Kindling the Fire

Field Trip Update

2009-06-13T09:06:00.000-07:00

Post on a recent field trip on my other blog. Go here to read all about it.

Getty Villa

2009-03-21T16:41:00.000-07:00

This was the BEST place to take the kids after studying ancient Greece, the Etruscans, and Rome (although our Roman studies aren't complete yet.) The Villa is based on an actual Roman Villa, which was buried by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius and later excavated. The architecture is stunning and we kept looking up to see intricate ceilings, gorgeous columns, and frescoes everywhere.

The Getty Villa has a large collection of antiquities from ancient Greece, Etruria, and Rome. There were lots and lots of vases with paintings depicting the gods and goddesses, the tales of the Odyssey, and other familiar myths. There were statues, mosaics, frescoes, and even a couple of intricately carved marble sarcophaguses. Kimball and Henry lingered at each artifact, anxious to read about it, study it, and recount how it related to what they already knew. I couldn't have been more thrilled with their reaction to the galleries.

Bronwen and Ian were less impressed. Thankfully, my mom was with us, and she took them exploring the gardens. We all spent quite a while in the "Family Forum", where there were hands-on activities including drawing on dozens of vases with dry-erase markers, posing in front of a screen to make our shadows resemble the art on the vases, and coloring our own.

We spent much longer there than we'd planned and had to travel home in LA's rush hour traffic, but it was well worth it. I highly reccommend this museum to any family studying ancient cultures.

Open House

2009-03-21T08:43:00.000-07:00

So it has been nearly 2 months since my last Open House report. Can you tell that writing these reports is something that I procrastinate? The problem is that when I wait so long, there is too much to tell (and too much to forget) in one post. But I'll do my best.

I decided that what we were doing with grammar was inadequate and rarely happening, plus I wanted a more structured spelling curriculum. I finally went in to a local homeschool store and was thrilled with all the resources I found there. So, in February Kimball started Spelling Workout E, Henry started Explode the Code 2 (which seems to be a little low for him, but I like that it is teaching phonics and he's moving through it quickly,) and Ian started Get Ready for the Code. We are trying to spend 10 or 15 minutes a day in these books and the boys seem to enjoy it and are moving along.

Reading is going well. Henry is much more comfortable in independent reading these days and chooses more challenging (and more interesting) books to read. He reads aloud to me most days, reads aloud to Bronwen and Ian, and reads aloud to himself. He has always loved books, but it makes me happy to see him feeling confident enough about his reading to curl up with a book and actually READ rather than just look at the pictures. Kimball has been enjoying several books lately, including Where the Red Fern Grows, Peter Pan, Famous Men of Ancient Rome, Gladiator, Julius Caesar--Great Dictator of Rome, See You Later, Gladiator, Roman Roads and Aquaducts, and Viking it and Liking It. As you can see, he really loves learning about ancient Rome. Ian and I are getting burned out on Letter of the Week--we are stuck on P and I just need to find the motivation for us to go on and finish the alphabet.

We have also listened to several books on CD lately: Little House on the Prairie, On the Banks of Plum Creek, A Wrinkle in Time, The Mouse and the Motorcycle, Spiderwick Chronicles . . . that's all I can remember, although I'm sure that there have been more.

In history, we've been all about the Romans. The boys are fascinated by the people, especially Caesar and Hannibal. We've written narratives about Caesar being kidnapped by pirates, attempted to build a Roman aquaduct (which was a fabulous failure), done bean mosaics, measured ourselves to see if our Celtic blood has made us big like the Celts, and taken one of our favorite field trips of the year. I must dedicate an entire post to our visit to the Getty Villa in Malibu-- we went a couple of weeks ago while visiting my mom and the boys were captivated by all of the art, mosaics, architecture, and artifacts. Here are some photos of our work and activities in the area of history:

In math we have been plugging away. I got a book for Kimball to help him with his multiplication tables because he just hasn't wanted to commit them to memory. It seems to be helping, as he is much more drawn to books and the written word than to numbers, and this books incorporates both. It's also available on DVD or CD-ROM, but I always choose books over screen-time for my kids. If you are interested, go here. Henry only has about 25 lessons to go before he starts Saxon 2, which is exciting. Ian and I haven't done math in weeks. I have got to start making his learning more of a priority. I know that he is still preschool aged, but he is capable of learning more than I am teaching him right now.

In science, we have been doing studies on birds and birdwatching. We also planted a spring garden in January and have enjoyed eating lettuce and spinach from the garden for the past month. The peas don't seem to be doing anything, but the beans are up and growing and the onions seem to be thriving. The strawberries are blossoming, which has us very excited. We've had a lot of rain with warmish temperatures in the past couple of months, which has helped a lot. We hope to get our tomatoes, herbs, peppers, zucchini, squash, cucumbers, and melons planted in the next two weeks. We are really expanding from last year's garden, since we enjoyed it so much.

We also have acquired a pet, a bearded dragon, named Drazil. So we have spent a lot of time online learning about beardies, their diets, needs, temperaments. I really don't mind having a reptile in the house as much as I thought I would--the worst part is keeping live crickets to feed the little guy. I DO NOT LIKE BUGS.

In terms of life skills, the boys have become quite proficient and clearing the table and loading the dishwasher, which I love. Kimball is riding his bike to and from Cub Scouts each week without me (it's 2 blocks away), which makes him feel very responsible. They are also learning how to do some simple things like make peanut butter sandwiches, warm up frozen burritos, pop microwave popcorn . . . things that will be a blessing to me when the new baby comes. Henry loves the responsibility of watering the garden and taking out the compost bowl each morning.

In piano both Kimball and Henry are preparing for a spring recital. I see a lot of improvement in their playing and they never complain about practicing. I am proud of what they are accomplishing.

In Russian, we have been working on the numbers to 20, saying how old we are, and the confusing personal pronouns. Russian is pretty complicated gramatically (although those of you who have already studied Latin would have a leg up--I know that my background in Latin helped Russian grammar click for me.) I want to look into a Russian speaking playgroup or having a native come to our home on a regular basis to get us all conversing more. It would help me, too!

Kimball also earned his Wolf badge last month as well as 3 arrow points. He is excited to get started on his Bear requirements. He and his dad made a teepee cake for the America theme at the Blue and Gold Banquet last month, and Kimball was very particular about painting on the sides some actual Native American word-pictures.

For Valentine's Day, we were invited to a party, which the kids were sooooo excited about. There were crafts, cookies, and other kids--all the perfect ingredients. I was thrilled that someone else was hosting!

We also made cookies to take to friends, but we had to bake them at my sister's house because my oven died; on the way home, they all slid right off their cookie sheet and into the carpet of the van. Yuck! Some of them were salvaged enough for us to eat, but not to share.

For St. Patrick's Day, they made a leprachaun trap and were thrilled to find that a leprachaun had come while we were out. He managed to get out of the trap, but left behind lots of gold chocolate nuggets, which was better than nothing. We also wrote essays on how we would use three wishes if we caught a leprachaun, and I made Irish Soda bread, spinach smoothies, and green shamrock spritz cookies.

We have memorized James 1:5-6 and have been reading sections from The Family: A Proclamation to the World each morning at our morning meeting. We also continue to read from the Book of Mormon each day before Daddy leaves for work and study one Old Testament story per week. I love being able to speak so freely about the gospel in all areas of our learning--it feels natural to discuss and enriches our studies greatly.

Although some days are quite challenging and I have to strive with all my might to stay on track, I am finding this experience to be rewarding for me and my family. I pray that the Lord will continue to guide me and help me to give them the education that they need and deserve.

Bird Watching Adventures

2009-02-22T19:23:00.000-08:00

I know that I need to do another Open House report, but I thought I'd take the time to do one now on the birdwatching we've been doing for the past few weeks.

We read about the Great Backyard Bird Count on Sonja's blog and decided to participate. We went out and bought some bird feeders, but haven't attracted as many as we wanted--perhaps because our backyard is under construction and resembles a massive mudpit with all the rain we've been having. However, anytime the boys spotted a bird in the yard for the two weeks leading up to the GBBC, they got so excited.

We did spot these Pine Siskins in our lavender bush on the morning of the first day of the GBBC (the only day that wasn't raining buckets.) We counted 12 of them in the lavender and in our big tree in the front.

Since we weren't having great luck finding birds in our own backyard, plus it was the only day that week that wasn't rainy, we took a family birdwatching walk to a local park that has wetlands and bike trails throughout scrub oaks and fields. The weather conditions were not ideal--the wind was quite chilly and we wished we'd worn more layers-- and we noticed that not as many birds were out as we usually see there. However, we did spy some species that we were able to identify using our bird field guides, which was exciting:

Great Egrets

Canada Geese

Red Shouldered Hawk (we think)

An entire family of Mallards. You can't see all of them, but we counted 14.

This week, even though the GBBC was over, we studied the wild turkey. We looked in all of our field guides and bird books, then went to the internet to learn more. We have started working on our own field guides thanks to a Dover/Audobon Society coloring book I found this week, so Kimball and Henry took great care to color their turkeys accurately. Then, on Friday, we went to a place that I was sure we'd see wild turkeys-- Temple Hill. Near the Sacramento Temple is a huge oak grove as well as many acres of wild shrubs. I nearly always see turkey and deer when Jared & I go to the temple; we sometimes run across wild turkeys in the neighborhood here, but nothing so consistent that we could go find them when we wanted to.

We were rewarded. As we drove up, we came to a flock of about 15 turkeys who were just on the edge of the temple grounds. We stopped the car and looked at them, took some pictures, and noticed how they varied in color from some that we had seen on the internet and in our books. A few of the toms actually raised their tail feathers for us, which was a treat. Afterwards, we parked the car and wandered around the oak grove, hoping that the turkeys would come back. They did not, but we did observe lots of American Robins. We sat quietly and talked about the temple for a few minutes, sang a few songs, and then took a mostly reverent walk around the actual gated temple grounds. On the way out, we spotted a doe and fawn grazing together.

It was a very special little outing and I was grateful to have done it--the morning hadn't started off well and I was not feeling much like taking them anywhere, but it paid off.

Open House

2009-01-27T15:22:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted a weekly report in ages and have been overwhelmed with the thought of catching up. So this post isn't meant to cover EVERYTHING that we've learned since Week 11 (we are currently in week 19, but merely to give a sampling of some of what we've accomplished and discovered in the past couple of months.

In math, Kimball is still working on his multiplication tables. We've learned about perfect squares and square roots. He's currently working on a line graph comparing the daily low temperatures in Albany, NY and Sacramento, CA. Henry has been working on comparing numbers on graphs, figuring out how many more and how many less, and has mastered his doubles plus one facts. Both boys are on track to finish Saxon Math in about 12 weeks. We'll have a little celebration and start the next level. I'm hoping to do some math through the summer so they don't lose their skills, but with a new baby coming in July, we'll see how that turns out.

Ian and I have been doing math regularly, but taking it a bit more slowly. He and I have really been focusing in the past two weeks on numerical order and on recognizing the numbers between 6 and 10. We have also been counting backwards from 10 to blast off, which he enjoys. We spent a week doing the same lesson each day, just so that I was sure he was solid on the principles. I'm just trying to establish fundamentals with him at this point--if he were going to public school, he'd still have almost 2 years until I sent him (as he has a late fall birthday). That is one of the perks that I see with homeschooling him--I can help him learn in the areas where he's ready without holding him back until he's mature enough for public school kindergarten.

In history, we finished up the ancient Greeks before Christmas, as well as learning about Alexander the Great and his empire. We spent the first couple of weeks after the New Year learning about the Etruscans. I was a docent at the BYU MOA the first year it was opened, when it featured an exhibit from the Vatican about the Etruscans. I will admit that my memories are more broad than specific about the people, but my mom had acquired a teacher curriculum that the museum published then, which we had lots of fun with. We made dioramas of an Etruscan home, studied the Etruscan alphabet (Kimball loves and alphabet), and pored over Etruscan art. Last week we made an Etruscan-style family portrait. (Henry's has a knight and princess theme, not quite true to the period, but I allowed the artistic license.)

This week, we move on to the Romans, whom we will study for several weeks. We hope to take a trip to the Getty Villa this spring to see some of the antiquities there.

In Russian, everyone has been making progress. The boys have learned numbers to ten, colors, and the names of family members (father, mother, baby, grandma, etc.) Their sentences are getting more complex, and I am impressed at how intuitively the kids seem to know what they mean. I am really pleased with the Rosetta Stone program. Kimball got a pocket Russian-English dictionary for Christmas, and Henry got this book, which Jared & I had so much fun looking through before we wrapped it up. (If Usborne offers this book in the language that you are studying, I highly recommend it. Check out Sonja's bookstore to find out.) We also had an unexpected Russian visitor this month. Jared & I recently got on facebook and have discovered many of our Russian friends there. One of them contacted us to say that her 21 year old son was visiting San Francisco and wondered if he could come for a visit. So he caught the train to see us and came for dinner and the evening, then took the train back the next day. So the boys got to try out their language skills on a native!

We've been trying to work in more memorization and have learned some poems and scriptures. We are currently working on Alma 37:35 "Oh, remember my son, and learn wisdom in thy youth. Yeah, learn in thy youth to keep the commandments of God." We have also tried copywork again--still not the boys' favorite, but I'm aiming for once a week right now, copying the scripture or poem we are working on.

In December, Henry was lamenting that they had done more fun holiday activities in public school last year, so we decided to up it a bit. The boys created their own Christmas ornaments for a small tree in their bedroom, we decorated gingerbread houses (thanks, Grammy & Papa!),

and hosted a cousins' Christmas party where we did an art project and decorated cookies.

We also learned Silent Night in Russian. We also learned about Hannukah and spent one evening eating traditional Hannukah foods, playing with a dreidle, and (not) lighting the menorah--as I forgot to get candles to fit in the one I bought in Jerusalem.

