Throwing Marshmallows

Whew. When it rains it pours! We have actually been having quite a nice spring, but today we were completely deluged with over 4 inches. A couple of weekends ago we got 5.5 inches in one day. Our new rain guage is getting quite a workout. I love the design…as the gage fills up, the blue plastic section floats up, so you can tell how much rain has fallen by how much of the blue section is extended. Which actually makes it much easier for me to get a general feel for how much rain we have gotten by looking out the window (of course it is more fun to send the boys outside to read it!)

Of course it could be worse (Fredricksburg is only 1 hour south of us…luckily it appears that most of the homeschoolers I know from the area have come through with minimal damage).

The boys really like rainy days. There is something exceptionally fun about running around outside in the pouring rain.

Or scootering outside in the pouring rain.

Especially when there is a huge puddle at the bottom of the driveway!

It does not get much better than this. And on a school day no less! Ahhhh…the simple joys of homeschooling. Letting your children splash around in the puddles during school hours….

Brotherly Tolerance Cooperation

So last week it got really cold for a few days (by northern Virginia standards…below freezing) and today it was 70 degrees. It seems to have been doing this for awhile this winter..days of really cold followed by days of spring.

My crocuses came up probably about a month ago and I keep expecting them to be dead. They would come up, open up, then shrink back and close up, but here they are opening up again (sorry, no picture!) The fragrance today was beautiful and you could smell them every time we opened the door.

The boys spent a lot of time on the trampoline today and Ellie was plain tuckered out (we finally had an electric fence installed so we can take her out and let her run to her hearts content). Spent some time shooting off sling-shot rockets (have I mentioned how much I love our huge backyard?) and did some other miscellaneous fun stuff.

All in all a great day and one that was much needed. I have been feeling the mid-winter blahs creeping in…the ones where you start feeling as if you are in a rut and start having that old “homeschooling panic” of not doing “enough” creep in. A day like today is a great antidote to that!

One of the advantages to living where we do is the wealth of museums, many of which offer homeschool classes.

One such class was the Geodesic Dome class that Jason took at the National Building Museum. This the second class that we took and it was a lot of fun. The class was for 5th-8th graders, so Kyle spent the day with his friends Sean and Ray. They ended up going to the Natural History Museum which, being a major animal-lover, Kyle simply ate up. (Did I mention we have tons of great museums around here?)

It was actually kind of fun to be one-on-one with Jason. We grabbed a bite to eat afterwards and drove through Chinatown.

The class was a lot of fun…the Building Museum has a great history. It was built in 1881 and served originally as the Pension Bureau. It was also used to host the many Inaugural Balls.

One of the things that always hits me when we visit Washington DC is that it was a good thing that many of the federal buildings were built a long time ago, because if they were being built today, I do not think that they would be any where near as grand.

I don’t think in this day and age you would be able to justify that kind of elaborateness for a federal building. The architecture of the buildings is just incredible. Even office buildings like the IRS (in my working days I used be an IT consultant and worked downtown in the IRS building) have grand exteriors, sweepingly wide hallways and tons of marble and pillars and gorgeous accents.

But I digress. The class started out with a bit of lecture about the history of the building as well as a discussion about different roof types and the pros and cons of each.

Some of the kids demonstrated a”dome ceiling”

Then came the fun part! Building a geodesic dome in the lobby of the museum.

The dome got higher…

And higher…

And definitely took a team effort.

Until finally…

The dome was complete!

A few more pushes to make sure it was stable (and to see how strong it became once all the pieces were in place)…

Finished up with a little bit of lecture (made more fun because it was in the dome). And we were done!

It definitely does not get more “hands on” than this. Jason really enjoyed himself as did I. I have even more pictures of the class up over at flickr if you want to check them out.

After the class we walked around a bit and I took more pictures of some neat buildings outside the museum. I hope to have time to work on them and get some up soon.

So Jason’s best friend Jack from Ocean City came up this afternoon to help celebrate a belated 11th birthday for Jason. They are having a blast.

So far they have done a little of everything…some legos, some pokemon, some Age of Empires, some sword fighting, some pizza, some cake, some air hockey, some laughing, some joking and a lot of fun.

Now the question is how to get them to go to sleep…

Just realized that I have not really talked much about what we have been up to lately. This is mostly for family who might be interested, so feel free to skip if you want!

This Fall wound up being really quite busy and I am almost looking forward to things slowing down a little bit.

Kyle had been asking to take gymnastics for awhile now, so I finally was able to find a class through the county rec center that fit our schedule (on Mondays). Jason decided that it looked like fun, so he has just started this session.

Tuesdays were NoVaUnschoolers park days which were pretty much an all day thing…these were a lot of fun (it has been cold lately, so we have not been for the past couple of weeks). The boys have several friends who come and they have a great time playing tag or wading in the creek (until it dried up due to the drought this fall!) This is also a great time for me as it is as much a play date for me as it is for them. We have well over 20 families that come on a regular basis.

Jason also took a Pottery II class on Tuesday afternoons which he really enjoyed. We had to leave park day at 3:30, but luckily a friend (thanks Dena!) kept Kyle and I picked him up after Jason’s class. Jason learned a few new techniques and continues to enjoy experiment and creating with clay.

