Butterflies, Explorers, Music and Sunshine.

Our week went a little better this week than last. I think mainly this is due to the fact that I just didn't stress and let things flow the way they would. Sometimes I try to make school work happen the way I envisioned it should and it just doesn't work with my kids. They have such minds of their own.

History - We read our Story of the World Chapter which was about Christopher Columbus and Magellan this week. We listened to the audio book Who was first by Russell Freedmen. It reviewed a bit about the Vikings which we had already studied and talked about other people or groups that may have come to America before Columbus. It was very interesting. We read a number of books about Columbus and one about Magellan.

Science - We read a few books about Asteriods, Meteorites and Comets this week. But mostly we have been reading books about butterflies. Our caterpillars climbed up to the top of the cup this week and have formed some nice crysalis. We are still waiting for the fourth one to finally form before we transfer them to their little habitat. This was taken early in the week when they were just hanging from the top and hadn't yet changed.
There were originally 5 caterpillars in the cup when they came but one mysteriously disappeared. We think he must have been dinner one night for the others.

Math - Sophie has been flying through the last few sections in her Singapore Math books. We did Graphs and Geometry this week. Both were very easy for her and she enjoyed playing with pattern blocks and Tangrams this week as part of geometry. She is getting really close to finishing the 2B book. She sees the light at the end of the tunnel and is running to the finish.
I am not doing a whole lot of Math with Ian at the moment. He needs more help with reading and writing before trying to solve math problems so his math book tends to just sit on the shelf. But all the kids enjoy the math games and activities we try to fit in.

Language Arts - Again not our strong point this week. We didn't do any of the formal Grammar lessons. But Soph did write in her notebook about our Science Club class we went to on Monday and also wrote on her blog. When her National Geographic magazine for kids arrived this week she read me some of it and then wrote about her favorite article. That is about all I can claim as actual writing work. She just really didn't want to do copy work this week and I didn't want to fight about it so we did something else instead.
Ian is close to finishing his Explode the Code primers. He has just a few more letters to work through. He also did a number of Learningpage.com worksheets that were all about vowels. Explode the code primers have stuck to consonants and we haven't done any vowels yet so we really worked on vowels and what those 5 letters are. Sophie of course had to chime in and tell us about how Y is also a vowel.

Music - I was just going to continue our study of Haydn through March since we didn't finish the biography we have of him. We we never picked it up. Instead my kids have been listening to all the Classical Kids CD's we have floating around. We listened Tchaikovsky Discovers America, Beethoven Lives Upstairs, Mr. Bach Comes to Call and even Mozart’s Magic Fantasy. (Sophie spent the rest of the day singing magic flute songs after listening to the Mozart. She loves the Queen of the Night's songs) The kids just love these CD's.
This week at the library while glancing through the book shelf of all the new books I spotted this book...
This was a great biography of Vivaldi and after reading it the kids decided we needed to listen to The Four Seasons. I got out our CD and they danced and danced and put on quite a show. They were birds, leaves and snowflakes dancing to the music.

Art - I know we colored a lot this week and drew a lot of pictures. Ian has been drawing a lot of pirate maps lately. But nothing formal was done. We did break out the paints again this week so the kids could paint their race tracks that they made last Saturday at the Home Depot's kids workshop.( April's project is going to be a bird house... fun!)




We have been spending a lot of time outside this week. The weather has been so nice. Sunny but not hot. The kids have been out playing in the yard, shooting baskets, building little worm and slug habitats, riding bikes and climbing trees.
On one of our rides around the neighborhood the kids decided they needed to roll around in the sour grass that covered the yard of one of our neighbor's houses. Then Henry got the great idea to climb the tree. If there is a way to get up into a tree he will find it. Then the other kids of course had to join him. I am sure glad we have nice neighbors.

We also went to the park twice this week. I came home with a rather brown neck after our first park trip so knew it was time to be diligent about sunblock and hats again. When heading out for the next park trip I tried to find all our sun hats. Those that I could find looked rather worn so I knew we had to go and get some new ones. Hurray for Longs Drug Store. They had some great ones on sale this week!

That about sums up our week.

Outdoor Hour Challenge - Winter Tree Study

I have been very lazy the last few weeks and we haven't been doing any formal nature study. Or even informal really. We certainly spend a lot of time out of doors but nothing that I would really call nature study. But we have been noticing the changes in the tree we picked last spring. We picked a birch tree that is right outside our door and that I park under everyday, so we can't help but look at it.
This is our tree a few weeks ago between rainstorms. Sophie made the comment that the water droplets all over the branches looked like Christmas lights. The trees really do sort of glitter when the sunlight peaks out behind the clouds and hits those droplets the rain left all over the branches.
This birch tree in particular was beautiful because of the way the branches droop and all the catkins hanging on each. There is just a lot for the water to cling to.

The last week or so our tree has been telling us that spring is on the way. Sophie was the first to spot the new leaves popping out all over.

This is our tree today. It doesn't look that different than it did a few weeks ago when standing far away. When you get up close you can see the green leaves popping out that really make us feel like spring is here.