In reading, Henry has been reading the Flat Stanley books. Kimball has read a slew of books, including all of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books in a matter of hours, which a friend loaned him. Those books have spawned a whole series of knock-offs by Kimball and Henry, as well as lots of conversations about why it's not nice or funny to put people down. Why is it that so many books written for young boys involve put-downs? Every time I buckle and let them read a book that is popular in their age group, I regret it. Kimball is reading and loving The Black Stallion at the moment, which is a much better choice in my mind. They've also read a lot of books about Greece, wildfires, polar animals (again), and all the Christmas books I keep under the tree in December. I have accumulated around 40 0r 50 Christmas children's books that only come out after Thanksgiving. I love watching them lay on their bellies around the tree, rediscovering old favorites.

I also tried to focus on service more in December. We chose a needy family and shopped for Christmas gifts and a tree for them, then delivered it as a family. We made cinnamon rolls for all of our neighbors and some other families.

I was touched to see them empty their spending money banks to buy Christmas gifts for each other, and each one spent a lot of time and thought choosing what they would give each other.

Jared just finished reading The Princess Bride to them at bedtime, and we have been listening to Little House on the Prarie in the car. I am also trying to make sure that the little ones hear me read aloud books a few times a day. Trips to the library keep me from getting tired of reading the same things over and over.

The kids have been helping me in the kitchen more, have acquired a new nightly chore of clearing the table and loading the dishwasher, and we all worked to prepare our garden bed for planting a couple of weeks ago. If the rain will let up for long enough, we are anxious to plant lettuce, spinach, cauliflower, broccoli, and peas.

Science really hasn't been happening regularly, but they have had a couple of lessons using Kimball's new microscope. We are planning on participating in The Great Backyard Bird Count next month.

There is more, but I'm out of time now, and this at least gives some record of what we've accomplished. I'll try to post more often, but I'm not making any promises.

What They Did Today Instead of Math

2009-01-14T14:29:00.000-08:00

I really intended to have our individual math lessons today. Really, I did. But we decided to do history first this morning and had so much fun with it. Then, after Henry went to speech, we went to the park because you never know how long this 65 degree weather will last. When we got home, I put Bronwen down for a nap and sat down to check my email, telling the kids that we'd start math in 10 minutes. But they have been so busy being creative and brilliant that I haven't wanted to interfere. So, instead, I have spent the past hour and a half online (gulp--where does the time go?) and they have built a "habitat" for Henry's plastic lizard

and then discovered some dinosaur bones in the backyard.

Warning: you may need a dramamine before you watch this. We haven't studied cinematography quite yet, and this was filmed by our students.

I guess it's not too late for math to happen. We are heading out for a walk next because we all need some exercise and did I mention how gorgeous the weather is? But I'll commit now that they will at least do some math worksheets before the day is over. In the meantime, I am remembering how much learning takes place away from the dining room table.

Still Homeschooling

2009-01-14T13:57:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted in forever and this is not going to be an update either, except to let you know that we are still having school 5 days a week. I promise that my children are not as neglected as this blog is. I plan to do a little bloggy Open House soon that updates what we've been learning, but I just don't want to take the time right now (or in the past six weeks, apparently!) I know that I need to do report and feel some accountability, but I am telling myself that the actual learning is more important than reporting it.

This sounds so lame that it makes me sigh and think that I really need to get a report written soon. Leave me a comment if you still care!:)

Reporting on Weeks 8,9, and 10

2008-11-11T19:40:00.000-08:00

We have been seriously busy lately, plus not feeling very motivated to do weekly reports (can you tell?) But I wanted to check in and say that we HAVE BEEN LEARNING around here.

In math, we have been cruising along, doing four to five lessons in Saxon each week (except for last week, when I think we did one lesson. Between the election and election burn out last week, our math program slipped a little.) Henry is starting to multiply by twos, which is so exciting for him. Kimball has learned about cartography, liquid measurements, and other scientific applications of math, as well as strengthening his skills at multiplying by 7s, a number that remains a bit challenging. I really need to find something that he can just memorize, some sort of visual chart. If only it had letters or words as well--he is so drawn to letters, whereas numbers seem to bore him. Ian has made pictographs and has moved up to ABB patterns. He loves our daily calendar that he works on in his meeting book.

We learned the letters G and H, then last week we reviewed all of the letters we've learned so far. It was especially fun to include Halloween themes in our letter of the week--using words like "ghost", "goblin", "haunted house," etc as we learned the sounds of the letters.

In history, we have been studying the Greeks. We have decorated vases (if you look carefully, each picture on the vase tells a story from mythology or the Odyssey), writing our names in Greek, reading about the gods and goddesses, learning about the different cultures of Sparta and Athens (we think we would have rather lived in Athens), and holding our own Olympics. We had a Greek dinner one night of homemade pita, herbed pork chops, tzasiki sauce, feta cheese, hummus, and baklava for dessert. Kimball has started transliterating everything into Greek (that kid loves a code) and they all want to know when we can start studying Greek as well as Russian. Some books that we've enjoyed have been:

In Russian, the kids have learned new words for colors, numbers, articles of clothing, and other shopping vocabulary. The sentences they use and translate are becoming more complex. I am really proud of how well they are doing. Kimball loves it most (did I mention he loves a code?) but Henry and Ian are really catching on as well, and Bronwen has picked up a few words from our conversations. When she sees me get the headphones out that we use with Rosetta Stone, she jumps up and down and yells, "Russian! Russian!"

In terms of read alouds, Jared has been reading The Princess Bride to them, which they are really loving. In addition, we have read lots of picture books (as usual). Two library books that Ian has picked a lot lately are
and

In week 7 we built a volcano, which we later painted and then erupted on Science Friday. Other science lessons have included blasting off a rocket (using the same principle as the eruption--an acid/base reaction,) and the sad lesson we learned that when you carve your jack-o-lanterns on Monday night, they will probably be caved in with mold by Friday morning, the day of your Halloween party. There was a bit of weeping and wailing around here when that lesson was learned. Oops.

We were very involved in the proposition on the ballot in CA to protect marriage. You can read my other blog for an account of the rally we attended together. We had lots of conversations in the month leading up to the election about the family, about tolerating those whose views were different (but that tolerate does not have to mean agree with), about the way democracy works, etc. The week before the election we could hardly leave the house without coming across street corners, congested with sign wavers in support or opposition to the amendment to our state's constitution. The day before the election, while I was busy arranging for people to help us knock doors and make phone calls to get out the vote the next day, Kimball and Henry took their homemade signs out to our front yard (we live on a corner) and waved them for a good half hour at the passing cars. I was proud of their determination to help Prop 8 pass. Even Bronwen got involved and chanted "Yes on 8" any time she heard it mentioned in conversations!

You can read here about our Halloween party. Nana helped Kimball and Henry turn their bedroom into an Egyptian tomb for the night. Kimball took great care to get the hieroglyphics completely accurate, and explained to all who "toured the tomb" each of the Egyptian gods depicted in the paintings.
Besides all of these things, we also threw a birthday party for Ian, kept up with soccer and tae kwon do, went to the library, participated in Cub Scouts, wrote in journals religiously, practiced the piano, studied the scriptures individually and as a family, prepared for our ward's Primary program (where the children share with the church congregation the things they have learned this year in their classes), and much more. I always hate ending these posts because an hour later I think of four more things we did, but it's just going to have to be good enough!

I just want to say how grateful I am to be homeschooling. It is demanding. It requires more patience than I have some days. It does not leave me much free time. My house is never as clean as it used to be. But it is so rewarding. I love learning with my boys. I love teaching them things and seeing their eyes light up with excitement. I love that we get to spend so much time together, where other families have to spend so much time apart. I love that I can teach them secular things with a gospel perspective, in an environment where the Holy Ghost can enrich our learning. And I am so grateful to feel the Lord guiding me and helping me figure this out as we go along.

Weekly Report #7

2008-10-21T20:47:00.000-07:00

Another week has passed and here I am on Tuesday, writing a report, which will surely be too brief and not have nearly as many pictures as I had planned. But at least I'll record what we accomplished, as I rely on this for much of my record keeping.

Our highlight this week was history (as usual.) We studied the Minoans as we prepare to start Ancient Greece next week. We learned about their shipbuilding, their love of arena sport (specifically bull jumping,) and about King Minos and the Minotaur. We built a labyrinth out of blocks, created our own mazes on paper, colored bull jumpers, wrote about Theseus conquering the Minotaur, and built a volcano. We had planned to paint it and make it erupt on Friday during science, but I had neglected to allow for the clay to dry, which has taken about 5 days. So we'll be working on the volcano this week (yes, I still have a half-finished Egyptian death mask in my closet. But this time will be different!)

We also did four lessons each of Saxon Math, four lessons of grammar, and Russian five days. We learned about King Solomon. The boys were fascinated by the story about cutting the baby in half. We also talked about the temple and the importance of the temple today, as Solomon built the temple in Jerusalem. For a read aloud, Jared is reading Gulliver's Travels to the boys right now. I also read aloud lots of library books and otherwise to the three youngest. I continue to see Henry's abilities improve, which is so exciting.

For science, since the volcano wasn't ready, Jared taught about acids and bases and they shot off a rocket that uses baking soda and vinegar reaction to blast off.

Our letter of the week was F. We read all of the Froggy books (by Jonathan London) we own, which is a lot. On Wednesday at the park after speech, we ran "fast", threw the "football" and leap-"frogged" before we had "free" play. Ian consistently picking out previous letters of the week, and although he doesn't always name them properly, he always knows the sounds they make, which is more important.

We participated in Cub Scouts, soccer, tae kwon do, and piano lessons. We rode bikes, took a walk, and read lots of books. We went to the dentist, twice, and Henry got to have what the dentist called a "baby root canal." (I guess he got my family's teeth. Or eating habits.)

It was a good week, and a busy one, and I'm not going to spend anymore time this week posting about it!:)

Weekly Report-- Our Week Off

2008-10-13T14:59:00.000-07:00

This week was our first scheduled break. I am so glad that I planned these in, because it was really nice for all of us to take a break. I had planned on keeping our same structure in the morning: Family Devotional, breakfast, get dressed, make beds, brush teeth, journal, personal scripture study and prayer, piano practice, etc.. However, these things only happened on a couple of days. The boys took turns feeling sick, having caught the cold that I'd had the week before. We had lazier mornings.

We made cupcakes and took them to the park to celebrate cousin Isaac's birthday.

We made bread and shared it with some people that we love.

We had some friends come over to play one morning to give their pregnant mommy a break.

We went to the library and picked out lots of new books.

We learned how to play Settlers of Catan. (It might still be a little early for this.)

We did some cleaning (but not nearly enough.)

We made invitations to Ian's birthday party and delivered them.

I also conquered the ironing pile that was threatening to take over my bedroom. I did my mom's taxes. I finished my book, Wives and Daughters, and started the Poisonwood Bible. I talked on the phone more than usual. I vacuumed in the middle of the week!:) I made whole wheat bread, banana bread, and dinner rolls. I attended an IEP for Henry's speech services. I took a nap.

Things I had meant to do this week and never got around to:

Lesson plans for the next 6 weeks (oops!)
Plant a fall garden
Wash all the windows in the house
Decorate for Halloween
Bake rolls and freeze them for an upcoming business event
Go to lunch with some girlfriends
Play soccer with the boys (since they didn't have soccer this week)
Buy and wrap some Christmas gifts

I got up extra early this morning and got my lesson plans done for the coming week. I'm going to have to make time this week to get our plans done until Thanksgiving. But we had a great time being productive and being lazy and being together. And we (especially the kids) were ready by the end of the week for the structure of school again!

Weekly Report #6

2008-10-07T22:21:00.000-07:00

These past six weeks have gone by so quickly. I am really happy with what we've been able to accomplish and how we've been able to mostly keep to our lesson plans as scheduled. I am glad that I planned in pencil, though, as things have had to shift a little here and there. We are in a good routine and enjoying learning together. And we are looking forward to relaxing our schedule next week, taking the week "off", and preparing to jump back in the following week. I'm hoping that these one-week breaks that I've scheduled after six weeks of school will allow us to stay fresh and excited (and to get caught up on deep cleaning).

We studied the rise (again) of Babylon this week under Nebuchadnezzar. How is it that in all my life of reading and listening to Bible stories, I had never heard the story of Nebuchadnezzar's madness? The boys found it to be so fascinating. I was tempted to jump ahead in our Old Testament studies to Daniel, as he was king N's contemporary, but the boys already seemed to know that about him and I decided we'd just stick with our plan. They were so interested in the tale of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, which King N built for his homesick Persian wife, and they were quite enthusiastic about drawing the gardens as they imagined them. We also looked in the Great Wonders book we got at the library, which spent a few pages speculating about what those gardens were like.

It's too bad they were completely destroyed. Looking at how powerful and beautiful Babylon was at that time, it caused me to reflect on the pattern of pride and destruction. Babylon wasn't just powerful and beautiful, the Bible also tells us that it was very wicked and that is the reason for it's eventual fall. As I look around the world we live in today, I see a few things that might be familiar to the ancient Babylonians and I wonder when our city walls will come crashing down. (I guess the stock market is an example of how they already are.)

Each of the boys did four math lessons this week. I only have 3 per week scheduled for Ian, but he loves doing it and feels slighted if he notices that we skip a day, so he did four this week as well. Kimball learned how to divide by 1 and 10, and continues to work on his 7s on the multiplication table. Does anyone know a good resource for memorizing those? A fun game or strategy to recommend?

We did two grammar lessons and then incorporated copywork. This was the first time we've done copywork since week 2. I just got tired of the boys fighting me on it. However, Kimball needs to be more proficient in cursive--it is still so much work for him. And Henry didn't learn how to form the letters properly and needs to be taught all over again. He draws his letters instead of writing, if that makes any sense. So in grammar, we talked about proper names and how each member of our family has three proper names. Their copywork for the week was to write out the names of everyone in our family in their best writing. They took great pains to do it and were interested in it. So maybe I just need to have them copy things that are interesting to them instead of things I want them to memorize.

