Week 6 - Thursday, 9/6

The school year is ramping up, and Thursday took on one more activity: violin lessons for Boo!

8:30 - Boo had come in to snuggle early in the morning, and I thought she was excited about starting violin.  It turned out that she was very nervous!  She cried and told me repeatedly that she didn't want to do violin.  Boo is very analytical and I can usually talk her through things.  This morning was an exception.  She was so worried that she would mess up or do something to embarrass herself that she would not be calmed.  Finally my husband came out of the bathroom and tried his approach.  "You talked about lessons all summer.  You were excited to get your violin last night.  We have the instrument and you are signed up for classes.  You are going.  The only choice you can make at this point is what is your attitude going to be."  I really thought that this was going to make her feel even more panicked, but instead she sighed heavily, got up, and got dressed with no further comments.  I kept my mouth shut and focused on not breaking the spell.  And this is why having two involved parents is best.  Where one approach fails, there is a back-up!

9:00 - We were running a bit behind, but all three were up and getting dressed by nine.  I made my bed and jumped into the shower, explaining that they needed to get a quick breakfast because we needed to leave by 9:30 and not a minute later.

9:30 - We were in the van and headed down the street on time!  Success!!!  

9:45 - I dropped off Bug at the home ed. program for her science class.  She has been learning about oceanography and loves the science classes.  The class didn't start until ten, so she brought some independent work to do while waiting.

10:00 - Boo's violin class started, with all the chaos one expects from the first day of classes.  While kids were figuring out which room they needed to be in, parents were filling out forms and writing checks, and the teacher was checking each violin to make sure it was the proper size for that child, I set up Bear's book work.  She did her math, handwriting, and Reading Street workbook page before the class even got off the ground.  I then pulled up a chair behind a still nervous Boo and Bear took my phone to a corner and played quietly for the rest of the hour.  (And yes, I know what a blessing it is to have a child that will do that.  The Lord was extremely gracious and merciful to me when He gave me Bear.)  Boo listened intently, followed every instruction, and was thrilled to be praised as a "model student" by her teacher at the end of class.  She practically skipped to the car.

11:30 - I picked up Bug from her science class.  I meant to just run in, get her, and run out, but the secretary pulled me aside and told me to sign Bug up for a mini-play the program will be doing,  After doing that, I saw that the next month's sign-ups were out and so I added their names to the lists for art, K-1 club, another science class, and a field trip.

12:00 - Thursday is preschool fun day, and Cousin came over!  I moved preschool time to the afternoons, and my wonderfully flexible sister-in-law just rolled with it.  She is such a blessing, and didn't make me feel stressed at all about having to change the preschool plan.  The new preschool schedule calls for lunch first, followed by a story, song, and a craft.  Then Bear and Cousin play upstairs until her mom comes to get her.  It worked very well, and Bug and Boo were terrific helper teachers.  I know that I would not enjoy this time nearly half as much if I didn't have them smoothing the way for me.

Today's preschool theme was weather.  We started by watching a reading of Cloudy, With a Chance of Meatballs on YouTube.  The reader does a great job, and I highly recommend watching the video.

I then switched to another video, this one of Barney singing"Raindrops" because it is about raindrops turning into food, and then snowflakes and sun beams becoming food as well.  We discussed the different types of weather mentioned in the song.

Our craft was to make an umbrella with the different elements from the song hanging from it that the girls would use as a prop when performing the song.

2:30 - The little ones took off upstairs with promises to not thrash Bear's bedroom. Bug and Boo went down to the school room. Bug's math assignment was a review, so she was able to jump right in. Boo and I covered her textbook lesson on the white board. She caught on quickly and I let her move on to the workbook assignment. (I rarely have them do all of the textbook problems. Once I feel they understand, they are able to start the workbook.)

3:00 - The girls finished math at about the same time and picked up their readers. Bug is reading Born in the Year of Courage, and Boo's book is The Perilous Road. Their aunt arrived just as they were settling in on the school room (aka: guest room) bed to read. That cozy scene was quickly abandoned and they ran to get the little girls so that they could perform "Raindrops" for their aunt.