Henry decided he had to get a really good look at the tree. He loves to climb trees and has decided this is his new favorite for climbing.

This little guy gives every tree he comes across a try. He just loves to climb trees.

It is hard to believe that in just a few weeks our tree will look like this again.

"Shake the Mattress Loose"

Due to the time change we have all been sleeping in the last few days. We have never had to set an alarm clock in order to get us up in the morning. My kids usually are up with the sun and since the sun isn't getting up until after 7:00 a.m. then so are my kids. The problem is, my husband too can't "shake the mattress loose" either. He has been late to work two days running. We will see how tomorrow goes.

I used the phrase "shake the mattress loose" the other day when trying to get Ian to get out of bed. One of the kids asked me what that meant. I had to explain the phrase to them and it got me thinking how often I use these phrases that I know came from my youth. I remember my dad telling us to "shake the mattress loose" when we slept in or if he needed us to do something and we were still in bed. The phrase has just continued with me. Actually a lot of my parent's phrases have made their way into my everyday conversations. Funny how that works. You don't even realize that the phrase is so ingrained into your mind until it comes out. What is even more humorous to me is when I hear them come out of my kids mouths.

I guess it just shows me how much we are influenced by our families.

Happy Day Light Savings!

Should I even bother?

I don't know if it is really worth a post to list what we did this week, schoolwise. Maybe if I actually write it out, it will feel like we did something. Lets see.....

History - India again. We listened to the chapter of Story of the world and also read a little about the Taj Mahal. We did read a few Jakata Tales this week too.

Math - Sophie did her Singapore math workbook (capacity was really easy for her she flew through a few exercises each day) a few of the days and on others she did Learningpage.com math 2nd grade worksheets, from the space theme pages, which were review for her. Ian did some too. But I printed the preschool pages and they were way too easy for him. The kindergarden ones were printed and he is working through those quite easily as well. Henry did some of the preschool pages and didn't have any problem with them.

Language Arts - We read our McGuffey Reader once this week. I think Sophie did copy work only twice. Ian did a little writing on some more Learningpage worksheets about space. But that is about it.

Music/Art - Nothing. Wait.... we did listen to Haydn's Farewell symphony. Sophie did endless drawings on her own.

Science - We read a few books about the inner planets, Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars.

Mostly my kids played Knex or Play mobil pirates all week. They enjoyed our day at the park between rainstorms. But I can't say I did a lot of read alouds or anything. They listened to a lot of Audio stories. And on Monday we did do our Dr. Seuess birthday party. But most of the week passed and it really felt light on academics but there was learning going on, I guess.

Wordful Wednesday - Learning to Read

It always makes me smile when I come home from the library and sit down to read a book with my kids and find out that one of the books they grabbed off the shelf is familiar. Not familiar because I have read it to them before but because it sparks a memory of reading that book from my own childhood. Usually it is the illustrations that suddenly spark the memory but it is always fun for me to read books to my kids that I remember from my younger years.

I don't know how much of an early reader I was but I do remember my mom making little vocabulary cards and hanging them on my door with a magazine picture or a drawing of the word next to it. I know I could already read when I went to Kindergarden. My teachers didn't know quite what to do with me. I didn't fit into any of the "reading groups". I usually got to sit by myself and read some of the readers by myself while she taught the others their letters and such. Reading itself has never been the problem for me. I think the love of reading is what needed to be fostered and what I have and do try to promote for my own kids.

I always claim never to have taught Sophie to read. It is true I didn't have to go through any reading programs with her. But we have been reading books together since about day one. I think One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue fish was my favorite to read to her during her first year. Even as a little toddler she would sit with me and read book after book after book, one after another. I remember a lady that baby sat her at this young age was surprised at how many books and for how long she sat and read books with her. She just picked up reading from following along in books I read aloud to her. I would often point out the words as I read them and we read a lot of alphabet books together so it was a very informal way to teach her to read. She now reads just about anything and everything she can get her hands on.

It was and is a totally different story with my boys. I had a hard time getting him to sit still long enough to read books together. Ian would roll around on the floor and play with toys rather than sit and look at the pictures while I read to Sophie. Henry was the same way. He was much more interested in climbing than in reading. I am happy to say that they both now love books and we can read through quite a stack of books together, with them asking for more and more. I usually have to say when we stop. Ian isn't that interested in reading books himself, at least the words. He is happy to have me do the reading but both boys love to sit and look through books. They love Richard Scary books because the pictures tell the story. And they pick up ones we have read over and over again because they know the story and can tell it to themselves while looking at the illustrations.

I am very grateful to have found the Five in a Row curriculum. It was such a great guide as I went to the library to pick out books to read to my kids. It really helped me introduce my children to authors that they now love and subjects I wouldn't have thought a child would be that interested in. It was the perfect way to help me into the world of homeschooling. Some of the FIAR books we read or the go alongs we picked up to read with our story of the week have really become favorites in our house.

Each week when I go to the library, I return at least 30+ books and end up checking out at least that many. It is always amazing to me that we can go through that many books. We rarely return a book unread so that means we read at least that many books over the course of our studies and fun reading each and every week.