Our letter of the week was E. We worked in our Letter of the Week Journal every day and read books about elephants, elves, and eels. Just when I was starting to think that none of this was really sinking in for Ian, this week he started pointing out when he recognized letters and telling me the sounds they make when I'm reading to him. Hurray!

For our read aloud, I read to them different stories from Tales of the Arabian Nights. We are all really enjoying them, although they are a bit brutal. We finished listening to A Little Princess in the car, and when we were making bread for some friends a few days later, Henry said, "This is something that Sarah would do." "In what way?" I asked. "She's always thinking about how she can make other people happy," he said. I was so glad that he was thinking about that.

Russian is coming along, albeit slowly. But they are interested in it and learning. I probably need to do more to use it beyond when we use the Rosetta Stone program. We've only done so inconsistently.

Henry's team actually won their first soccer game this week! Both he and Kimball did much better on the soccer field this week. We are still working with Kimball on being a good sport (he likes to trash talk the other team.) Tae Kwon Do is also going well--I think that I am the only one who is tired of it.

Kimball is reading Harriet the Spy, one of my favorite books as a kid. He doesn't seem to stick to one book, though. He reads a couple of chapters of one, then picks up another, then another all in the same day. I think he can't stand to have a book in his room that he hasn't read, so if there are library books there, no matter what the reading level, he feels compelled to read them.

Henry read library books aloud to me this week and is improving all the time. He still is not very content to read to himself for very long, so his comprehension probably needs more work.

For Science, Jared taught them about how televisions work (their request.) He said that he had to study and learn about it before he could teach it to them, since that's really not his area of expertise. But they all had fun and learned a lot. I'm still contemplating buying a real science curriculum instead of the grab-bag science lessons we've been doing. The good thing is that they are all engaged, interested, and learning about science with their dad. There's just not much order to it all.

We learned about King David this week. A big lesson that we can learn from David is that even the righteous can commit great sins if they start with small ones. David went from looking on a woman he shouldn't have, to lusting, to adultery, to murder. And then he spent the rest of his life repenting and sorrowing for what he had done, which could not be taken back. We talked about how the atonement is for all of us, even when we make such terrible choices as David did, but that those terrible choices still bring painful consequences. We can be made clean and worthy again through Christ, but he will not take away all the consequences of our actions.

Our Hymn of the Week was "Do What is Right". We were excited to hear it sung in General Conference this weekend. We also wrote in our journals and practiced the piano, but I dropped the ball on spelling.

All in all, it was a good week. And since I'm writing this days and days too late, it's hard to remember as many details as I'd like. I have got to start posting these sooner. Perhaps I need to start writing the post early in the week.

Weekly Report #5

2008-09-28T11:20:00.000-07:00

Another week gone. We only have one more week to go until our first scheduled week off! I will admit that I am looking forward to it. I think it is good that we have a week off scheduled before any of us hits burnout. I haven't told the boys about it yet. Let them be surprised.

This week I am going to focus on one kid at a time instead of subjects. Ian especially is enjoying our math lessons. His kinder math program consists of brief lessons that use manipulatives--perfect for a four-year-old kid. We also spend time together every day on the calendar and building and recognizing patterns. Here is his workbook with September's calendar nearly completed. I'm trying to not get discouraged that he can't seem to remember the name of the month. He's a preschooler, after all. (He also loves our letter-of-the-week time and seems to grasp it well, but on Thursday he couldn't tell his aunt what the letter of the week was. Sigh. We learned the letter D this week. Here is a page from his Letter-of-the-Week journal:

We read Diary of Worm this week, all of our dinosaur and duck books, and picked out the D sound words in every other book we read together. We had apple cider donuts on Friday at Apple Hill, and and colored pictures of dolphins , dinosaurs (included Dimetridon), and dogs. Ian is going through a phase where he wants me to color for him after about 5 seconds. I'm not sure if it's attention related or his perfectionist tendencies (which seem to run in the family.) Any suggestions? For now, I'm just trying to encourage him to do the things but not pushing him too hard-- so as to avoid having him lose his taste for schoolwork.

Ian also had a lot of fun on Friday and Saturday with his same-age cousin, Talmage. Talmage and his baby sister, Audrey, are visiting from Utah. The boys are two days apart in age and really connect well. Here they are at Apple Hill, being cowboys (with Bronwen.) Ian also got to go (without the rest of us) with Grammy and Papa and Talmage's family to Fairy Tale Land on Saturday. He felt very grown up to be going without his big brothers. Henry told me that he "felt jealous of Ian." I reminded him gently that there are lots of times when Henry and Kimball get to go do something fun and Ian has to stay home because he's "too little." This was Ian's turn.

Henry is continues to eat up his math. Here is one of his worksheetsfrom this week:

He is also making great progress in his reading. He does so well when we read the Book of Mormon aloud together with Daddy in the morning. He also reads aloud on his own each morning for personal study. He can usually read most of the words by himself, which is not an easy task. I truly believe that this practice of reading the Book of Mormon with our kids has improved their reading skills greatly. I didn't push him a lot this week to read on his own, since he had been resistant, but I did catch him reading plenty. Perhaps I need to relax a little on that--all of my kids eat up books as long as we have plenty around. Maybe I'm taking the fun out of it by telling them: Go read a book right now. What do you think?

Here are a couple of pages in Henry's journal this week:

Henry and Kimball enjoyed history this week. We studied the Assyrian Empire under Asherbanipal. We learned about how the Assyrians conquered everyone in Mesopotamia up to the Tigris River, over into Canaan, down into Egypt--a massive empire. We built this Assyrian Siege Tower to mimic those used (on wheels) to allow the Assyrians to ram down city walls and to attack from above as well.

We also learned about the world's first library, built by Asherbanipal in Nineveh. We got busy working on books to put in our own library. These boys have been writing their own books for years, but we are witnessing something of a revival at the moment. Henry wants to work on his book instead of coming to dinner, play outside, or play Sorry! with Kimball. Here are some samples of their books. As you can tell, I am not interfering on content or spelling.

Other subjects we covered together included a discussion on young David and David & Goliath; learning the hymn, "My Redeemer Lives", and a grammar lesson. We listened to A Little Princess in the van and studied Russian all week long. I'm sure we did more than that, but I am so tired of writing this post and it's already my third sitting since I started it!:)

In math this week, Kimball learned about the temperatures (Fahrenheit) where water freezes and boils, plus normal body temperature for humans. He learned about rounding to the nearest 10th, and we did some money work. We reviewed horizontal, vertical, and oblique. We are gradually adding in his multiplication tables. Here is a worksheet from this week:

Here is one of Kimball's journal pages this week. He obviously spent some time thinking about the Assyrians, since this was written a day or two after our first history lesson of the week.

Kimball also finished reading The Voyages of Dr. Dolittle, which he has worked on for a few weeks, while getting distracted with the bounty of library books in the basket in his bedroom. One of these days I'll remember to take pictures of some of the library books when the kids aren't sleeping. Off the top of my head, I know he/we read Forty Fortunes, an Iranian fairy tale; Great Wonders of the World (non-fiction),The Legend of the Flying Carpet, several books about Koko, the chimpanzee (which he checks out regularly), Mara, Daughter of the Nile, The Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor, and lots more.

Bronwen worked hard at being a mommy to her babies, singing songs with us, looking at books, demanding that we sing more songs, and climbing up into every place she doesn't belong (like on top of the bar and in the middle of the dining room table, for instance.) She woke up so happy from her nap on Sunday that I snapped this photo. She has started saying, "cheese" as soon as she sees a camera. I didn't teach her that, did I?

We finished out our week going to one of our favorite autumn places, Apple Hill, with our cousins, grandparents, aunt, and uncle. We ate apples, apple cider donuts, played in the dirt, rode a tire swing, offered our fingers to goats for nibbling, wandered through pumpkin patches, loitered in apple orchards, and rolled down a big hill with Grammy. Here are a few shots from the fun we had there:

Weekly Report #4

2008-09-23T20:37:00.000-07:00

Why is it so hard to write these reports, especially in a timely manner? For one thing, they take a long time. For another, I feel so busy since school started. You may have noticed on my other blog that I'm not spending much time blogging lately. I feel that if I'm lucky I get an hour or so to myself in the evening before bed--and I have to choose between reading, blogging, spending time with my husband, ironing, and calling a friend. Yikes! I'm trying to use my afternoons more efficiently so that at least I don't have to do laundry or ironing between 8:00 pm and my bedtime (9:30).

But enough about me. Here's a quick glimpse at our week:

I just want to say that our littlest student is growing up so fast. I love watching her mother her babies, read her books, and mimic the sounds we make when we're talking about the alphabet. I love how she lights up when it's time for Morning Meeting and runs to sit down first. She claps her hands and can't wait to sing together and pray. And she has been so good at playing happily in her playpen while we do math (she kept climbing up on the table to get at the manipulatives, pencils, crayons, etc.)

In math, I decided that we weren't moving quickly enough. The lessons are too easy for my boys. I have heard that many people choose to work a year ahead in Saxon Math, but I have been nervous to skip some fundamental building block. A silly fear, I am sure, but real nonetheless. Anyhow, I went through the lessons again and we skipped lots of lessons that were simply too basic. Don't worry, Mom--I did the assessments on them to make sure that we hadn't skipped too far! For Ian we are just going one lesson at a time. I'm not worried about it being basic for him, I think it's appropriate for someone who is nearly 4. I'm glad I didn't wait until his kinder year to start this math, though.

So, Kimball did SM 22, 23, 32, 33, and 38. Henry did SM 31, 35, 36, and 38. I figure we'll work a little faster and start the next level in the spring or late winter. Ian did SM Kinder 7-9. He is so cute when we do math, and he really loves it. He really has changed so much from the problems we were having this summer, and I'm sure it's largely because I am doing one-on-one schoolwork with him now.

Russian continues. They are in lesson 2 now, learning to say things like, "the men eat the sandwiches" and "the girls swim," and "the woman eats rice and an apple." They are loving it. I finally remembered to pull out the accompanying CD for the car and we listen to it and practice our pronunciation and vocabulary when we have short errands to run. Longer rides require our book on CD, The Little Princess.

Thank goodness we are listening to that because I only read one chapter last week from our read-aloud chapter book. We've been reading lots of library picture books this week. The one that gets chosen over and over is Me and My Cat? If I've read it once, I've read it forty times already. But it is entertaining and I love the illustrations.

I decided to tackle a writing assignment this week, since all we've been doing so far is journal writing. The boys each wrote a letter to Grammy and Papa, thanking them for the fun weekend they had together while Jared & I were away. We started with a web and planned out the letter ahead of time. They spent a couple of days writing it. I didn't think to take the picture until they had already folded them up 100 times and put them in the envelope, so they may be tricky to read. I felt good about what they accomplished, their grandparents were thrilled, and Kimball even checked off a Faith in God requirement.

We did three grammar lessons this week, which is actually what I plan but rarely accomplish. The lessons are short but always get put off if we are running behind. We continue to focus on common vs. proper nouns.

For letter of the week, we focused on letter C. We've started talking about our letter of the week at the morning meeting to get everyone involved. Then, Ian and I work in his letter of the week journal together each morning, reviewing previous weeks' entries. This week we spent the first two days just on the "k" sound, then I introduced situations in which c makes the "s" and "ch" sounds. We colored pictures of cows, camels, crocodiles, and chickens.

We looked for Cs in every book we read. We made carrot cupcakes and cinnamon rolls with cream cheese icing (notice the latter had all three kinds of c sounds.)

We took these treats to people, since I can't have them sitting around the house or I accidentally eat them. Plus, I am really trying to incorporate service into our week. So we shared with a friend whom I visit teach, a friend whose husband loves my carrot cake, a new couple in the ward, our piano teacher, and Aunt Alli and Isaac.

As far as history goes, I thought we'd spend another week on Egypt, since we still had work to do on the death mask and a chapter book to read on Egypt. But alas, we didn't get very far. I think I've realized that the novelty of these things has worn off a bit for all of us and it kept getting pushed to last and then until tomorrow. We'll eventually finish that death mask, but it's time to move on to a new civilization.

In Old Testament we read about King Saul. We talked about how the Lord warned the people against having a king and they asked for one anyway. We talked about why we should always listen to the Lord's counsel. We also talked about the principle learned through Saul, "to obey is better than to sacrifice."

For our Hymn of the Week, we learned, "A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief". Kimball also gave an excellent FHE lesson, planned entirely on his own, comparing three prophets: Lehi, Noah, and Abinadai, each of whom was called to warn the people of coming destruction if they would not repent.

We practiced tying shoes, a skill which has yet to be mastered by anyone under the age of 30 in our home. We played at the park. We attended speech, tae kwon do, soccer, piano lessons, and Cub Scouts. Kimball's Cub Scout den visited the fire station and he learned a lot about what fire fighters do, as well as how to fold a flag. We played with our cousins, Cooper and Catelyn. We went to a swim party, a birthday party, and a ward party (all on the same day.) So I think we got our social stuff in!

All in all, I am so grateful for this experience. I feel so blessed to be able to do this for my kids. I can feel it strengthening our family. I can feel it pushing me to improve. I can see it helping my kids individually. I can feel the Lord's hand in our lives. If only the ironing fairy would visit me this week!

Weekly Report #3

2008-09-14T20:31:00.000-07:00

Another week has come and gone so quickly! We are really into the swing of things, now, and it feels good. In the interest of getting to bed at a decent hour (which is crucial to my success tomorrow,) and not wanting to waste the valuable time of my limited readership, I am going to be as brief as possible. Here's our week in a nutshell:

Math:
Kimball completed SM 15-21 this week (we skipped a few of them) and aced his assessments. Henry did SM 27-30 and love his doubles math facts. His response to a math facts worksheet is so different from his brother's--pure glee. Ian did SM 4-6 and learned to make a pictograph by graphing the people in our family.