Wednesdays were free up until this past month when Kyle started taking swim lessons with his friend Sean. He is loving it and Jason likes the free swim time.

Thursdays have been our field trip/homeschool class day…we have done stream monitoring (will post pictures later), Mt. Vernon, the Luray Caverns trip, Bureau of Engraving and Printing, letter boxing at Burke Lake Park and hiking at Huntley Meadows. The boys are currently taking a nature center class on invertebrates which they are enjoying.

We ended up dropping Taekwondo this year.  They discontinued the homeschool class during the day and we tried to make it to the evening classes, but found that they really did not work in our schedule. Most of the times we were so busy during the day, the last thing the boys wanted to do was to head out to class at 5:00. They may give it another shot at another time if we can find a better way to work it into our schedule.

We are also really lucky in this area to have a wealth of opportunities for quality live theater performances. The Kennedy Center has a great program for schools (and homeschoolers) where tickets are only $5…we have tickets to The Phantom Tollbooth, The National Symphony Orchestra: Connections: More Math and Music, Step Afrika, Chasing George Washington: A White House Adventure, and Kite on the Wind: A Tale of Pakistan. George Mason University also offers the Theatreworks series where for $5 we get to see: If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, The Mystery of Tut, and Aesop’s Fables. And the Smithsonian Discovery Theater has Nego Gato: Jogo Capoeria! and That’s Not Magic, It’s Science. Don’t worry…these shows are scheduled throughout the rest of the year, not all this month!

When we are home, Jason has been using Hands On Equations, which is a really neat introduction to algebraic thinking for elementary school aged kids. They use a game-type format…using pawns to represent variables along with a laminated scale to help model the equation. I have found that Jason enjoys this type of complex math much more than straight worksheets and the lessons have helped him work out many of the algebra rules (he figured out on his own how you can simplify the equations). I can see the wheels turning when he works on this. And it also gives him a chance to use his math facts which, for him, is a better way for him to learn them. We are also doing a lot of “math through literature”, reading Mathematicians are People Too (which focuses on the lives of mathematicians) as well as lots of great “living math” books. Jason has also been doing Daily Grams to help with grammar, punctuation, and the like. They are just worksheets that can be done in a relatively short amount of time…not the most exciting things, but it gets the job done with little pain.

With the holidays coming up, I have decided that we are going to keep it pretty simple and just do these two things on a regular basis and then supplement with a lot of educational videos. There will just be too much going on for me to really sit down and plan anything out. The great thing is that there are tons of great videos to watch. We watched “Science of the Samurai Sword” (a Nova show) that was fascinating. It used current science to explain why the samurai sword and the ancient methods of making it created such a quality sword. The science was actually very interesting and I always like it when traditional methods are shown to have a reason behind them. And equally fascinating that they were able to figure these things out without the help of modern science!

I am still working with Kyle on his reading. It is coming along, but has not quite “clicked” yet. He knows all his letter sounds and his short vowels and can sound out a lot of words and recognize a few. But he is has not made the jump to recognizing words without sounding them out (pretty interesting that he is the exact opposite of Jason…when Jason started reading he could only see the whole word and had trouble breaking it down…whereas Kyle only seems to see the individual letters and has trouble seeing the whole word. Go figure!) We are using the Bob Book series which Kyle seems to like. We are on Set 2, Book 3. We usually do a lesson in the evening before I read to him. For math we are currently doing a lot of math games…I got the Right Start Math Card Game set which has lots of games that cover a wide range of topics. And as always Kyle loves to play board games and card games.

Kyle cracks me up sometimes…just this morning he came in to tell me that he had figured out what 55+55 was. 110. He was so proud of figuring it out and he told me how he did it step by step (he knew that 50+50 was 100 and so he subtracted 5 from 55 to get 50 and then 5+5=10). I asked him if there was a reason why he needed to know this and he said no, he had just been thinking about it. Sounds good to me!

We also read tons…Kyle and I are almost finished with The Spiderwick Chronicles (the movie is scheduled to come out in February). Jason and I have been reading a really good fantasy book called Flora Segunda: Being the Magickal Mishaps of a Girl of Spirit, Her Glass-Gazing Sidekick, Two Ominous Butlers (One Blue), a House with Eleven Thousand Rooms, and a Red Dog by Ysabeau Wilce. Hard to summarize and a bit different, but really, really good. A publisher on the Child Lit list was giving away copies so I grabbed one and read it this summer to check it out. I was completely drawn in and did not even mind re-reading it with Jason. We’ll have to post a review soon. I can’t wait for the next one (given the ending, I am pretty sure that there will be a next one).

In the car we are listening to The Capture by Kathryn Lasky which looks like it will be our new series (I think there are 3 so far). The boys are really liking it. Before that we listened to The Phantom Tollbooth (in preparation for the Kennedy Center performance that was this week) and The Secret of Castle Cant by K.P. Bath. Hmmm…just noticed that there is a second in the series, so I think we will have to check it out.

Oh and the boys go through quite a few audio books on their own as well, especially Jason. I am very lucky that the Fairfax County Library has such an extensive selection!
Well, that is it for now, I think. I will have to get back to talking more about what we are doing…if I can find the time. Right now I am starting to enter “survive December mode”…between Jason’s birthday (next week!) and the holidays and the fact that there is still a lot of VaHomeschoolers stuff on my plate, I am already feeling behind. And the month has not even started yet…

Things are still moving along. I am trying to squeeze in enough time to do everything that I want to…not enough hours in the day. We seem to be back on track as far as not being quite so over scheduled. The boys are really enjoying their pottery class and have been making some really neat stuff. Jason has started playing around a bit more with the modeling clay that we have here at home too. He seems to have more patience with it then other art activities.