3:30 - I finally got the big girls back on task and breathed a sigh of relief that we don't have evening activities on Thursdays. After reading their set chapters the girls answered a few comprehension questions. Sonlight provides questions and map work for each reader. I took a month (or more) this summer to write them all out, print out the pages, and then put the pages into a binder. It has helped streamline my school days because the girls aren't waiting for me to be free to discuss the questions with them, instead they write out their answers as soon as they finish reading.  I go over all the questions when the book is finished.

While the big girls were reading, Bear and I did her Time4Learning work on the computer.  She got another story, and was able to place "response stickers" on the pages before printing them up to make her own book.  I love the responses idea because it makes her think about what she is reading and apply it to her life, her world, or another book she has read.  There was a phrase that I was hit with while teaching in the public school system, and it cropped back up again in a recent Time Magazine piece, that in the primary grades children "learn to read," and from fourth grade on they "read to learn."  I can tell you as a former fourth grade teacher that kids that are taught under such a system don't make that shift on the fly.  They come in able to decode like crazy, reading into fifth and sixth grade texts.  However, once the questions turn to content, their reading ability drops to that of a first or second grader.  Time4Learning, by asking emerging readers to think about the story and relate it to their lives and experiences, is saying to their students, "You read for enjoyment and to gain new ideas," right from the out set.  Kids who use this system won't have to make a shift in purpose for reading, and will always understand the value in learning to read.  It's just one more reason why I love this program.

After the big girls finished their reading, it was time for history.  Bug has been trucking through Sonlight's Easter Hemisphere Explorer's notebook this year. The first few weeks were tough as we struggled to find a rhythm. Bug is supposed to use an on-line encyclopedia, but reviews of EHE warned that it doesn't contain all the answers. We have found this to be true, and navigating the encyclopedia somewhat frustrating even when she was finding answers. We scrapped the Sonlight recommended approach and have found a way that works for us. After making these changes, we have decided that we do like EHE.

The modifications that we made are as follows:
* Use library books as primary resources and the computer as a back up on the "Just the Facts" and "Journey Jots" pages.
* Copy out the answer key maps on the mapping pages. Why search through four or more different maps when there is one there for her to use?
* Do a Google Images search for the timeline events on the "Monumental Moments" pages and print up pictures for each event. (I do this part. You never know what will pop up on some of these searches.) Then I read through the answer key and talk about each event as Bug glues the pictures on the question and answer sections running along the timeline.

Today's EHE assignment was a "Just the Facts" page on Antarctica.  Bug pulled out her stack of library books and got to work.  She did a great job, and even read You Wouldn't Want to Be A Polar Explorer when she was finished.  Boo saw what she was reading and begged for a turn.  The "You Wouldn't Want to Be" series is an off beat, slightly irreverent take on different historical events.  The illustrations are detailed and funny.  And while the kids are laughing, there are a lot of interesting facts that they are absorbing.  These books are a hit in my house.

While Bug was working on her history, Boo and I were continuing to read through Lincoln: A Photobiography.  While I read, she colored in pictures for Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis flap books.  Her History Pockets Civil War projects have been coming along nicely, and she is taking real pride in her work.  This is an improvement over last year, when she would lightly scribble over a picture and call it done.  After I completed the chapter, Boo used her new flap books to fill in a Venn Diagram about Lincoln and Davis.

5:00 - I did it!  I made it through the day with a smile on and the girls completed all of their activities and assignments. The only thing left to do was read alouds.  Boo was starting Caddie Woodlawn and was less than enthusiastic about it.  It being 5:00 had everything to do with her lack of interest, but I explained that if she wanted to take time from her day for violin, a long lunch break, and help with preschool for Cousin and Bear, she was going to have to accept that school time would get pushed back.  She shrugged and said she understood and showed a great attitude when discussing her vocabulary words for the chapter.  Once I started to read the chapter, Bug, who has wandered off to get a snack, suddenly reappeared with an, "I love this book!" and jumped onto the bed.  I was able to read while snuggled between two of the sweetest girls on the planet.  Motherhood at its best.