Grammar:
We only got to one grammar lesson this week, even though I had three scheduled. We did FLL Lesson 5 on narration. I read the story of the Turtle and the Hare to the boys and then they narrated a summary to me. Kimball struggled with knowing which details to include and which to leave out, but that was to be expected on this first lesson. I wrote up what each boy said:

Spelling:
We're still doing it. Nothing big to report. Spelling drills/workbooks at least four days this week.

History/Art:
We lingered this week over the New Kingdom of Egypt. The boys were so fascinated that I didn't feel ready to move on. On Monday, we made a false beard like Hatshepsut's.

We spent the rest of the week working on Pharaoh's death mask. We haven't finished it yet--we did three layers of paper mache. The boys were so thrilled to be doing paper mache that I almost felt sorry for them. Their mother is just not the crafty type (or the messy type). I made a note to do more of these kinds of activities, since they seem to bring such joy.

We are also reading aloud His Majesty, Queen Hatshepsut, although not very quickly.

Reading:
We finished Babe, the Gallant Pig last night for another read aloud. Everyone enjoyed it and we look forward to watching the movie together soon. We also finished our last Narnia book, The Last Battle, which we had been listening to in the van. The boys "didn't get" the ending, so we spent some time discussing it. I love C.S. Lewis and really enjoyed listening to these tales with my kids. I read The Chronicles of Narnia many times over in my childhood and still was captivated by them this time around.

Kimball has almost finished The Voyages of Dr. Dolittle. He spent more time this week reading the other library books we had around (see last week's post.)

Henry read aloud from our library books as well. I haven't taken a picture; the only one I can remember was Felix the Worrier by Rosemary Wells. But he read aloud to me every day and is obviously improving. I'm not sure how much he is actually reading when he has his independent reading time, but I'm not sweating it right now when reading aloud is his main task.

Ian and I read tons and tons of books, mostly from his bookcase, which is overflowing, and looked for the letter B. Which brings us to . . .

Letter of the Week:
We did the Letter B again this week because I didn't feel like we'd done enough last week. Ian doesn't know very many of his letters and so I'm trying to remember that the point is to help him learn them, not to race to the end. This week we listed tons of B words in his little journal dictionary. His "B" words there were bear, bean, baby, Bronwen, blueberry, baseball, balloon, and bus. We also made some "B" treats, including blueberry muffins,

bean burritos, butterscotch bonanza cookies (a recipe that my sister and I came up with on Monday when we really wanted to justify making cookies), and a friend dropped by some banana bread! We've started talking about the letter of the week at our Morning Meeting and everyone suggests words then, so it reinforces the learning. Bronwen mimicked us saying "Buh-buh-bear" or whatever b word were were saying all week long.

Russian:
Kimball started lesson 2 this week, while Henry finished up lesson 1. Kimball is doing the complete curriculum, which includes reading, writing, spelling, grammar, speaking, listening, etc. Henry is doing an abbreviated course that focuses on speaking, grammar, and listening comprehension. Ian is participating every day but isn't moving as quickly as his brothers. I'm okay with that.

P.E:
Besides Soccer and Tae Kwon Do, we added a bike ride this week. Henry started his speech class at the public school on Wednesday, so we decided to walk (me with the double stroller) and ride bikes (the big boys) the 3 mile round trip journey. They had a great time and I wished I had a bike (and a trailer). Maybe it's time to check craigslist. While Henry was in speech, we played at the park adjacent to the school. It felt like a nice break mid-week, even if it meant we were doing seat work later in the day than usual.

Hymn of the Week:
As I Search the Holy Scriptures, Hymn 277

Field Trip:
As Jared and I were having a get-away (local) weekend, Grammy and Papa took the kids to the circus on Friday. They had a fabulous time and came back with tales of acrobats, bubble-blowing clowns, motorcyclists who did amazing feats, and more. I was thrilled that they got the experience (the second year that their grandparents have taken them) and even more thrilled to get a break with my sweetie. We took our own field trip to Lake Natomas and kayaked until my arms wouldn't move anymore. Then I loaded up on ibuprofen for the rest of the weekend!:)

Weekly Report #2

2008-09-08T10:09:00.001-07:00

This week went by quickly and felt more relaxed than our first week. I'm hoping that it wasn't because of Labor Day, although we did spend a couple of hours on Labor Day doing schoolwork before going to swim with cousins and bbq with Grammy & Papa. I'm hoping that wasn't the difference because this week felt more like something we can keep up all year, whereas the week before . . . well, I just had to keep telling myself that it was the first week.

We introduced a new subject of study this week: Russian.
We are using Rosetta Stone Homeschool (see the sidebar) Level 1. It allowed me to set up as many users as I needed to, so each boy can move at his own pace. I set myself up as well just to be able to know what they are learning, since Kimball is doing his independently and Henry semi-independently. Ian also loves learning this way, but needs me sitting with him and has a much shorter attention span. We learned this week how to say "man", "woman", "girl", "boy", as well as a few verbs in third person singular and plural (Russian is pretty complex and I was happy to see that they weren't trying to teach all the declensions at once.) The boys are very enthusiastic about it and love using their new words.

Math
Kimball completed SM Lessons 6, 10, and 12. He beat the clock on one of his math drills, completing the entire page in 37 seconds! This was a first for him; speed is a struggle when you are easily distracted in math.

Henry finished SM lessons 24-26 and loves doing the math facts drills although we haven't started timing him yet. In fact at one point on Friday afternoon, motivated to earn one last point towards a reward, he went digging in his cubby and a few minutes later presented a completed math facts drill page that he'd found in his workbook--about 100 pages farther than we've worked.

Ian and I did SM lessons 1-3, which is mostly just getting used to manipulatives (which he already loves) and learning about how the calendar works. He loves the attention he gets during math.

Grammar
We did FLL #3 & 4 this week and reviewed The Caterpillar, which everyone has memorized now. The theme of the lessons continues to be common and proper nouns.

Spelling
Henry continues to do two to three pages a day in his spelling workbook, but I wonder if it is too easy. It is reviewing word families, but so far very very basic word families. I know that is important that he master these but it doesn't seem to be very challenging. Suggestions?

Kimball continues to use his PC software for spelling and is enjoying the challenge. He was excited to spell "experiment" right on the first try. Again, it bugs me that they don't get to see the words before they spell them, but I suppose there's no penalty for spelling a word wrong so it might not be that big of a deal.

History
This week we went back to SOTW Chapter 13 on the New Kingdom of Egypt. I had planned on doing it with them during the last couple of weeks of summer, but as the first official school day loomed closer I was too focused on preparing to do much history. However, since I had already planned to do some of the Phoenician activities on the first week of school, I just decided to go back and do this chapter on the second week. We studied a lot about ancient Egypt over the summer together, through the Hyksos. This week we learned about Ahmose, who drove out the Hyksos, and some of the Pharoahs of the 18th dynasty, including Tutmose, Hatshepsut, Amenhotep (Akhenaten), and Tutenkhamen/Tutankhaten. The boys were really fascinated by these pharoahs and remembered the book that we had read this summer (aloud), Casting the Gods Adrift, which told of a boy growing up under King Akhenaten when he tried to make the Egyptians become monotheists and worship only the sun god, Aten.

We colored the death mask of King Tut, something that the boys spent days getting just right. I love that they are more interested this year in making their coloring pages look nice. Ian wanted me to color his while he dictated which colors when where--something that I found to be rather obnxious, but I did it because I thought he might just want the attention.

We also started an additional read aloud, "His Majesty, Queen Hatshepsut." Kimball and I are taking turns reading it aloud to our group.

We liked this unit so much that we are going to continue studying this chapter next week and do a couple more of the activities suggested in our book.

Reading
Besides HMQH, we have been reading aloud Babe, the Gallant Pig, and very much enjoying it. I love the lesson that treating others well can have better results than treating them poorly (something I sometimes need to remember as a mother.) We've also talked about the theme of taking the time to get to know people who are different from you. Fly (the sheepdog's) prejudice against sheep has been passed down from all the other dogs to her, but Pig has no preconceived notions and discovers that the sheep are very nice and easy to work with. We have a few chapters to go on this one and then we'll start something new.

We've also been listening to The Last Battle in the van. We've been listening to the Chronicles of Narnia on CD for many months now and I love the discussions that come from them. The first thing Kimball did when we pulled him out of public school last November was read the Chronicles of Narnia, and listening to these together as a family has helped him to digest what he read. Henry often pops up from the backseat with some profound insight about C.S. Lewis' themes and characters. This will probably finish up tomorrow or Tuesday.

Kimball has enjoyed reading The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle this week, as well as a variety of library books on various animals, on ancient Egypt, and on Persian fairy tales. He has also set a goal to read one chapter from the Bible and one chapter from the Book of Mormon each morning, which he has done now for two weeks.

Henry read several books aloud to me this week, including Julius, Mouse Soup, and Little Bear's Friend. He is gaining confidence each week in his reading abilities. His goal for scripture study is to read 2-3 verses out loud from the Book of Mormon each morning in addition to the reading that he does during our family scripture study.

Here are a few of the library books that I read aloud to the younger kids this week.

Letter of the Week
I'm afraid that we did very few letter B activities this week and we will revisit B next week. This was one of the things that fell by the wayside in my efforts to not stress out about staying on schedule too much. We'll find our balance. At least Ian learned some new Russian words!

Old Testament
We learned about Samuel, who was called to be a prophet as a boy. We talked about how you don't have to be old to hear the voice of God via the Holy Ghost and remembered times when each of us had felt the Holy Ghost. Another day we talked about how the Lord asked Samuel (and all of us) to do hard things, but with His help, we can do hard things. I felt that this was important to address, since they have been feeling overwhelmed when something is challenging.

Science
Jared took the boys to the park on Friday and taught them all about plants and the different parts of the plants. Kimball and Henry each labeled their plants, (see below) before going to play at the park. Jared decided that next time he'll take them somewhere outside the line of sight of the play equipment, which was very distracting!

Soccer and Tae Kwon Do
Both Kimball and Henry had their first soccer games this week in triple digit heat. They both played well, got some good kicks in, and felt good about what they had accomplished. They had one TKD lesson as well.

Piano
Great lesson, learned new songs, practiced all week. Can you tell that I'm ready to go to bed?:)

Hymn of the Week
O, My Father, Hymn 292

I have got to figure out a way to report without it taking me so long! See you next week!

Weekly Report-- 1

2008-08-31T21:38:00.000-07:00

Whew! We made it through our first week! It feels like we hit the ground running, but we still have a few more things we'd like to fit into our schedule . . . I'm not sure how that's going to work.

I never know for sure how to organize my thoughts for this, but I'm going to stick with the format I used last year and go by subject (except for Day 1).

Opening Ceremonies: We spent the first day establishing our routine, our reward system, and our Academy Code of Conduct (after reviewing what we learned this summer about Hammurabi's Code.) The boys came up with all of the rules in our code. (Surprisingly, Ian suggested most of them--and they were just what I would have come up with.)

We also did our first History lesson of the year that day, (Chapter 15 from SOTW, since we dabbled in history over the summer.) The boys love doing the map work and discovering where things are in relation to each other. I love that when we looked at the maps of the Phoenicians, they could look at and identify where the Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, and Israelites were located on the map as well.

Math: Since Saxon Math K lessons are very tied into the month, we are waiting until next week to start them with Ian. For some reason they don't account for people starting in any month but September and I was too lazy (and too close to September) to bother adjusting the lesson. So he and I worked on number recognition and one-to-one correspondence this week.

Henry loves math and gets excited whenever I suggest that he might do another worksheet. In general he seems to be a kid who loves worksheets. Since he and I had started Saxon 1 this summer, we did lessons 21-23 this week. He would love to be doing two lessons a day, but I'm not ready for that yet. Maybe when things get going better I'll be able to fit that in.

Kimball started Saxon 3, and we did lessons 2, 4, and 5. They are mostly review, but since this seems to be his least favorite subject besides copywork, I thought that easy was a good way to start out.

Grammar/Art: We did FLL 1 & 2, which meant a lesson on common nouns and memorizing a poem, "The Caterpillar." I had planned for us to do these on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but Tuesday got away from us, between piano lessons, tae kwon do, and soccer. They loved the poem and after I'd read it to them several times, we talked about some of the lines they remembered. Then we all went over to the table and illustrated it. Ian found this frustrating because he knows what he wants it to look like but can't make his hands cooperate (I know the feeling.) Friday morning they showed their illustrations to Daddy and recited what they could remember of it. I was very impressed with how well they did--Kimball's recitation was flawless, Henry's almost flawless, and even Ian remembered big chunks of it. So that was a success.

Spelling: Henry is using an Integrated Spelling workbook that my mom gave me. It's designed for first grade and is good enough as far as I'm concerned. I guess I'm not that worried about my spelling curriculum. Maybe because I chalk my good spelling skills up to being an avid reader more than anything. Henry does two pages in his workbook every morning before our "Morning Meeting." As I said before, the kid loves a workbook.

Kimball is using a PC program that gives him a spelling drill each day. The list changes as he masters the words. So far, he is doing well, but I wish that the program gave him an opportunity to as least look at the words. It just says the word aloud once, then in a sentence, then the word again (much like a traditional spelling test.) The website said, "no other curriculum needed," but you'd think they'd at least be able to look at the list first. Since we started with 3rd grade words that aren't very challenging for him while we get used to the program, he hasn't gotten frustrated. It's only me who is frustrated with it!

Reading: We finished reading "Desperaux", a read aloud that we've been enjoying for the past few weeks. They all loved it and always begged for another chapter. Besides loving the story, it was a great read aloud for me because the chapters are quite short, thus allowing me to easily tailor the length of our reading to our needs. We went back to the library on Wednesday and then on Thursday started, "Babe, the Gallant Pig." (Which, by the way, refers to the female dog using a name no longer appropriate--but since it's a read aloud, it's easy to edit.)