We have started using Sequential Spelling to help Jason with his spelling. It is not something that he really loves, but he also does admit that his spelling needs a lot of help. Sequential spelling is great for him because it focuses on word patterns rather then straight memorization. It is also not phonics based. Being a right brained learner, learning by seeing the patterns is definitely a better approach. The other nice thing is that there really is no “studying”. We spend a little bit of time most days…I give him the words to spell and correct him immediately if he does not get it right. We talk a little bit about the patterns and rules. Sometimes I wonder (being a phonics gal myself) if this can really work, but he is picking it up. And it seems to make sense to him (which is the important thing).

For math, I have decided instead of completely following one “math curriculum” I will focus on different math concepts and bring in various resources. Right now we are focusing on fractions. We are starting with Key to Fractions which he actually seems to be enjoying. I like the materials too…very easy for him to understand and follow. Again we do spend a short amount of time on it, but he is picking it up very quickly. I also plan to bring in some fraction ideas from Marilyn Burns and other resources. Jason says that he likes fractions much better then multiplication and division. Not surprising. I still work with him some on memorizing his math facts, but I think these will come as he uses them more and more. We are also enjoying reading Murderous Maths and I just picked up some of the Theoni Pappas books that Jason really enjoys. So we are talking/reading a lot about a lot of different math concepts. I have found for Jason that the key is to keep mixing things up and providing variety which he enjoys.

Jason has also been working a little bit out of the Handwriting Without Tears cursive book. Cursive seems to be coming more easily then printing (although his printing is getting better…still not all that great, but better).

Jason’s reading still amazes me. Considering he was “late” (around 8 yo) when he started, you would never know it. He reads mostly for information (catalogs, video game cheats, magazines etc) and I have caught him reading some pretty impressive words. He still is not into reading overly word intensive books (he says that when he reads, he has a harder time “seeing” the story) but he really enjoys comics like The Far Side and Calvin and Hobbes. He seems to also enjoy reading poetry…I think that he likes the cadence in addition to there not being as many words. It is nice now and again to find him sitting on the couch reading…it is all a matter of finding the right book. We also do a lot of audio books as well as Jeff and myself reading to him.

Kyle and I have started doing 100EZ Lessons again. I will need to write another longer post about that because it has been really interesting. We had started doing 100 EZ Lessons last year, and although he enjoyed it, I could tell that it was not clicking for him. So I decided to give him some more time and we stopped the “formal” lessons and just read and played a lot. Fast forward to this year and it is amazing the difference that a little bit of time has made. He definitely is getting it. And getting it pretty easily. I am glad that we did not push it before.

For math, Kyle and I play lots of math games (he still really likes the dice game Pig) and do some work out of his Singapore math book (which he also likes). Can I say that it is actually pretty cool to have a kid who understands my math explanations? (With Jason, I always have to look for other ways to explain math concepts because we think so differently! And while I love this about Jason, it is also nice sometimes to have a kid who understands what I am trying to explain!)

The only thing that Kyle really does not like to do is writing. But he is still pretty young so I am not pushing it. And he does not seem to have the same issues that Jason did at this age. Kyle has a good pencil grip and is pretty good at making his letters. He also likes doing mazes and has started wanting write down his answers when he does math. So for now, I think he is doing fine.

Hmmm…we don’t really sound very “unschooly” lately, but really the above does not take up a huge amount of time and it has come about from seeing what my kids need and working on finding resources that work for them. And it works. Kyle is pretty easy…he reminds me to do his reading and enjoys math workbooks and maze books and the like. And while Jason does not ask to do his math, writing or spelling, he also does not fight me when I say it is time to do them. And when he is working on them, I can tell that he is learning and getting something out of it. Definitely a good experience…and it works because he knows that he does want to learn these things, even if he does not always want to do the work involved. Which is where I come in to remind him and work with him on it. And he sees the results.

I think that this is what Cindy means when she talks about collaborative learning. It is not totally child-led, but it is totally based on the needs of the child. It is not “no structure” but it is structure where it makes sense to have structure. And it feels like the right balance (for now) for us.

And as usual it is getting late and I am getting rambly. So I will say good night for now.

~Stephanie

The boys had a blast as usual. It is late, so I will just post a few pictures…Jason was a black night and Kyle was a Phoenix Ninja (which is completely different then the Silver Ninja he was last year, really it is!)

Now that we have finally been home for a little while, it seems as if our days are slowly starting to find their rhythm.

Not sure what it is this year, but I really feel like things are coming together naturally. Part of this I think is due to a willingness on Jason’s part. He really seems much more open to things. Suggestions that would have been met previously with a rolling of the eyes and resistance are now being willingly accepted. He seems to be maturing a bit and entering a new phase. Cindy over at Apple Stars talks about patterns of learning (she calls them Collaborative Learning Stages) that she has seen in her kids. Jason is in the “Exploration Stage” which she describes as “although each child had a style or interest that would be revisited consistently, they would move off of it easily using it to explore other arenas of potentiality.” I am definitely seeing a willingness in Jason to explore other arenas of potentiality…including areas that previously would have been fought (like writing and spelling!).