5:30 - Time for housecleaning, dinner prep, and making sure that we had things lined up for tomorrow, followed by dinner, some rough housing with Daddy, and finally getting into jammies.

8:00 - The last bit of school for the day was to get some more chapters of Bug's read aloud done.  She is woefully behind because I hadn't found a good time for it in my routine.  I had planned on saving Bear's read aloud for the bedtime story, ending the day with all three in a Rockwell kind of scene.  The problem was that I wasn't getting to Bug's read aloud during the day and she was missing out.  I decided to start getting the kids ready for bed a bit earlier and starting with Bear's book (a fifteen minute read most nights) and then shifting to Bug's, allowing the younger two to stay if they can remain quiet.  Bear opted to head back downstairs and snuggle with Daddy, but Boo found that she liked Torches of Joy, and hung around.

9:00 - Day is done!  Gone the sun!  And with the girls in bed, I went downstairs to crash on the couch and watch some TV with my hubby.

Wrapping up with Kris @ Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

Week 5 - Wednesday

Today was not school as usual.  Today was our annual trip to the county fair!  Every year our local fair gives a free fair day for school kids.  If you are home schooled, you simply register a few weeks in advance and print out the paperwork the day of the event.  The parking is free, the entrance fee is waived, and you can even pack in your lunch.  What's not to love?  Well, actually there are things I don't love about it.  For starters, it's always hot.  And since you have to check in between 9 and 10am, you are guaranteed to be there in the middle of the day, looking around for the nearest snow cone vendor.  It is also packed, with kids bumping my girls out of the way to get to the toy/ rug braiding station/ weaving loom/ goat/ cow...  You get the idea.  I must admit that I didn't want to go and would have stayed home if not for the fact that the girls' best friends were going and they would not be forgiving if I skipped it.  It turned out to be the best fair day we have ever had!

For starters, it was lightly raining.  We grabbed rain jackets and celebrated the cooler weather that would allow me to stay at the fair longer.  Two challenging pregnancies left me with a weakened heart and it has been acting up lately with the heat.  I had told the girls that we would not stay past 1:15 (when the pig races are done) because I was worried I wouldn't be feeling well.  However, as we walked to the gates with the cool mist around us, I knew that the weather could not have been better and it was going to be a great morning.

The second thing that made the day wonderful was something that I felt torn about celebrating. The crowds were nonexistent.  My girls and their friends were able to braid, weave, and explore to their heart's content and no one elbowed them out of the way.  This was the first year I allowed them to make a rag doll because no one was at the table.  In the past it was a thirty minute wait just to get a spot at the craft table, and I wasn't willing to sit in the sun that long for such a simple craft.  When I saw the three volunteers sitting there chatting and looking around, I asked the girls if they wanted to make one.  They were so excited and made some very cute rag dolls.  My friend made a comment on the lack of kids to the volunteers, and one responded that it was probably due to all the cut backs made at the schools.  I felt bad that so many kids were unable to come to the fair because their schools didn't have the bus funds, or the time to spare due to fewer working days.  And it was another reminder to my girls about how blessed they are that their parents are able to home educate them and provide all these great experiences.

Bug's rag doll.

After spending a good hour and a half in the pioneer village, we headed over to the milking barn.  Remember that stack of paperwork I mentioned earlier?  Along with admission and parking is a slip for free milk for everyone in your party.  My girls insist that fair milk tastes better than store milk, and they love lining up for their little jugs of chocolate milk.  After drinking it down, we went in and watched two cows show where that milk came from and how the dairy farmer got it.  :o)

Next to the milking demonstration was a Dairy Farmers Association table where they were giving away Holstein patterned pens and pencils to kids who could answer milk related questions.  The kid would spin the wheel and have to answer the question the arrow pointed to.  It was fun, and Bear also picked up a pamphlet explaining the value of chocolate milk.  She liked the picture on the cover, but it was Bug who saw the value of it.  With a lawyer for a father she has learned the importance of having facts to back up your argument and she read it carefully on the way home.  She has enjoyed chocolate milk for the last two nights and thinks that she might never have to choke down "regular" milk again.  Her father appreciates a strong argument and is fair minded, but I don't think she really changed his mind and we will see how long the flavored milk victory lasts.  :o)