For independent reading, Kimball read "Mr. Popper's Penguins" and then started "The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle (he read Dr. Dolittle this summer.) Henry read "Mercy Watson Fights Crime" aloud.
Letter of the Week: Ian and I worked on the letter A: we added six pictures and words that start with the "a" sound to his alphabet journal, we read several ABC books and looked for big As and little as throughout, and we enjoyed big A pancakes and A pie crust cookies (thanks to Nana, who saw how long my to-do list was that day and took over the cookies.)

History/Art: Besides our history lesson during Opening Ceremonies, we also did the lesson on the Founding of Carthage. We colored a page of a Phoenician ship, which Henry took his time to get just right. We also did the pretend colored glass art activity with a family picture. (It used wax paper, crayon shavings, and colorful threads.) Now that we've done it, we'd do it a little differently next time (I ended up with a beard.) Oh, well.

Copywork: This totally bombed. My kids do not like copywork. Any ideas out there? I love the concepts that they learn through copywork, but I hate the nagging (from me) and the whining (from them). Suggestions are welcome.

Piano: Henry started piano lessons this week and was very excited. Practicing the piano is another thing on their morning list that they do between breakfast and the morning meeting, and I don't have to remind him to do this one. Kimball had his first recital at the end of last week and I've promised him that I'll post the video of it when I get it uploaded. He's looking forward to starting a new book next week (they use Piano Adventures.)

Soccer and Tae Kwon Do: Soccer practice is happening twice a week right now, so we asked the TKD instructor if we could drop down to once a week. It's still too much but for now we are doing both. The first game of the season is next week.

Hymn of the Week: This week we did something we've never done before--picked a hymn that I didn't know either. I really have about 90 percent of the hymns memorized, but this is one we rarely, if ever, sing. I thought it was so appropriate with all the attention we are paying to Proposition 8 here in California. We chose: From Homes of Saints Glad Songs Arise, (click on the title to listen to it), which is about strengthening our families through gospel principles.

Old Testament: We are doing this study in addition to our family morning devotional with Daddy, where we read the Book of Mormon. The two older boys have also added personal scripture study to their morning routine. In Old Testament Stories we read about Joshua and the battle of Jericho, which we re-taught that night at Family Home Evening and simulated the walls of Jericho using Ian's large cardboard blocks. Ian was the trumpeter and we marched 7 times around the walls before shouting and making the walls come down. We also read about Naomi and Ruth. I love this story of loyalty, love, and the blessings that the Lord sends us for staying true. I love that Ruth became the matriarch of a bloodline that included King David and the Savior.

Science: For Science Friday, the boys learned about pressure. They learned that pressure is affected by volume and temperature, and did several experiments including one that involved putting a marshmallow in a glass jar and then sucking all the air out of the jar until the marshmallow expands. They also learned that pressure is higher at the bottom of the ocean and lower at high altitudes. I am so glad that Daddy teaches the science lessons. Afterwards, they went on a bike ride together while I sewed with my mom and sister.

Outings: I was really trying to establish our routine this week, so our only outing (besides the aforementioned bike ride with Dad) was to the library on Wednesday afternoon. We returned some books that were due and picked up lots of independent reading books as well as several books that deal with our next few history chapters.

Cub Scouts: This week was the fall kick-off Pack Meeting in the form of a barbeque and swim party. The boys had a great time. I? Melted and wished that I'd brought my suit even if the pool was full of wild boys. Kimball is glad that Cubs is starting up again and we have some goals to pass off some of his requirements for his Wolf and his Faith in God award in the coming weeks.

Curriculum 2008-2009

2008-08-21T20:45:00.000-07:00

This year we plan to do school six weeks on, one week off, with some exceptions. We will not be starting music (except piano) and art until after soccer season is over. We are really excited about the new year, especially about learning Russian (both Jared & I speak Russian, although mine is a lot rustier than it was 12 years ago.) Here's the plan in a nutshell:

Kimball--Third Gradish

Saxon Math 3 (with plans to accelerate and start SM4 in spring)
Rosetta Stone Russian Level 1
Dr. Aardsma's Spelling 3/4th grade
4th-5th grade Book List (I will publish a separate post on literature lists)
Story of the World--Ancient World History
Old Testament (using KJVersion plus Old Testament Stories)
Science TBD (probably using The Handbook of Nature Study)
Art--Art Book for Children and Usborne's The Children's Book of Art
First Language Lessons (This is for a younger age--we will do this together with Henry and I'll see how much Kimball gets out of it. Honestly, I think that reading from good books will take care of most of this.)
Cursive handwriting: Zane Bloser Online printouts
Writing program: TBD
The Social Skills Picture Book: Teaching play, emotion, and communication to children with autism
Extracurricular: piano, soccer, karate, cub scouts, RDI

Henry-First Gradish

Saxon Math 1, starting 2 in the spring
Rosetta Stone Russian-Level 1
Spelling
First & Second Grade Book List (I will publish a separate post)
Story of the World--Ancient World History
Old Testament (using KJVersion plus Old Testament Stories)
Science TBD (probably using The Handbook of Nature Study)
Art--Art Book for Children and Usborne's The Children's Book of Art
First Language Lessons
Printed handwriting: Zane Bloser Online printouts
The Social Skills Picture Book: Teaching play, emotion, and communication to children with autism
Extracurricular: karate, soccer, piano, speech

Ian- Pre Kinder

Saxon Math K
Letter of the Week
(After 26 weeks, The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading)
Old Testament Stories
Singing Time
Art, History, Science, Russian, Music as much as he wants to participate
Extracurricular: playing with friends, spring soccer class

Discovering a Natural Pest Control

2008-08-13T08:15:00.001-07:00

Our garden has been taken over by aphids (mostly harmless) and squash bugs (vile, nasty creatures who spook even me.) Unfortunately, we ignored them for a bit too long and now we have a real problem that might result in the death and destruction of our zucchini plants.

We knew that we wanted to do something to eradicate these pests without the use of nasty chemicals on the food we have worked so hard to grow, so we went to the local nursery and picked up some of nature's pest control: ladybugs and praying mantis.

I was disappointed to find that the praying mantises won't hatch from their egg sack for two weeks, when we need them to eat our squash bugs yesterday. The good news is that we are having lots of fun checking the sack every day for signs of a breakout. We anticipate around 300 baby praying m's when that day comes. Hurray!

The ladybugs were another story, however. We followed the instructions of the people at the nursery. We waited until bedtime (hence the pajamas) and watered the garden well, then released the ladybugs. The boys, who are not as avid bug fans and many kids out there, really enjoyed having the little beauties crawling all over them. They discovered it was a great day for a feast and went right to work on those aphids.

Thank goodness that we haven't seen any more of these wretched things--a few weeks ago, one turned up in our garden and we were bracing ourselves for an infestation of ~~man-eating~~ tomato-eating horn worms. (picture borrowed from the internet) These things are enormous (the one we caught was longer and thicker than my middle finger) and look like something from another planet.

We are loving the free produce and the tomatoes that make our salsa taste like it has sugar in it! We have plans to grow many more new fruits and vegetables in our expanded garden next year.

Wordless Wednesday: Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point

2008-07-30T08:27:00.001-07:00

Worldess Wednesday: Independence Day Parade in Provo

2008-07-23T17:19:00.000-07:00

Cooking Class, Week 3

2008-07-22T13:08:00.000-07:00

I have sorely neglected this blog lately. We have been doing some lighter summer school and field trips, so I have lots of posts to catch up on. Today we returned to our cooking class schedule. The theme today was "Snacks." When we made our plan for the classes, I emphasized with the boys that we should plan our snacks to be mostly healthy and not just desserts in between meals.

On the menu today:

Whole Wheat Zucchini Pineapple Bread (a Prudence Pennywise recipe)
"R" family dip with veggies from the garden and potato chips (another PP find)
Fruit Smoothies

I had originally planned on pumpkin bread, but since we are growing zucchini the size of Argentina, we switched to zucchini bread. I am honestly checking the vines every day, so I'm not sure how this one got away--when I discovered it yesterday and brought it inside, Kimball insisted on comparing it to Bronwen. She didn't want to cooperate with standing back-to-back with a squash; instead, it looks like she's trying to play it like a clarinet.

Since two of the recipes are from Prudy's website, I'll send you over there to take a look at them. We love anything Prudy makes, so feel free to take note of other recipes there that you'd like to try.

As for the fruit smoothies, here's the recipe I typed up for the boys (most of you don't need a recipe to make a smoothie, but just in case:).

Fruit Smoothies

These are fabulous as a snack or with breakfast, lunch, or dinner. If you use the right fruit, there’s no need for sugar. Nature has sweetened it for you. For a sugarless smoothie that you’d never guess were good for you, choose grape juice or bananas as part of your personal concoction. This recipe can be adapted with any fruits you like. Just make sure that at least one of the fruits is frozen.

Ingredients

1 cup juice, milk, or soy milk
1 cup frozen berries
1 frozen banana
other fruit as desired
1 handful spinach (optional, but you won't taste the spinach, so it's a great way to sneak it in there if you don't enjoy it raw--or your kids don't.)
1 tablespoon toasted wheat germ or milled flax seed

Step 1: Get out your blender

Step 2: Put in liquid, fruits, and spinach if desired. Put the lid on the blender.

Step 3: Turn the blender on high and allow to mix well.

Step 4: Adjust the liquid as needed. If the smoothie is too thick, add a little more. If it is too thin, add more fruit or ice.

Step 5: Add the wheat germ or flax seed. Blend some more.

Step 6: Taste to make sure it’s okay. Add more of something if you need to.

Step 7: Pour into glasses. Enjoy!

Our zucchini bread stuck to the pans a bit (because I was all out of the Baker's Joy--spray with flour,) but the boys didn't mind the imperfect loaves. "They still taste good," they congratulated themselves. As for the dip, well my boys weren't impressed. Spencer did like it, though. And I had to stop myself from licking to bowl clean.

Bronwen was thrilled to get some smoothie, which I finally relented and gave to her after about 10 minutes of "pleeeeeze"s interspersed with less polite shrieks. You may already know how much I love a food mess on my kids.

I could tell that she wanted to climb into the cup to get the last bits of juicy goodness. So like her mother, that one!

Cooking Class, Week 2

2008-06-26T15:43:00.000-07:00

So, a friend and I are swapping kids for classes that we've put together this summer. As I mentioned in the previous post, she is teaching Kimball and her kids photography. I am teaching cooking to my two oldest and her son, Spencer. Last week we talked about kitchen safety, learned how to follow directions by making brownies from a mix, and planned our future menus.

It was important to me that the boys learn to make some things that they love to eat, so we talked about favorite meals when we were planning out the summer's menu. Spencer said he loved angel hair pasta with herbs best-- his favorite comes from Pasta Roni (classic kid, loves the packaged stuff!:) I assured him that I could teach him to make it without using a boxed mix. So on the plan for today's class: Breadsticks and Angel Hair Pasta with Garlic Herb Butter and Parmesan.

For the pasta, I couldn't find a recipe that was just what I was looking for, so I made one up. We started by harvesting some basil and Italian parsley from the garden (we found some other goodies there as well, including these first cherry tomatoes!!!) We made a herb butter in the food processor by combining 1/3 cup fresh herbs (heavier on the basil than the parsley), 1/2 cup butter, and 2 cloves of garlic. We rolled it up in saran wrap and put it in the fridge for a while. Then we cooked our angel hair pasta (1 lb.) to al dente. We drained the pasta, reserving 1/2 cup of cooking liquid, and tossed it with 1 cup of shredded Parmesan and most of the herbed butter. We served it with some more Parmesan on top. Yummy.

For the breadsticks, we used a recipe that I've had since my college days. I can't remember anymore which of my BYU roommates brought this with her to school, but it has been one of my go-to recipes for breadsticks and pizza crust ever since. We doubled this recipe so that Spencer could take some home to share.

First, we combined 1 1/2 cups warm water with 1 T. yeast and let it proof (watched it grow.) Then we put in our mixer with 1 T. olive oil, 1 T. honey, 3/4 tsp. kosher salt, 1 T. malted milk (optional), and 3-4 cups of flour. We mixed it until it was smooth and elastic. Then we divided it into 12 pieces and rolled and twisted it into breadsticks.

We let them raise for about half an hour, then baked them at 400 degrees. Then, the boys brushed them in butter and sprinkled some with Parmesan cheese. We even did a few with the herbed butter, which looked the prettiest.

Since we had found some ripe tomatoes and a cucumber in the garden, I threw together a quick green salad (nothing fancy, just the way my husband likes it) and we had a great lunch!

Also, check out Heidi's photo blog for more fun with their photography class!

Extra classes

2008-06-24T07:51:00.001-07:00

I've got guests in town and have been too busy to do a weekly report, but I thought I'd link you to my friend's blog. She has posted pictures from Kimball's first day of photography class. They'll be meeting four times in the next weeks. I am doing a once-a-week cooking class for Kimball, Henry, and her son, Spencer. Just trying to keep them busy and learning this summer!

In our first cooking class last week, the boys learned how to make brownies from a mix (this will be their only "from a mix" recipe, talked about kitchen safety, and planned the menus for our future classes. Here they are enjoying the batter in the bowl. I hope that Jared isn"t reading!

Weekly Report

2008-06-14T09:53:00.000-07:00

We are schooling this summer, but not as intensely. This week was our first week with Henry home all the time (yeah!)

We relished in history, studying 2 SOTW chapters on The Old Kingdom of Egypt (mummies and pyramids, which we did over three days), and the Akkadian Empire. The boys had fun building a pyramid, although I was disappointed with the outcome. The only sugar cubes I had been able to find were "rough cut," which meant that they weren't perfect cubes. I guess more people use the little packets these days in their coffee.

We also did some map work, a coloring page on King Sargon, and a word search on Sumerian inventions.