I find it really interesting that if I remember correctly, Waldorf tends to recommend not doing too much formal learning until around 9 or so. As does “Better Late Then Early”. I think that somewhere around 8-11 there is a shift where kids (if not pushed too hard when they are younger) naturally start getting interested in more formal learning. At least that seems to be what is playing out here.

Well, on to what has been evolving around here:

Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays are our free days (and most of Saturdays too, although Kyle does have some soccer games scheduled) and I am finding that I am having a strong desire to guard them. I have gathered a lot of resources that I am excited about exploring with the boys and I really want to make sure that we have the relaxed, unrushed time of free days in which to explore them.

Tuesdays we have the NovaUnschoolers park day and Karate. The boys are really enjoying park day…we usually have at least 15+ families with kids ranging from infants up to teens (and a good number of these in the 6 and 9 year old range!). Jason loves it because he can play Magic, The Gathering (a card game like Yu-Gi-Oh) and there are lots of kids to play tag with. Kyle likes hanging around with the other kids and the ice cream truck (we thought that he would stop coming around once summer was over but we think that he has figured out that we are still there even though school has started!). I like it a lot because the Moms are great…it is fun to “play” with my friends too! Plus there is a farmer’s market at the park so I can pick up some fresh produce at the same time.

Unfortunately Karate falls right in the middle of park day, so we usually skip out for an hour (luckily it is nearby) and then go back (park day is an all day thing). I had to do a little bit of encouragement at first to get Jason to do karate again…I was surprised because he really enjoyed it last year. In talking more about it, I think that part of it was him worrying that he has forgotten things over the summer. He also said that having to concentrate and remember all the forms was tiring for him. We talked about how this was probably a good thing in that it meant that he was exercising his mind and that the more that he practiced and worked at it, the easier it would come. That seemed to reassure him and he has wanted to do it since.

Karate is good for Jason on so many levels…from a sensory perspective, it is wonderful…it works both sides of his body, crossing the midline and is very methodical and requires thoughtfulness. All things that he used to work on in OT. From a self-discipline perspective it has been a wonderful growth experience for him. His teachers have that wonderful balance of being able to joyfully share their love of the sport while still maintaining a high level of discipline. Jason responds extremely well to them and is eager to master the techniques. From a physical perspective, it is wonderful…working on flexibility, strength and body control. Kyle is starting the regular homeschool class (he was in the preschool class last year) and is picking things up very quickly. But I should move on…

Wednesdays I called our free day, but Kyle does have soccer practice. It does not start until 4:30 though so we have plenty of time to spend at home. There are some interesting things happening with the team (Kyle has been with the same coach and many of the same kids for 4 seasons now) that I will probably blog about in the future when things shake out. Let’s just say that it is a case of adults taking things way to seriously and not letting things go when they really should. And forgetting that it should be all about the kids.

Thursdays we are doing science with my friend Kathi and her kids Zak and Kaiya. We are going to use Science 4 Kids Chemistry (Pre-level 1). I love these materials and so far so do the kids. The “textbook” is really well done and fun to read and gets into some really good science…Jason started reading it a bit on his own. We plan on doing the reading at home each week and then going to Kathi’s house to do the experiments. Worked great last week.

Thursdays we also go to Games Class at the Arlington YMCA. We have been doing this for 3 or 4 years or so and the boys enjoy it. They play gym type games like freeze tag and the like. They really like the other kids in the class. And then after class it is back to Zak and Kaiya’s house for more hanging out. Thursday is also Pizza Night!

Fridays we are getting ready to start a homeschool pottery class at the Wakefield Rec Center through the county. I really think that the boys will like this. We will give it a shot and see what they think. We also have a park day with the Arlington Homeschool Families group, but will probably not make it for a little while because of the pottery class.

We are also doing a lot of one day miscellaneous activities through the various groups that I belong to. One really exciting day that we have lined up is a Primative Skills workshop on October 20th. It is a day long workshop on all sorts of things like fire starting, archery and other neat stuff. Michael, the guy who does the workshops seems to really love what he does and is really flexible and gives the kids a lot of say in what they will be doing. I think that it is going to be really neat. We are starting with a day session, but he has additional multi-day classes that we will probably coordinate if things go well.

We have bought discounted tickets to several TheaterWorks productions throughout the year at George Mason University and will be seeing The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie and Other Story Books, Seussical and Aesop’s Fables. We also hope to take advantage of several Smithsonian Discovery Theater shows.

We are going on a “Jesse James” train ride this coming Tuesday up in Maryland which should be fun and Jason (with Zak) is signed up for a Paper Airplane Design Class at the Dulles Air and Space Museum on October 12th.

And we will be making our annual trip out to Cox Farm around Halloween.

Whew. I will have to save the ideas that I have for what we will cover on our free days for another post. I am really excited about everything. This is really weird for me…I don’t think that I have ever had this much planned out at the beginning of the year. I sound like one of those homeschool moms that has their act together. Please do not be fooled! And remember that when you write down everything that you are doing it usually sounds way more impressive then it is.