I was pretty hungry by this point so we headed over to some picnic tables to enjoy our lunch.  I was also ready for my backpack to lighten!  The girls ate fast, not wanting to waste precious fair time, and we were soon ready to pet some goats.  Well, to be honest, the girls were ready to pet some goats.  I was ready to walk quickly through the enclosure, pulling my skirt out of no less than three goats' mouths and one baby cow's, and stand safely on the other side out of range of puddles and piles.  Bear loves cows, and spent the majority of her time petting the baby Holstein and a Scottish Highland.  This cow was quickly dubbed "Merida's Cow."  Boo walked around with her hands up in a position of surrender.  I wondered why until I realized that the goats could see that she didn't have food and would turn away from her, allowing her to move freely through the pen.  Trust my Boo to come up with a clever and simple solution to a problem!  Bug was thrilled with the two llamas, but her true love was a black and white baby goat.  She sat down by it and it laid its head in her lap.  Bliss!

Merida's Cow

(Merida, the princess in Brave, lived in Scotland.

Bear was convinced she would have had a cow like this one.)

You might think it would be hard to extract such happy girls from the petting barn, but I did it quickly and with smiles all around using just two words: "Pig races!"  It was time to watch little pigs run around a track looking for their trough of milk and Oreos.  It sounds goofy, and it is!  Especially when the man introduces the duck and turkey races.  The ducks look hilarious, waddling as fast as they can.  The turkeys stole the show, however.  The man prepped us by telling us that turkeys are not intelligent birds.  He wasn't kidding.  One turkey knew what to do, and another was smart enough to follow his lead.  The third realized they had turned a corner and wandered after them, but the fourth just stood there at the first bend, looking very bewildered.  The girls were laughing so hard and yelling, "Run, turkey, run!"  When the three other turkeys were back in their pen, happily eating their treat, the fourth guy must have heard them eating, and finally trotted around the track and into the pen. 

This is where we usually leave the fair, and I was feeling some migraine aura coming on (half of my face becomes numb and my thought process slows down making me cranky and easily flustered), but the weather was so nice and the day was going well so I let the girls talk me into staying a bit longer.  We went to check out an exhibit on American inventors.  The girls enjoyed sitting in a chair that Benjamin Franklin invented.  They found that if they pushed on the stick under the chair, the fan hanging over them moved back and forth.  They also got a kick out of seeing the large iPhones.  The highlight of the exhibit was the flight simulator.  One at a time, the girls laid on a platform in front of a large screen and pulled a large stick forwards to make their plane go up and pushed back to go down.  The plane moved so slowly and I wondered aloud what real pilots thought as they tried to fly it.  The volunteer said that USAF pilots have come in and crashed repeatedly because it is so different from modern day flight.  Each girl got to take a couple flights and Bug really improved so that she was able to stay aloft for her entire flight time.

This is what the girls saw as they laid on the platform.

Stepping out a side door, Bear discovered her second favorite part of the fair.  That's saying a lot about the cuteness of the baby cows, because my little princess discovered an area built for knights and princesses.  There were Disney princess songs playing, dresses, jewelry, shoes, and a little pink house for a princess (or six) to call home.  The thing that cracked me up about the house was the abundance of cleaning supplies.  There were dust busters, vacuum cleaners, brooms with Cinderella's mice perched on top, and three ironing boards set up.  Someone apparently did his or her homework and realized that in all but a few Disney princess movies (ie: Beauty and the Beast, Little Mermaid) there is a cleaning scene.  After a good thirty minutes of singing a happy little working song, rolling sleeves up, and pitching in cleaning crud up in the kitchen it was time to go.  ("Happy Working Song," from Enchanted.)


It was a great day, and I was very glad that I had made the decision to go.  To read about more great days, or weeks, check out Weird Unsocialized Homeschooler's Weekly Wrap-Up.