We began eating more from our garden, although the tomatoes are not ready to harvest yet. We wonder if our cherry tomato plant is going to take over the entire yard. Here is Kimball reporting on the the monster tomato plant:

Henry has been reading books aloud to me every day. He and I discussed our goal to have him reading chapter books independently by the fall. He still prefers when I read to him, but he is doing so well. He especially enjoyed reading Frog and Toad to me this week. One day, he chose to read the chapter called, "Cookies." I think it was a ploy because I really really had to use my self control to not make cookies for the rest of the day. (We have been focusing on healthier eating habits, too!)

For read alouds, Daddy has started reading Call of the Wild to Kimball and Henry at night. I continue to read ASOUE, book the 13th (we are only averaging about four chapters a week, so it's not going very quickly.) We are also listening to The Giver in the car, which everyone is loving. I was excited when Henry noted a similarity between the community in The Giver and one of the communities in an ASOUE book--the Village of Fowl Devotees. Both communities have lots and lots of rules so that the members of the communities are always afraid of breaking a rule. They also have a committee that makes up the rules and reviews them.

Besides our daily family "devotional," which involves a hymn, family prayer, and reading together about 10 verses in the Book of Mormon before Daddy goes to work, we've added some new scripture study into our day. We are now reading about 2 chapters a day in the Old Testament Stories book. Kimball has been reading this on his own for years, but our other boys are getting so much out of it. We take turns reading each verse and discussing. I love that it tells a story in each chapter so it gives us something to talk about and take away each time we read. This week we covered the premortal existence, the creation, the fall, plus Joseph in Egypt (we skipped ahead on the first day we talked about Egypt.) I also found that this engages Ian much better than our other scripture study.

Another new element we incorporated this week was "circle time." We used that name because it was familiar to the boys, who called it that in preschool. We gather together and sit in a circle on the floor and sing preschool and primary songs. We are gearing this mostly towards Bronwen and Ian, but so far the big boys love it because they adore Bronwen and think it is fun to see her dance, clap, and sing with us. I love that it is giving Ian some of the attention he is so obviously craving.

We have been playing games together a lot as well. Boggle is a new favorite with Kimball and Henry and they don't seem to be discouraged that I can blow them out of the water. I have told them that it isn't really fair for us to compete against each other now, since we are at all different stages of learning, but that we should just do our best. Henry is allowed to spell words phonetically. We also learned Castle Keep today, which would be especially fun for a family to introduce when you are studying medieval times. Chomp is also a fun new game we found at Learning Express that uses the concept of a food chain.

We had swimming lessons this week. Kimball worked on side breathing in freestyle and breast stroke, Henry learned back stroke and practiced side breathing, and Ian learned scoops and kicks without having his floaties on. We all love to swim and take some time most days in the summer to get in a pool.

Henry and Kimball continue to enjoy their martial arts class as well. This is Henry's second week, and Kimball has been doing it for several months now.

Kimball passed off two new songs at his piano lesson. We also discovered my old sheet music and I've decided to start practicing the piano again. It's really sad how after 8 years of lessons I now only play the hymns (and those, not very well without practice.) I've gotten a bit rusty, but it's nothing that practice won't fix.

Saturday was flag day, so we had a little flag ceremony in the front yard and read a book about the Star Spangled Banner. Kimball wrote out the Pledge of Allegiance on a drawing of the flag that he made. We sang the Star Spangled Banner, which we learned last year.

Our song of the week was Fathers from the Children's Songbook. The boys are participating in a special music number at church tomorrow and they needed to learn the chorus.

We had lots of fun learning together this week. Maybe next week, we'll pull out some math facts worksheets. Maybe not. But we will keep on learning! We love homeschooling and are grateful for this opportunity.

Kimball's Cinematic Premiere

2008-06-08T10:17:00.000-07:00

Linking Cube Star Wars: Return of the Jedi
Chapter 1: Jabba's Palace

We did very little formal schooling this week since we were very busy with other things. Kimball decided that he wanted to make a movie of his "Linking Cube Star Wars" ideas. He built the characters, props, and the set. He tried to shoot the movie himself, but after several frustrating attempts, he solicited Mom's help. This was our 4th take and the best for the time we had to work with--unfortunately, you can hear someone outside resealing our concrete during part of it. Kimball is proud of his work and hopes to shoot future mini-episodes of Linking Cube Star Wars.

GoodReads Review

2008-06-08T09:54:00.000-07:00

The River Between Us by Richard Peck

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
I found this in youth fiction at the library, a department which can have very enjoyable, wholesome reading. It was a pretty quick read but the subject matter was anything but fluffy. This book tells the story of a fatherless family set in a poverty-stricken frontier town on the Mississippi at the beginning of the Civil War. It deals with themes of war, bigotry, gossip, loyalty, and family. Some of the outcomes of the book seemed predictable, but the ending caught me off guard, which is always enjoyable. The book also begins and ends with a narration by a descendant of the family, set 60 years later, which allows the reader some perspective of how the events of the book impacted future generations.

View all my reviews.

Weekly Report

2008-06-01T19:57:00.001-07:00

It's almost the end of the public school year--Henry's last day of kindergarten is Thursday. I am finding it a bit harder to keep on our schedule lately and I don't know if it's spring fever or just lots of other things distracting me. We have been doing schoolwork daily, but not our full routine and I know that I need to get back on track. With that being said, I am strongly considering taking a week off this week--which would mean that we'd only do history, reading aloud, and math fact worksheets. Henry has mostly early days this week instead of afternoon, plus we have cousins in town from Utah, so I think we will be hard pressed to accomplish more than that this week.

I am also going to try making my weekly reports less detailed. Please holler if you really want the details. I just need to do something that makes it easier to report and share without taking an hour to do the post.

This week in History we covered hieroglyphics and cuneiforms in SOTW. The boys were very interested in the lesson. Afterward, we used some hieroglyphic stamps and charts that my mom had given us to write our names, then sentences using the ancient alphabet. Those stamps were a big hit, Mom! I'm glad that I waited to pull them out until we had studied hieroglyphics so it was more meaningful. We also read Seeker of Knowledge, about the man who cracked the code to understanding hieroglyphics.

In math, Kimball and I continue to review and strengthen his skills on multiplying by 0, 1, 2, 5, and 10. He is getting pretty fast at it and completed 17 problems in one minute this week. That is pretty significant because he often freezes when he is "racing the clock." It can be very overwhelming and a bit over stimulating to know that speed counts.

Henry and Kimball played chess with each other all week--several games each day, with Kimball coaching Henry on moves (is it any surprise that Kimball won most of the matches? I don't think his coaching was completely altruistic!)

In reading, Henry read aloud to me a Minnie and Moo book over a couple of days' time. Kimball finished reading Dr. Dolittle and wrote his own chapter for the book. We still need to polish that and then we'll post it here. We finished listening to Farmer Boy yesterday and are ready to return to the Chronicles of Narnia with Prince Caspian. I am also still reading aloud ASOUE, which is taking forever because we've been busy.

We didn't spend as much time in our garden this week, as we received advice on our other blog that we may be overwatering. We harvested our first zucchini and yellow squash this week and had them in a delicious couscous salad tonight for dinner. Okay, the kids did not find it to be delicious except for Bronwen, who likes almost everything.

We did copywork one day. These boys don't love copywork. Any ideas on how to get them excited? Kimball copied an excerpt from The Family: A Proclamation to the World and Henry copied an Article of Faith.

Cub Scouts this week was geocaching, where they go on a treasure hunt of sorts with a GPS unit. Kimball had a great time.

Kimball practiced the piano this week but did not have a lesson because he hadn't practiced over the days that we had been camping. He loves playing the piano and making music that he knows. He memorizes the songs so quickly that I think he is playing them by ear rather than truly reading the music, especially for counting.

Science Friday this week was a lesson on the scientific method. I was out working in a friend's garden while they learned with Daddy, so I can't report much on that. I need to have the boys start reporting on Science Friday lessons.

Kimball attended martial arts class twice. Henry is going to start taking martial arts class with Kimball this week, now that kindergarten won't conflict. They also spent lots of time on the trampoline. I have had a hard time getting them to ride their bikes in the cul-de-sac lately because Kimball has developed a sudden paranoia of cats and particularly a black cat that seems to have taken up residence in the neighborhood. I'm not sure how to handle it but it is really frustrating that is stopping him from doing something that he enjoys and that is so good for him.

Alli (my sister) and Isaac came over one afternoon to play and I marveled at how therapeutic it is for Kimball to be in a large family. We have been trying for years to help him make eye contact with people, to learn to read their faces for clues to their feelings, and to be aware of other people in general. I notice that when he is playing with the babies, he is more in tune to them--perhaps because they can't tell him verbally what they want or need. He is so much more animated around babies and works really hard to get positive reactions from them. He discovered recently that Isaac smiles bigger if he looks him in the eyes, and so now he is pushing himself to make eye contact with babies--without me bugging him about it! I truly believe that children with special needs (or at least autistic spectrum disorders) can thrive in big families, where they have built in therapy!

I forgot to mention in my last post that in the past few weeks we have been focusing as a family on having our prayers be more meaningful. I have really noticed a difference in the quality of the prayers being said by our children since we have made this our focus. They seem to be more thoughtful, which is just what we hoped for. I have noticed a difference in my own prayers, as I have taken the time to listen for inspiration during my prayer time and promised to act on it. I am so grateful that prayer truly allows us to communicate with Father in Heaven and to hear the whisperings of the Spirit. I don't think that I would be homeschooling without it, as my prayers and the answers that I received helped me to know that this was the right choice for our family. That gives me strength on the days when I want to bang my head, or in those moments where I wonder if I can really be my children's teacher and their mother.

Weekly Report

2008-05-29T20:16:00.000-07:00

I haven't reported on the past two weeks and it's almost time to report for a third week, so this may not be as thorough as usual. I just need to catch up my report so that I can keep it up.

We have been busy here with a camping trip (including preparation and clean up--ugh), many service opportunities, and schoolwork, of late. We have struggled to get in as much as I would like on a daily basis, but when I look back over the week we've accomplished a lot.

Read Alouds: We have been listening to Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder in the car. While we were on our trip, we switched over to The Horse and His Boy by C. S. Lewis (from the Chronicles of Narnia) and loved that, of course. Kimball read the series earlier this year but still enjoyed listening to the CD with the family. I am also reading aloud the last book in The Series of Unfortunate Events. I think we may need to have a party to celebrate when we finally finish this series. And write a lengthy book report!

Other Reading: Coming in my next post.

Math: We did Saxon Math--math fact worksheets everyday and three lessons a week. It is easy to slack on math lessons if we are busy because it isn't Kimball's favorite and I'm not doing a math curriculum yet with Henry beyond the basics. We have learned the multiplication facts now for 0, 1, 2, 5, and 10 and review them frequently. Kimball also helped on our many shopping trips to calculate our purchases as we went along, so we knew how much we were spending before we got to the checkout line. I taught Kimball & Henry how to play checkers correctly when I discovered that they were using crazy rules (probably concocted by Kimball). And our friends Rob & Teresa, who invited us to camp with them, taught the boys (Kimball) how to play chess, which surely counts as math!

Copywork: Did not happen.

History: We studied one chapter a week from SOTW. First, we learned about nomads and early farmers in the Fertile Crescent. We did cave paintings, did some map work, and wrote a paragraph about what we learned. The next week, we started on Egypt. We did map work, learned a story about Osiris and Set, and did an art project depicting King Narmer, the first king to combine Upper and Lower Egypt and to wear the Double Crown of Egypt. This is my boys' (and maybe my) favorite time of day.

Science: The kids went camping both weeks. The first week, with Daddy on the annual Fathers and Sons campout sponsored by the church. It was very hot that weekend--about 100 degrees. They did a little hiking near the lake but in the end drove home to cool off in Grammy & Papa's pool. The second week, the entire family went for four days to Santa Cruz. We got to explore the beach (where Bronwen continued her sand taste test, which she seems to be doing at every beach we hit this year),the wooded area where we camped, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium, one of our favorite spots. You can read more about it here and about previous visits here.

Music: We learned Come Unto Jesus and God, Our Father, Hear Us Pray for our Hymn of the week. Kimball continues to make progress in piano lessons. And everyone got a chance to jam on the harmonica while Chris, a fellow camper, played the guitar. I almost cried when I came back to camp from washing dishes near the bathrooms and found them playing together--camping with my family growing up always involved Daddy's guitar.

Scripture Study: Alma 14 and 15. There are some powerful stories found in those chapters that our children enjoyed. What little boy doesn't love a story about prison walls crumbling and crashing down, killing the wicked lawyers and leaving the prophet/missionaries untouched? I love how the chapters about Alma and Amulek's ministry show how powerful and miraculous missionary work can be, and how God watches over those who serve Him. As we saw in chapter 14, he doesn't always take away their adversity, but he does love and bless those who put their trust in him.
We also took some time to discuss the sacrifices that Amulek made for the Lord. ". . . Amulek having forsaken all his gold, and silver, and his precious things, which were in the land of Ammonihah, for the word of God, he being rejected by those who were once his friends and also by his father and his kindred;" We talked about how sometimes when people join the Church, their families and friends do not support their decision and even cast them out. We talked about how important it is to love Heavenly Father and His gospel more than we love the things of the world and more than we care about what others think.

Having Fun: This was a no-brainer with our trips. When we asked the kids what they liked best about camping, they said:

the s'mores
the aquarium
the beach
sleeping in a tent
playing games

I'm surprised that they didn't mention going a few days without baths! I know that my favorite part has not been the post-trip laundry. Finally, four days later, it is finally getting under control.

Weekly Book List

2008-05-14T20:48:00.000-07:00

I am so behind my schedule when it comes to posting, but I figure it's not too late to post some books that we read last week. Here goes.

Mom: Nothing new. Mostly reading the Book of Mormon (I have five days left to meet the challenge,) and lots of blogs! I started reading Born on a Blue Day about autism spectrum disorder, but I'm not very far into it right now.

Dad: Still working on Children of the Mind by Orson Scott Card. It's the third in the Ender's series.