Honestly, it is just somehow all just falling nicely into place (knock on wood). I have a great support network of three active homeschool groups and plenty of opportunities to choose from. In fact I have had to keep repeating to myself that we do not have to take advantage of every neat activity that comes up. That it’s ok (and good!) to say no. And to realize that everything does not have to be done now. We can always do it later. And we will live if we choose not to do it at all.

~Stephanie

OK, I was going to post about our trip to Williamsburg, but I have not had time to download the pictures yet and we ended up having a really fun, comfortable, easy going day today. So I want to record it for posterity (and so I have something to go back and read when I have “one of those days” that seem to inevitably occur).

Woke up to wonderful, crisp autumn weather. I absolutely love this time of year, especially being able to sleep with the windows open! The boys played video games while I got a few things done on the computer. Got my shower and made some lemon poppy seed muffins (from a box, but they were organic! I finally have realized that even though I can make muffins from scratch, I never seemed to find the time. Seems better to have organic muffins from a mix then no muffins at all! And the boys love them.) Made some pancakes (also organic from a mix…do I detect a pattern?). The boys started playing yu-gi-oh, so I started cleaning out the garage. After the crab fest, we had gotten to where I could not get my car in the garage and did not want to go there again. Most of it was breaking down boxes to take to recycling.

The boys were in and out doing miscellaneous things. A lot of lego building (and smashing…they love throwing their creations down from the second floor onto the foyer floor. Also built a small fire with toothpicks (outside) which involved some discussion of different ways to put the toothpicks so that the fire would burn better. Jason wanted to build a tee-pee, but could not get the toothpicks to stay up. Eventually chose to use a log cabin type approach which worked extremely well. Every once in awhile we need to do little unit studies on fire to keep Jason’s curiosity from getting the better of him. I am sure that the neighbors think that we are a bit nuts.

At some point, we did a couple of games from Family Math and we read an issue of Ask Magazine about finding new species of wildlife. That led to some really interesting discussions about species and general biology. Ask and Moo Cow Magazines are consistently a hit around here. And I love that both boys enjoy them, each at their own level. The single focus topic/issue seems to work well…and these two magazines seem to really know how to pick interesting topics.

Jeff came home a bit early and stayed with Jason while I took Kyle to his first soccer practice. I am sure that Jason enjoyed his one-on-one time with Dad. Kyle had a blast with his soccer team. Many of the kids are back from last year (as is the coach) and Kyle really had fun.

Came home and had some errands to run, including my Wednesday trip to the library. I absolutely love our library and am totally spoiled. I am trying to figure out how I can work volunteering there into my schedule. I also realized today (ok, I realized this awhile ago, but re-realized it today) how absolutely wonderful LibraryThing is. I have been adding in books that I want to remember to check out from the library using tags like “to read-boys”, “to read-Jason”, “to read-Kyle”, “to read-homeschooling”. All I needed to do was go into my library, click on the appropriate tag, print out the list and take it to the library! How cool is that. No having to sort through tons of emails to try to find those great books that have been recommended. It took all of about 5 minutes. I am in heaven and at least I feel this part of my life has been simplified and <gasp> actually organized!

Found lots of fun books for the boys and picked up Math Power which has been highly recommended over at LivingMath (which is an awesome resource in and of itself!). It is subtitled “How to Help Your Child Love Math, Even If You Don’t” which is not a problem for me as I really do enjoy math (and am loving it even more re-learning it this time around with the boys). But it is supposed to have some good suggestions for teaching math so I am looking forward to reading it.

All in all it was a day that just seemed to flow really well and felt (should I actually say it out loud?) amazingly balanced! Let’s hope that we can keep it up. Tomorrow should be fun…we are going over to Kathi’s to start our weekly Science (we are getting together to do science experiments) and then they have Games Class at the YMCA which is always fun. Plus it is pizza night, so who can beat that?

~Stephanie

Tags: homeschooling teaching math typical homeschool day fire unit study moo cow fan club ask magazine librarything

Oh my! We come back from the beach and just jump right in. What was I thinking! This week has been a whirlwind and it does not look like it is going to slow down for at least another few days.

A week ago Friday we got home just in time for Jeff’s company crab fest. It was fun, but also hectic as not only did I need to unpack on Saturday, we also had to clean up after the party.

I don’t really remember Sunday or Monday…but Tuesday I had to work our organic food co-op pick up which meant getting the boys and myself up and to Arlington by 7:45 am. We met up with Zac and Kaiya and I took them to the NovaUnschoolers park day while Kathi had a dentist appointment. We had a lot of fun and did not get home until almost 5.

Wednesday was the Maryland Science Museum trip. Also a lot of fun but again we did not get home until after 5pm.

Thursday the boys had their first Games Class at the Arlington YMCA. And then we went and played at Zac and Kaiya’s again. Did not get home until after 5pm.

Friday I decided that we needed a nice quiet day with nothing planned. The only thing that we had to do was to pick up my car (was in for the 15,000 mile check up and a few other things) and pick up cleats for Kyle and a light-weight jacket for Jason from Kohl’s. This turned into an all day thing when the car folks were not ready when they said they would be (I will say that I do enjoy having older kids…they both took the delay in stride). Then the trip to Kohls took longer as we found lots of neat stuff on sale…including lava lamps and electric globes for the kids rooms (they have wanted these for awhile and they were over 60% off so I could not say no). I also got a chance to hit the Teacher’s Mart while we were out…picked up some things that I will need for the Real Science 4 Kids Chemistry that we hope to start soon and some fun games and neat stuff. But again, we did not get home until after 5pm.