Books play such an important part of our days. For me personally they are my escape from everyday life. My husband loves to read non-fiction. I almost always have a novel going. I love getting into a good story that takes me to another time or place. As a mom, I think I need the change of scene. It is great to go and roam the English countryside with Elizabeth Bennett or James Herriot. Recently I have enjoyed going along with Sherlock Holmes as he solved a few cases. I love jumping into fairy tales and the world of magic and enchantment. Or taking a ride into the old west or maybe even through sherwood forest. It helps me forget the noise and frustrations that accompany being a mom of small children.

I just wish I found more time to read.


For more Wordful Wednesday visit Chocolate on my Cranium.

What else would one do on this Cold, Cold, Wet, Day.

It was windy and wet
So what else could we do
We had to stay in
And read a book or two


I gathered some favorites
We haven't read in awhile
I couldn't believe the number.
We had quite a pile!

In order to celebrate
Seuss' birthday today
We read The Cat in the Hat, Horton,
Thidwick, and even Oh, Say can you Say.



Six Seuss books in a row was
All my poor tongue could take
So, we made a few hats fit for the cat
The kids, of course, felt we needed cake.


The hats didn't quite fit
But they were the best I could do
A spur of the moment craft
Isn't always thought through.



We had a fun morning
The day went by fast
Having a little birthday party
Is always a blast.

Two weeks to report

I didn't do my school run down last week so now I have two to report on.

Math - Sophie did fractions one week and then time this week. Both were very simple for her. It was stuff we had done before just in day to day things I think because she can already read a clock just fine. We have been doing some cooking together because "you use fractions when you cook". She is excited to start volume next.

Science - We are mostly just reading books for science. I need to find us something fun to do to make our Space study more interesting. But we have covered the Sun, the Moon and the Earth. We are just starting the other inner planets. We did have a good star gazing evening Friday night. We went out to see the crescent moon and Venus right next to it.
This isn't my photo but this is pretty much what it looked like to us without the telescope.
We broke out the telescope to get a better look at the moon and any stars and things we could see in the sky. Sophie could point out the big and little dipper as well as Orion's belt. That is pretty good for one nights viewing. We are going to have to get a better telescope so we can do more stargazing. The one we have isn't that exciting.

History - We have been doing history a bit half heartedly. I can't say any of the topics have been that exciting the last few weeks. We covered Ferdinand and Isabelle of Spain the previous week. We couldn't find that many books about spain or that many folk or fairy tales that are from Spain either. Sophie found the Story of Ferdinand in one of our Children's book treasury and read it to me because it was the only Spanish story she could think of or remember. We did a FIAR unit on Ferdinand a few years ago.
This week we read our Story of the World Chapter about the west coast African Kingdoms. I can't say the chapter was all that exciting but we thought the story of Mansa Musa going on Pilgrimage to Mecca sort of funny. Mostly we just enjoyed reading a bunch of Africa books I could find at the library. Here is a sampling of the books I found.
My kids always love Anansi stories so they especially enjoyed "reading them for school" this week. But I think best of all they enjoyed getting to play Mancala for school since it is an African game. Ian is especially getting good at this game. He is actually taking the tips I give him and using them and remembering them. Pretty soon he will be beating me.

Language Arts - Sophie has been reading a lot this week. She picked up The Cat in Numberland at the library and has been carrying it around with her the last few days telling me all about the different things she has relearned. We read this one awhile back. She always seems to have her nose in a book.
She has also sat in while I read Homer Price to the boys. My boys sure have enjoyed reading these little stories. I think we have revisited each story twice. I often find Henry sitting with the book on his lap looking at the illustrations that go along with these funny tales. Good thing there is another book. I picked it up at the library this week and we will start reading Centerburg Tales this next week. Thank goodness for sequels.

Ian has almost finished his last primer in the Explode the code series. We will get to start book 1 before too long. Sophie hasn't fought me too hard about writing this week. But the week before we didn't go as smoothly. It is really hit or miss with her. I guess I just have to catch her in the right mood in order to get her do her dictation or copy work. This week she got to write a familiar Aesop's tale from dictation. Maybe writing something she already knows is the ticket. In any case she did her writing and I hope she is learning a little from the experience.

Music - We listened to the Classics for Kids episodes on Haydn but never did get around to finishing the Opal Wheeler biography we are working our way through. I picked up The Farewell Symphony finally from the library (this hold took a long time to come in) and haven't started it yet. I don't think we will move on to another musician in March. We will finish up Haydn in the coming weeks.

I guess that is about it. We didn't really do any art (we attempted an art lesson but it ended in tears) or even much of anything else. Just played a lot. The boys have been outside every day shooting baskets on their new hoop. I love that they have something they can do outside that doesn't involve mud.
Sophie and Ian have played chess everyday and even made up their own game using the pieces for chess, checkers and a few other games. I am pretty sure we are going to be missing pieces the next time we try to play those games but they sure have had a good time! Just another typical week in our house.

On to another week........