Kimball: Great Illustrated Classics Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne. This adaptation kept his interest well enough that he read it in one sitting. I can't wait for him to be ready to read some of these classics in their original form.

Great Illustrated Classics Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain. Another book devoured in about an hour and a half. And he's read it before.

DK Eyewitness Early Humans. This was picked out to correspond with our history lessons and he loved it. Kimball always love non fiction, and definitely enjoys the format and layout of the DK Eyewitness books.

Henry: One Halloween Night by Mark Teague. We've checked this one out before, but Henry brought it home from the school library and read it aloud to me this time. Very fun book (although admittedly more fun at Halloween time.)

Family Read Alouds: We finished A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book the Twelfth: The Penultimate Peril. We immediately raced to the library and picked up the last book in the series. We have been listening to these on audio CD (they are read by Tim Curry, an actor whom I really enjoy anyway,) and were disappointed to find that the library didn't have this one on CD. So, we brought home the last book to read aloud. We'll report on it soon.

The Great Fuzz Frenzy by Janet Stevens. Henry got this one at the school book fair and it was pretty adorable. The grounhogs find a tennis ball in their colony and everyone fights over the bright green fuzz. They have to learn to come together in order to save the colony.

Alberto the Dancing Alligator by Richard Waring. Great for kids who love alligators, dancing, or reading about kids with unusual pets. Somewhat silly storyline, but that is fun for kids this age. Not my favorite book of the week, but the kids obviously loved it since I read it many times, and there was nothing objectionable about it.
Gorilla, Gorilla by Jeanne Willis. I actually thought the story line was rather stupid, but the kids enjoyed this. And in the end, you might say that the moral is to not judge people based on preconceived notions or what they look like. This is another book that I read over and over and over.
Falling for Rapunzel by Leah Wilcox. This was probably my favorite picture book of the week. The rhymes were clever, the twist on the story was unexpected, and we all laughed over the silliness. It didn't matter that I have a bunch of boys, they loved this book. (Don't tell their dad!:)

The Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde. Classic story about a man who shuts little children out of his garden, which then decides to be winter year-round. Only when he opens his heart and his garden to the children does spring come--and joy into his life. There is a Christ figure in the book as well, although I felt like that could have been developed more, but who am I to criticize Oscar Wilde?

There were more, but these were the preferred books this week when I polled everyone. Go check them out at your local library!

Weekly Report

2008-05-13T21:06:00.000-07:00

Here it is Tuesday night and I'm finally getting this posted. I've been working on it in snippets for days.

This week we tried to jump back into our routine after being out of town, but some days just came up short. A mid-week field trip and some personal issues thrown in didn't help. Still, one thing that I like about doing this report is that it allows me to see all that we accomplished even during a week that wasn't our best. As you can see by the picture, Bronwen is anxious to be included in our little academy.:)

Read Aloud: We had to return The Bronze Bow, as we had renewed it the maximum number of times. It's probably just as well; although there were elements that held the boys' interest, this is probably a couple of years away from being a great read for them. Instead, we did lots of shorter read alouds this week. Check for our weekly book list coming soon. We'll start a new chapter book in the next couple of days.

Math: We only did two formal math lessons this week (98 & 99), but Kimball did a math facts drill everyday besides. Henry and I worked on subtraction facts under 10. Ian played with tanagrams when he wasn't trying to make Kimball scream. We also played Blokus, which is a great board game that helps with spatial math.

Copywork: This is another that only happened on two days. The boys copied Moses 1:39.
Ian ran around being a pest and trying to get my attention by making Kimball scream. Not fun. Why didn't I spend more effort getting him to do copywork instead? It didn't occur to me that a kid acting that wild would be interested. Now, it seems obvious that he was craving just that kind of attention.

History: We did the Introductory Chapter of Story of the World. The boys ate it up, as I knew they would. Kimball is got most of the interviews done on his parents and grandparents for their History of My Family book. He will finish that up this week. It is fun to see him learning about his family's history in a way that is meaningful to him.

Science: Besides our Nature Walk to the zoo and gardening, we didn't have a formal science lesson this week. But our garden is providing us with great experience in weeding, watering, and taking note of changes as everything begins to blossom and grows higher and higher with each passing week. Sadly, this week still did not find us planting those fall raspberries. Now I'll need to research to find out if we are too late!

P.E.: Two hours of martial arts for Kimball. We also taught the kids kickball and played it with another family on Monday evening. And Kimball learned to do a flip on the trampoline, which he spent the next two days trying to teach his brothers!

Writing: Journal entries were the extent of it. Here's one of Kimball's:Henry also wrote a book report on his newest acquisition, The Great Fuzz Frenzy.
Cub Scouts: Kimball worked with his den on building bird houses.

Hymn of the Week: Home Can Be a Heaven on Earth, No. 298

Music: Piano lesson. Still struggling with keeping a beat/counting. Kimball's teacher says it is a common problem among her students, but I also know it to be a challenge for Kimball in other situations. We are trying hard to work on it without taking the fun out of piano.

Scripture Study: We finished Alma 13 and started Alma 14, which has always been a very powerful chapter to me. We talked about why God allows bad things to happen to good people rather than using His power to stop evil from being done. I felt a sweet spirit as we read and discussed together the horrors of the martyrs in that chapter and the peace that can come through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Having Fun: We went to visit Aunt Alli one afternoon and the boys decided to take a dip in her not-so-hot hot tub. The water was probably around 70 degrees. They eased their way in slowly, but did get all the way in eventually. When they started shivering, they moved out to towels in the sunshine to dry off. Bronwen preferred to play on the grass and in the bag of popcorn that Auntie popped.

Thanks, Wonder Years!

2008-05-10T21:34:00.000-07:00

We received a treat in the mail this week! We were lucky enough to win a book give away from our friends at Wonder Years in honor of Sam's birthday. This book has been a hot commodity ever since, requiring our best negotiating skills in order to have the most independent reading time with it.

Even though our home library already boasts a vast collection of books on sharks (we do have three boys, after all,) this one was different--it had flaps to lift. And even Kimball is not too old to appreciate a good lift-the-flap book. We also liked that the text wasn't too intimidating for our budding reader, Henry. In short, it was the perfect book to add to our bookshelf. If you have a little shark enthusiast at home (or know one,) drop by Sonja's online bookstore and pick one up. You may find others there you're dying to have, like this one I've been eyeing:

or this one, which we already have and love:

Whatever topic your kiddos like (or you want them to like), you are sure to find a book there that you simply MUST have!

Thanks again, Sam!

Nature Walk

2008-05-09T18:03:00.000-07:00

This week's nature walk was a trip to a nearby zoo sanctuary with Ian's preschool class. I love this little zoo because it is a great size for young children to explore in an hour or so. I am not very happy with the pictures that I took, now that I look at them. I'll admit that I was preoccupied with other things that day and was glad that my kids were getting a learning experience without much mental exertion on my part.

This zoo has tigers, which is our favorite exhibit, but also goats, grazing deer, fox, a bobcat, monkeys, and roosters, hens, and peacocks who wander around like they own the place. This one was screeching at us through most of our visit. The picture doesn't do it justice, but I had to get a shot of that brilliant sapphire head and neck.
One of my favorite exhibits is the bears. They have five or six of them and most of the time a couple of them are rough-housing like brothers, which is always entertaining (unless the brothers happen to be your kids). When we first got to the bear exhibit, none of them were down close to us, but after a few minutes one came down closer and another stood up on his hind legs and scratched his back on a post. Then the brothers at play kicked in. I was too busy watching to grab my camera. We'll just have to go back again when I'm not so distracted.
We finished up the morning with a ride on the train, which runs outside of the zoo. The kids clambered into the cattle car--the hands down favorite. It was hilarious watching child after child shove in; it reminded me of the public transportation in Russia--there's always room for one more.

Weekly Book List

2008-05-06T07:11:00.000-07:00

Here are the books that we read and enjoyed this past week.

Mommy: I am in the middle of a couple of books right now, which I haven't read enough to recommend. The only book I read much of this past week was The Book of Mormon, which I highly recommend:). My goal is to finish by May 19th, as I signed up to participate in the Hinckley Challenge back in February. If I read 9-10 pages a day, I'll make it.

Jared: Working on Children of the Mind by Orson Scott Card.

Kimball: Great Illustrated Classics adaptation of Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott. (Spoiler alert! This is a brief and choppy synopsis in Kimball's words.)"There's this knight named Ivanhoe and he's fighting and then he becomes really sick and then he gets better in the end. I've forgotten a little bit of the plot, but in the end, the Black Knight reveals his identity as King Richard. Ivanhoe is a good guy, and so is the Black Knight. Ivanhoe fights in the war and somehow he escapes from the fire when he's sick." (Note from Mom--sounds like we need to review and write a book report to make sure he read the entire book!)

Star Wars: Mission from Mount Yoda by Paul Davids and Hollace Davids. This is the non-school book that Kimball chose from the library last week. He is allowed to read it after his assigned independent reading time. Kimball recommends the book to all Star Wars fans.

Treasury of Illustrated Classics adaptation of Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie. This was a reread for Kimball. I have tried him out on the original and he's not quite ready for it. But he loves this version.

The Awesome Book of Sharks by Clizia Gussoni. This is a thick, informative book about sharks, with lots of pictures and diagrams. One fact that Kimball wanted to share from this book is that sharks can go for long periods of time without eating, while recycling oils found in their livers. The longest known fast was by a captive swell shark for more than two months.

Henry: Minnie and Moo and the Potato from Planet X by Denys Cazet. Henry is still working on reading this aloud to me. Minnie and Moo are silly and entertaining for young readers.

The Selfish Crocodile by Faustin Charles. Henry enjoyed reading this great story with a moral about the power of serving others and the change it can make in their lives.

Henry & the Buccaneer Bunnies by Carolyn Crimi. Henry enjoyed this book for obvious reasons. Who doesn't like a pirate who shares your name? This particular Henry Bunny is a bookworm. At first, the other pirates pooh-pooh his bookish ways, but Henry's book smarts turn out to be helpful when the pirates are marooned.

Ian: (Read Aloud Picture Books) The standout favorite that we read over and over was Lasso Lou and Cowboy McCoy by Barbara Larmon Failing. This book didn't teach a lesson and it wasn't full of brilliant literary moments. But Ian loved the cowboy theme and laughed at Cowboy McCoy's silly mistakes as he goes from city slicker to cow boy--all because the cowboy hat fit him best at the hat store.

Seal Surfer by Michael Foreman. This one was more enjoyable for me to read aloud. It tells of a boy and his grandfather (the boy is crippled, but you only see that in illustrations--it doesn't mention it in the text) who go to the shore to watch the seals. Ben (the boy) develops a bond with a seal and her pup and watches them and even body surfs with them year after year, observing the circle of life as the mother seal and grandfather pass on and the new generation rises. This is a sweet and sometimes poignant book. I loved that the main character has some disabilities, but that doesn't define who he is or what he strives to do.

A is for Artist: A Getty Museum Alphabet. This is a book that Ian discovered on his shelf. We bought it at the Getty years ago. Each letter is represented by a painting or detail from a painting. It is a great way to learn the alphabet and expose children to art--especially if you follow it up with a trip to the Getty, which is unforgettable anyway. (Warning: this book contains some art which shows nudity of the classical art variety, ie: Mythological Scene by Dosso Dossi, 1520s.)

Family Read Alouds: We are still plugging away at The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare. Slow and steady. We are listening to The Series of Unfortunate Events; Book the Twelfth: The Penultimate Peril by Lemony Snicket on CD.

Weekly Report

2008-05-04T12:16:00.000-07:00

As we were out of town for much of this week, we did less formal seat work and more hands-on activities (see previous post for our beach adventures and aquarium visit.) We did, however, manage to continue learning, even if we never did a Saxon Math lesson. Here's the week in a nutshell:

Read Aloud: We read one chapter of the Bronze Bow (it is coming so slowly, I know.) We started listening to Lemony Snicket's Book the Twelfth: The Penultimate Peril (one more to go after this.) Our weekly book list post will be up in the next 24 hours for other read alouds and independent reading we enjoyed.

Writing: Henry faithfully kept a vacation journal. He never needed reminding--he asked me each day if he could write in it. Kimball wrote a couple of journal entries about our new van and our trip to the aquarium.

Math: We did math drills each morning that we were gone. I had planned to do Saxon Math lessons, but that never happened. I'm okay with that once in a while. We also played Uno and a math dice game.

Copywork: We only did this on two days because I have to nag them a little (especially Kimball) and I didn't want to do that on this trip. Henry copied the 2nd Article of Faith.

And I finally got some first grade writing paper (thanks, Mom!). So this should be our last week of copywork on notebook paper.
I can't find Kimball's copywork, although I know that he completed it at least one day. I had them in individual notebooks, so I'm not sure why it is missing.

Science: See our previous entry about our trip to the tide pools and the Cabrillo Aquarium. This was a great outing and very friendly on the budget (except that we went twice, which took some gas.) When we got home, we marveled at the changes in our garden. A big thanks to Daddy who fertilized and watered while we were gone. All of our plants now have either blossoms or buds and all have grown quite a bit since we planted.

We can even see small signs that our carrot seeds are growing!

We are so anxious to be able to eat the vegetables that we are growing. Hopefully we'll get some raspberries planted this week.

P.E.: On Wednesday, after Mom, Nana, and Aunt Alli had done some work on Nana's house, we all went to a new park in La Mirada. The equipment was like nothing we'd ever seen before. There were so many different ways to climb, spin, and slide.

We spent a very long time there, getting some great Occupational Therapy.

Hymn of the Week: This week, we chose a song from the Children's Songbook instead. Since in our scripture study we have been talking about the priesthood, we chose A Young Man Prepared for this week. I am so proud of the boys that they are and of the men that they are striving to become. Here are the three boys performing this for us on Sunday morning before Church:

Life Skills: Kimball & Henry learned how to change a wet diaper. Bronwen actually cooperated. I've been thinking lately about how I changed diapers (cloth ones, with diaper pins) as a six year old and decided that they need to learn. Ian is still learning to remember to wash his hand after using the bathroom, but he has gotten so much better at dressing himself. Kimball also learned the important skill of taking care of a cockroach for his terrified mom (I know it's illogical--but it's psychological, and therefore, very real to me.)