Then today we had Kyle’s first soccer game. He is on the same team with a lot of the same kids from last year. He had a blast.

All this activity means that I really have not had much of a chance to unpack…the house is a disaster. I am sure that Jeff is wondering if we should have just stayed back at the beach…at least he could keep the house uncluttered! I did get some things picked up today and got some neat ideas for what I want to do with all the miscellaneous files and papers that I seem to attract.

However we also had to pack and get ready for our trip to  Williamsburg tomorrow! One of my homeschool groups got a great discount off the Great Wolf Lodge and it is also Homeschool Week at Williamsburg, so we are meeting up with Jeff’s parents. We will be staying there starting on Sunday and coming back on Tuesday. It should be a lot of fun…but the timing could have been better. Oh well…maybe next week I will feel like we are finally settled.

It is interesting…I am definitely feeling the need to not be as overscheduled this fall. I have been signing the boys up mostly for 1 day events rather then classes. I am looking forward to being home and have lots of plans for this fall. Now I just need to find time to breathe…I know that it will come and I plan on being really agressive over keeping enough free time. Can’t say that I have done a great job so far (!) but it will work out.

There is wireless internet access at the Great Wolf Lodge so I will hopefully find some time to check in…where would I be without my laptop!

~Stephanie

This is a recreation of the post I lost the other night…I had the boys re-tell their stories, which they thoroughly enjoyed. The idea was to record some of the small snippets of learning that happened throughout the day. These kind of exchanges happen all the time and help reassure me that the boys are learning constantly.

Kyle and Math

As we were getting ready to go to the Nova Unschoolers park day (why do they always do this when we are trying to get somewhere?) I had this conversation with Kyle:

Kyle: 5 is not an equal number, is it?
Me: (guessing because I am not sure exactly what he is talking about) Do you mean, even?
Kyle: Yeah
Me: You’re right. 5 is not an even number.
Kyle: What is an even number?
Me: It is a number that can be evenly divided by 2 (or in half) with nothing left over.
Kyle: You mean like 20? 
Me: Yes, just like 20.

And then I grabbed some pennies and showed him how if you lined the pennies up in 2 columns, the even numbers lined up evenly and the odd numbers had an “odd” penny left over. Since then he has occasionally come up and verified if various numbers are even or odd.

Jason and Government

We are currently listening to the Children of the Lamp series and really enjoying it. One of the story lines led to a great discussion of the difference between a president and a judge and how our government is set up (three branches, checks and balances etc). Don’t ask how we actually got there, but we did! And Jason was really interested.

Storytelling

I have to remember to do this more often as both boys really enjoy it and it is good practice at organizing one’s thought. Jason seems to really go for subtleness…he put a bit of thought into his stories and really choose the words carefully believe it or not. He also wanted to play around with the capitalization of the letters. We have been talking about what gets capitalized and what does not lately. He remembered in one of his books seeing the capital letters all over the place and wanted to see what that would look like. He decided that it made it harder to read, but he still liked it.

Once you get Kyle’s mind going, you can’t stop him. He actually had about 6 different variations of this story that he wanted to tell. I had to stop him after 3 as we had to get going.

One of the hardest things is to stop Jason from editing Kyle’s stories. He is always giving plot suggestions and correcting Kyle’s verb tenses. I have to remind him that this is Kyle’s story and it is up to him to decide how it goes.

A Short and Dumb Story
by Jason 

OnCe UPoN a TiMe ThErE wAs a GuY. He gOt SquIsHeD By a bOuLdeR.
THe EnD

A Little Bit of a Longer Short and Dumb Story
by Jason

Once upon a time there was a guy. He looked up and saw a boulder. It squished him.
The End.

Rock
by Kyle 

Once upon a time, there was a rock.
The End

Run Away from Big Boulder with Eyes
by Kyle

Once upon a time, there was a guy. He saw a big boulder with eyes. The man saw the boulder going after him. The man turned. The rock turned. And then the man was so tired that he hide behind a bush. Since the boulder was so big, he could see the man. And then the boulder squished the man.
The End.

Run Away from Rock with Eyes
by Kyle

Once upon time, there was a rock. A man saw the rock that had eyes. The man runned and the rock ran after the man. And then the man turned and then the rock turned. And then the man was tired. So he hid behind a bush. Since the rock was so thin he couldn’t see the man behind the bushes. Then the rock keep on running. Then the man hopped on the rock and then the rock felt the man on his back. And then the rock flipped over and squished the man.
The End.

Still have a major cough and not as much energy, but starting to feel a bit more normal. We had a fun, relaxed day where things just sort of flowed very nicely. We got up and moving this morning and went to Jason’s OT. He enjoyed it and is working on something from there for me for mother’s day, but it is a secret. After that we came home and did a few miscellaneous things.

One thing that we found was a fun tangram website. Jason was way better at this then I was! We played it as a family and between the three of us got pretty good.

After that we decided to go and explore a new-to-us park. I had heard there was one really close by, but had never gone to check it out (don’t ask me why!) Had a really good time…there was a small creek and a path into the woods that we explored a bit. The boys rode their scooters a bit and chased each other all over.

