Bright Minds and that is where the bulk of our funds are going this year so he'll have lots of that to do as well. I've been having him do research papers for the last couple of months but now we'll be wrapping those up and he and Jonathan will be doing unit studies. Our first one will be on the Vikings. I've just bought several books myself so we could get started and found some lesson plan ideas online for free so we'll be working on that starting tomorrow. I'll be sure to post pictures and updates of what they are doing tho a lot of it will be us reading myths and legends together. Always nice to curl up on the couch reading with my boys.

Kendra is now watching the three big boys on Wednesday mornings so I can take Nico to zoo class. I was letting them sit outside before but Jonathan tended to be disruptive and now with the weather being nasty and Mike working now, it was just easiest all the way around to ask her and thankfully she was willing. Now with being in OG, I suggested that if she wanted to be in charge of their art education, that would be wonderful and would mean they didn't need to bring other work over there and they could do whatever she wanted to do with them so long as I knew what they were doing so I can let the school know and provide work samples. Today was the first day and she found instructions for a heart broach that is just hammered and bent silver. So today they started learning how to hammer metal and about the properties of metal since she didn't have the right gauge wire to actually do the piece with. She's ordered the right stuff including an extra set of tools so both boys can work at once so they'll be all ready to go next week. I think it's wonderful that she's doing this since the boys will get a much better art education than I could do considering that's what she has her degree in, she used to teach it, she has a full studio for hands on projects that I can't come close to, and hey, it's fun time with Grandma! What could be better?

So now that things are settled with OG, I need to get things more settled here for the new system but updating this website will be a huge priority again. If nothing else, so I can keep track of what all we are doing. :)