After we got home, we read a bit more from the This Book is About Time by Marilyn Burns and learned about time zones, the international date line as well as the earlier clocks like the sundial and water clocks. The boys really want to make a water clock so I just need to try to round up a few things so we can give it a shot.

We finished up the day with the boys building with their legos and me actually cleaning out our closet. You can actually walk into it now! Definitely an improvement.

The nice thing about the day was that I actually felt like doing things…it has been a couple of days since I have been overly motivated. Colds do have a habit of doing that though, don’t they? And there never seems to be a good time to get a cold…hmmm…I am trying picture what that would look like! A time when lying around in bed all day would be fine, a time when there is nothing else going on, nothing that needs to be done. Do times like those exist? I guess not. If they do, I may need to try to find it…preferably when I am not sick!

~Steph

Coincidently enough, two of my homeschool email lists had posts from moms wanting to relax their homeschooling and asking what a “typical unschooling” day looked like. Well, we never really have a “typical day” around here as much of the time we are winging it. I have general ideas of things that I want to accomplish each day and we have our activities schedule which drives the schedule somewhat. A lot of what I capture on my blog is “typical day” stuff and so I have added a “Typical Days” category.

Yesterday was not exactly a typical day, but I thought that I would write about it because I think that it illustrates what a lot of people worry about when they start becoming “more relaxed”. That the kids won’t learn anything if they don’t “do school”.

I woke up all set to get the kids moving to their dentist appointments at 11am. Kyle woke up not feeling well and said that he had a headache. Turns out that he was running a fever. Time to rework our plans! Luckily other then the dentist appointment, we had nothing that we had to do. We had a very busy week…drove back from the beach on Monday. Tuesday we had co-op and karate. Wednesday we went to a cool traveling show called Native Lands and spent the whole day outside. Thursday we got our hair cut (and man did we need it) and games class. So today we were going to hang out at home. Which I guess is what we wound up doing, just slightly different then planned.

Since Kyle was feeling so badly and I had some things that I needed to get done for VaHomeschoolers I decided that it would be fine to have a total veg day. Which meant that Jason played a lot of game cube and we all watched a lot of movies. And did nothing that looked like school. So what did we do all day? Let’s see…

Jason spent a lot of time working on his Paper Mario game. The interesting thing is that in the course of playing that video game, he needed cheats. Which meant that he needed to use the computer to find them (I am letting him do his own research and typing with my help). And once he found them he needed to find the applicable part. Which meant not only was he reading but he was skimming (the cheat was over 100 pages long and had walkthrough and tons of other game information) and using the info that he was reading to figure out where he was. Not an easy task for a kid who has only been reading for a year. Oh and don’t forget that since he was using my laptop he spent quite a bit of time using my touchpad (working his fine motor skills - this was not really easy for him!) At one point in the cheats they had written the answers to some riddles backwards…at first this really challenged Jason, but by the end he was getting the hang of it (this was a great use of his visualization skills - something that he works on a lot in OT). Then the game itself is just a series of problems to solve, trial and error. Lots of critical thinking and problem solving and experimentation going on there. At a couple of points during the day, Jason did go outside and ride his scooter and jump on the trampoline as well.

I read several books to Kyle while he laid on the couch and we watched part of the original Pink Panther movie. The boys did not really like it too much, so we switched over to Ice Age. I love that I now have a laptop because I can spend more time with the boys while they are playing or watching and I can get things done as well. It is fun to just hang out with them and we had some really nice and fun convesations. Kyle napped on and off throughout the day and I got some things done around the house. Then I remembered that we had taped a program off the science channel called the Unfolding Universe…all about black holes and space and cool stuff. We watched that until bedtime. Jason really got into it and was asking all sorts of questions and was surprised by some of the things that he learned (like how when the sun becomes a red giant it will engulf the earth’s orbit so that the earth is just an ember rotating within the sun).

So here we basically had a day where “all” we did was watch tv and play video games. Yet I can see where learning did take place. Does this mean that all I want is for my kids to sit around and play video games and watch tv all day? No…but not because learning won’t happen (because it does). Rather because there is so much to life and part of my job is to expose them to new and exciting things. So we do many different things, but those things also include video games and tv. For us, it is all about that ellusive thing called balance.

What I have found is that seeing the learning that happens when we are “doing nothing all day” helps me become more comfortable with relaxing my homeschooling. As my friend Shay likes to say, “there are no educational emergencies”. If you “miss” something and it is really important enough, there will be plenty of other opportunities to learn it.

So my advice to you, if you want to relax your homeschooling, is to start small and ease into it. Start letting go of your “school work” gradually and start looking for the learning that is going on. My personal feeling is that everyone has their own comfort level and you need to work with that. Of course others recommend to go cold turkey at first…whatever works for you! There is no right way or right destination. Follow your gut, look for the learning and see where it takes you. That is the beauty of homeschooling. You are never stuck. If something is not working for you, keep looking until you find something that does work. It is up to you.

And now it looks like I caught what Kyle had. Joy of joys. I think that we may need to find a friend for Jason to go play with so us two sickies can crash all day. The fun never ends…

~Steph 

  Here are the pictures I promised. We had a blast riding bikes up and down the boardwalk. Jason and Jack got to ride the “banana bikes” and loved it!

 Kyle and Jamie were just a touch too short for the banana bikes, so they got to ride in the front of the surrey bike. But they did get a chance to try them out for a little while…just another inch and they will be off and running. 

Can you tell they like these bikes?

Although it was still a but chilly, we wound up spending about two hours down on the beach Monday morning. The kids actually went in the water!

Or maybe not!!

They decided that playing on the rocks would be more fun. This is something that the lifeguards do not allow during the summer (way too many people to keep an eye on) but with just us around it was tons of fun!

They were playing this game where Jason and Jack were Cave Elves, Kyle was a Mountain Elf and Jamie was a Fairy Princess. I think that I was the troll….

I love the ocean in the spring! And Ocean City is awesome in the off-season. No crowds, no traffic, it is wonderful.

~Steph

I stayed up way to late last night after we got home from the beach. And got up way too early this morning. Had a fun day, but I am beat!

So I am going to be a good girl and head to bed. Nighty-nite!

~Steph

What? You say you did not realize that we were even at the beach? oops! I kept meaning to mention it, but kept getting distracted by other subjects. Ya gotta love the internet! What would I do without it. Yes, last week we decided last minute to take off for Ocean City, Md…one of the perks of having a place at the beach only 3 hours away. We left Thursday afternoon and returned this evening…one of the perks of homeschooling…we get to live on our own schedule.

We had a blast. Spent most of our time hanging out with the boys favorite OC homeschool friends, Jack and Jamie. The first two days were cold and rainy, but the boys did not care. They got to hang out with their buds! It is amazing how well the kids get along (and hanging out with their mom, Joanna is a blast for me too). Sunday it got warmer and we went to an arcade on the boardwalk and rented bikes to ride to the end of the boardwalk. Jason and Jack got to ride “bannana bikes” (don’t worry I will post pictures tomorrow). Kyle and Jamie were just a bit short, so they got to ride on the front of the surrey bike that Joanna and I got to pedal. After that Jack hung out at our place and the boys had a water gun fight and a marathon gamecube playing time until around 9:30pm.

We also got to see some awesome fog roll in…it was pretty incredible. All of a sudden it started getting darker and dropped 10+ degrees. The fog kept getting thicker and thicker and you could really see it “roll” in. Pretty soon you could not even see across the canal! Jason came upstairs to ask me to come downstairs because it was a little bit freaky and they felt more comfortable with me with them! Nice to be needed.

Today we spent about 2 hours with Jack and Jamie out on the beach…there was still some fog and it was really windy. The kids loved it! They climbed on some rocks and had a wonderful make-believe game going. Jason and Jack were Cave Elves, Kyle was a Mountain Elf and Jamie was a Fairy. I got to take some great pictures…I will have to post them tomorrow as it is getting late.

I also got to do some penny smashing this weekend which was fun. I have tons of traders now. There are quite a few penny machines in Ocean City and I think I hit just about all of them.

Well, it is off to bed now….have to get up early to work our food co-op delivery in the morning! The boys are going to love me!

~Steph

I was all set to actually make it out to the Nova Unschooler’s park day today…weather was supposed to be gorgeous and our schedule has freed up lately (Tuesday mornings used to be our only morning to take it easy and slow).

That was the plan. Until about 12:30 last night when Jason started throwing up. And running a 102.5 degree temperature. Poor thing. Not sure where this came from. We have not been around anyone who is sick lately and we have been healthy. Ah well. It has hit him hard. He threw up 3 times last night and once this morning. His fever has been going up and down all day, mostly staying over 102, sometimes hitting 103. I have been giving him ibuprofin when he gets too uncomfortable so that he can sleep. As soon as it wears off, the fever goes back up. He is drinking, but has not been able to eat anything.

He is sleeping now and I hope that things get better tomorrow and that we don’t have another rough night. 

As soon as the boys saw Peeps in the store, they had to get them. Why you ask? Because they wanted to blow them up in the microwave! Of course!

We did this last year and it was actually really, really funny. The peeps grow and swell until they get several times their original size. There is a great website about  Peep experiments. Jason was laughing hysterically through the whole thing and Kyle really enjoyed all the pictures. Especially the one about the effects of smoking and drinking on Peeps.

CAUTION: Do not place peeps on a regular plate in the microwave! We found out the hard way that the plate will crack with a HUGE bang. Use paper towels to be on the safe side. 

Poor Peep!

Note: I was going to add pictures of our Peep experiments but it looks like I have to figure out exactly how to add pictures over here! So check back soon…

Update: Thanks to homeschooljournal.net’s great user support, I have figured out the picture thing! Very easy too…Thanks Andrea!

 

We have been so busy and I do hope to someday have time to catch everyone up! I keep writing blog posts in my mind, but then can’t seem to find the time to get them onto the computer.

Spring has sprung! I am loving the time change now that the boys have adjusted. Wasn’t too bad actually. Within a day or so and we were good to go. Now that it is lighter later (and warmer) the boys have been spending more time outside. We picked up razor scooters today and the boys loved them! They were outside (without me!) for hours this afternoon. Jason took a couple of good spills, so I guess it is time to make sure that we have plenty of bandaids. Seems he really likes speed!

Like I said, I hope to have more time soon!