Having Fun: I don't think that this even needs saying. We did something fun every day and enjoyed our time together away from home, even if we missed Daddy. We can't wait to take another trip.

All in all, it was a great week. We are ready to get down to business this week, but are glad that homeschooling gives us the opportunity to have weeks like this past one, spending time with family, exploring new places, and getting a change of scenery.

Nature Walk-- Cabrillo Beach

2008-05-02T21:43:00.000-07:00

We took homeschooling on the road this week to visit Nana in Southern California. Monday morning, we headed to Cabrillo Bea c h, where there are tide pools to explore. We packed a picnic, grabbed a few towels and some sunscreen, and headed to San Pedro.

Unfortunately, by the time we got there, we had missed low tide. And we realized that we hadn't brought very good shoes for scaling rocks on the
beach. So, we explored the shore while Mom kept reminding us to not get wet and threatening to make anyone who was covered in sand walk home. (She finally gave up on that and just made everyone covered in sand shower and strip down before going home. It's a new car, after all.)

Here are some things we found on the beach/shoreline that caught our attention:

We saw rocks large and small with round holes all over them. There weren't any signs of animals or fish living in the holes, but we were sure that something must have made the holes and wondered what it could be. (The next day at the aquarium, we found out that there are rock-boring clams that try to anchor themselves to the rock for protection when the tide goes in and out.)

We found this, which we think might be a black abalone. It was exciting to find that the creature was still living in its shell, since we more often find empty shells. Of course we put him right back where we found him.

Here is an example of the many empty shells we found.

Kimball observed some seaweed up close.

He was fascinated by the little bulbs, but wasn't able to pop one.

We had so much fun, we decided to go back on Tuesday, when the aquarium would be open--and this time, we were determined to get there before the tide started coming in. We brought along aunt Alli both days, and on Tuesday, some of her in-laws came along to explore.

The rules of the tidepool include not taking anything home with us, touching gently, and not turning over rocks.

We saw coral, living and not, and found them both to be beautiful.

We found these anemones, who were covered in shells. If we touched them gently, they contracted defensively. They were everywhere in the tide pools and we had to watch carefully to avoid stepping on them, since they looked like shells.

Baby Isaac (cousin) loved our exploring. Bronwen wanted to go in head first and had to be held the entire time for the sea life's safety (and her own.)

After the tide pools, we walked over to the cute little aquarium. This was such a fun and inexpensive field trip, as the parking is free on weekdays in the off-season, and the museum is donation only with a $5 adult and $1 kids suggested donation. There were so many things to see there that were specific to the Southern Cal coast. We especially loved the touch tank, where we could touch many different sea stars, anemone, urchins, and more. There were also huge whale bones in the "whale graveyard" with a sign that said, "please touch." Unfortunately, the camera's battery died at this point in the day, so we don't have any photos. We ran out of time before we had seen everything that we wanted to--they have an Exploration Station with hands-on activities including dressing up in diving gear.

If you live in the area or plan to visit it, I highly recommend a day at Cabrillo beach and aquarium. There are lots of picnic tables for lunch and ample parking. We'll definitely go back again.

Weekly Report

2008-04-28T00:20:00.000-07:00

This was one of those weeks where it feels like a miracle that we homeschooled. I had a lot of other things going on, but am determined to make schooling a part of our everyday life, busy or not. We were much better about spending the mornings doing seatwork, which really helped.

Read Aloud: The Bronze Bow seems to be growing on them, but we aren't getting in a chapter a day, which is what I'd like to see happening. We aren't far enough into it yet that the kids beg me to read it and it keeps falling off the radar. But we did read three more chapters this week and the boys decided that they do want me to finish reading it to them. So I'm glad we persevered. We also finished listening to the 11th book in the Series of Unfortunate Events. On to Book the 12th!

Writing: I completely forgot to post about this last week. This week we tackled some of the challenges of writing descriptively. When I mentioned that Kimball was struggling with this, Mindy suggested describing things that we had tangibly in front of us, so we took on a pineapple. We touched, smelled, listened to, looked at, and tasted a pineapple, then we wrote about it.
Henry chose to write a poem: (his spelling is cuter than mine, but I'll include a translation below.)

Pineapples are yummy
I love to eat them so
And even though they're kind of spicy,
I eat them anyway.
The end.

Kimball opted for a paragraph:

Additionally, Kimball wrote a book report on The Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White. We'll post that separately.

Math: Kimball completed Saxon 94-97 and aced his assessment. He was very overwhelmed with the drill that had 100 problems on it, even though they were easy problems. I have noticed this before and tried to help him cover up all but one row while he worked. I'm not sure if the issue is sensory overload, if it's tied to his Asperger's brain at all, or if it's just typical second grader, but he seemed to shut down when it was time for the drill. He did finish it in the end (with no mistakes) but it took A LOT longer than it should have. Any suggestions?
Henry wrote his numbers to 100 and continues to improve in his subtracting. I love watching him gain confidence in his own abilities.

Copywork: Kimball copied Alma 32:21 on faith. I did not take a picture of it before I left town. I mentioned last week that Kimball struggles to complete this unless he is highly motivated (translate: bribed). This week's copywork was a bit shorter and some of the days he did fine. Actually, he seems to do fine the first couple of days, so maybe I should change the verse daily instead of trying to have it double as a memorization exercise? I hate nagging him to finish. Henry copied the First Article of Faith. He loves doing copywork. I need to go get some of the lined paper for kinders. Ian is getting better at his name and at making the letter I properly.

Science: No nature walk this week. We all missed that. We did work in the garden. Henry got really excited about weeds and cleared out all the weeds by the trashcan. He is hoping for some weeds in the garden soon, so that he can pull them out! We observed that our plants are continuing to grow and a couple of them are blossoming now. We planted cucumbers this week and researched organic fertilizer. Daddy promised to fertilize and water while we are out of town this week.
Daddy also did a lesson about yeast and gluten with lots of chemistry. Then the boys and I made bread. And even though I do this once or twice a week, this time the dough over-raised and went yeasty. At least we had talked about that during the lesson, so they knew that the yeast had gotten so bulky that it broke the gluten bonds and collapsed the bread. Yuck.

P.E.: Martial Arts for Kimball two days. He is really improving in his skills. We are working on when it is appropriate to use said skills. We spent one day jogging our age in laps around the cul-de-sac. The boys did a great job and even let me off the hook before I got to 34 so that I could go in and make lunch for them.

Reading: Watch for our book list post, coming soon. We also paid a trip to the library and got as many books as they would let us check out.

History: On Thursday our new books came! We are so excited. I hope to get some lessons planned and deliver at least one this week. We will be working on history through the summer so that we can cover everything we want to before the fall. Luckily, we've done quite a bit on our own on Old Testament and Ancient Greece already.

Music: I forgot this one last week, too. Kimball is making great progress in his piano and enjoys practicing every day--some days twice. He and I are working together to be consistent in counting. Henry is anxiously awaiting the fall, when he gets to start piano.

Hymn of the Week: Lead, Kindly Light Hymn 97. Since we were focusing on faith this week, this was the perfect song. I love the end of the first verse that says, "Keep thou my feet; I do not ask to see the distant scene--one step enough for me!" So often I beg the Lord to let me see the distant scene, but our faith is strengthened as we move forward one step at a time, relying on Him and trusting that He will lead us to the best place.

Family Principle: Respect. Again, we discussed this in Family Home Evening. We set goals for ourselves this week to:

Continue to develop the habit of daily morning and evening personal prayers
Have family devotional (scripture study) every day--not just on Daddy's work days
Try to think about Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father throughout the day and do what they would want us to do.

We did pretty well at these goals, although we did miss Saturday for scripture study. I noticed Henry this morning go back to his bedside to pray about an hour after he got up and was proud of him for remembering and acting on it. To support our focus on this principle, we chose copywork verses and the hymn along the same theme.

Scripture Study: We finished Alma 12 and started Alma 13. We talked a lot about the priesthood of God--how it is given and received, how to prepare to receive it, and what it is used for. I taught the boys "A Young Man Prepared" one day after scripture study as we discussed their need to prepare for this important responsibility. We decided to make that song our hymn of the week for next week, even though it's not in the hymn book.

Life Skills: Kimball stayed for the entire process of making bread, and read through the recipe, giving me directions. Kimball and Henry both learned how to vacuum in straight lines this week. Kimball also made peanut butter-mnm cookies for Pack Meeting with very little help from me (they did start out as premade dough from a fundraiser, but he learned how to place them on the cookie sheet, press them with the fork in a criss-cross fashion, decorate with mnm's, bake, and cool on a rack.)

Cub Scouts: Kimball received his Bobcat award at Pack Meeting this week. I was serving at a wedding reception, but Daddy was there to see him receive his award.

Having Fun: We went to the park on Friday with some friends from Church. We rode bikes in our cul-de-sac. We played Golf, War, and Connect Four.

Weekly Book List

2008-04-21T10:35:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the books we read and enjoyed this past week:

Mommy: Two Women of Galilee by Mary Rourke. Read my review on Goodreads. This was not my favorite, but I didn't dislike it. It was just not as good as I think it should have been.

Dad: Xenocide by Orson Scott Card. Second book in the Ender's series. Recommended if you like sci-fi. He's on to book three!

Kimball: The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum. He enjoyed it and said that he identifies most with the tin man. One day this week he'll do a book report on it and we'll post it here.

Moby Dick by Herman Melville-- Retold by Will Eisner. Tells the story of Moby Dick in comic book format, which Kimball has learned to love thanks to Calvin & Hobbes. He gobbled it up, and I figure it gives him some background into the novel. I can't compare it to the real thing because I have never made it through Moby Dick.

Henry: Nate The Great Goes Undercover by Marjorie Sharmat. This was the longest book that Henry has ever read aloud. I was so proud of him--he did a great job and surprised himself. Since then, he has been doing a lot more independent reading of books that I knew he could read but he didn't! I have a small basket of books at the foot of his and Kimball's beds that I have selected as their reading level or a bit challenging that they are allowed to read if they wake up before 7:00 am, or are having a hard time falling asleep, or if they just need a break from the family. I've noticed that this week he's been actually reading them. Yeah!

McElligot's Pool by Dr. Suess. Henry checked this out at the school library and after I'd read it to him once he decided he could do it on his own. He and Ian both love the silliness of the book.

Ian/Family Read Alouds: The Giant of Seville by Dan Andreasen. This is based on a true story of the tallest known married couple. It's a cute, feel good picture book of 19th century America.

I, Crocodile by Fred Marcellino. Tells the story of a crocodile captured by Napoleon and brought to Paris. He enjoys being all the rage for a while, then discovers that he's a has-been. Funny picture book.

Tacky and the Emperor by Helen Lester. The kids love the Tacky books. I'm sure that it's because Tacky always does things that are silly and unconventional (although what really is conventional for a penguin?) Tacky's friends are always doing everything perfectly and concerned about appearances.The message of them is always good, but I find the books to be a bit trite. Still, since Ian picked it out and there's nothing truly objectionable about it, I must have read this book aloud 37 times this week. Time to return it to the library!:)

A Plump and Perky Turkey by Teresa Bateman. This is really more appropriate at Thanksgiving, but it was a fun little story about a turkey who outfoxes the townsfolk. They have to eat shredded wheat for Thanksgiving dinner, while he relaxes on the beach with his buddies.

These were the standouts this week. I don't have time to highlight every book we read, but these were worth mentioning.

Weekly Report

2008-04-19T22:08:00.001-07:00

Here's the blogger who started the concept of the Weekly Report. If you aren't already doing it in your school, check it out.

So, here's how the week actually played out (you really don't have to compare it to my original plans, do you?) I am going to work hard at keeping this real, rather than putting a pretty sheen on things. So please be forgiving!

Read Aloud: The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare. I read one chapter, during which they were not riveted. Kimball did ask lots of questions, but towards the end of the chapter they timed out. I had every intention of reading more, but as this gets tucked in between other things, and they weren't begging me to read more, I didn't. I think I'll try one more chapter with them tomorrow and see if I can draw them in more. It might be a bit too old for them, but I so want it to work, since the time in history would be great (it takes place at the time of Christ.) I'll let you know if this makes it past chapter two as our read aloud. We will do a separate post every week on books we have enjoyed this week, so I won't talk about all the shorter books we read aloud together here. We are also truly loving the Lemony Snicket books in our car CD player. We've checked them out at the library and are currently listening to Book the Eleventh: The Grim Grotto.

Math: Kimball--Saxon 2 lessons 90-93. I had hoped to get in a lesson on Friday, which is why I had five lessons planned, but by Friday I was wiped out and PMS-ing and Jared had various Chamber of Commerce events going on and so we went to the park and met some friends. It was the only way for any of us to have a good day!:) And it was a great choice. But we did not do a math lesson. Kimball is enjoying learning multiplication. So far, we've only introduced 10s, but he seems to grasp the concept and is already figuring out what multiplication means and what it will look like with the other numbers. I am finally using the flashcards, which I think is a good habit to get into. With Henry, we did his math homework that was assigned for kindergarten. He is subtracting numbers less than ten right now and writing numbers to 30. He feels pretty confident with that. I have to remind him to check his numbers to make sure they are facing the right direction--he likes to flip-flop them. Ian loves "doing his math," which involves making designs with tanagrams and covering tanagram pictures. He is doing great with those. So far, he is using the linking cubes to build Star Wars action figures. I guess I need to work with him if I expect him to make patterns!:)

Copywork: Kimball copied a paragraph from The Family: A Proclamation to the World every day, Monday-Thursday. He struggled with focusing and I wonder if it was too long for him. I think I will try to choose something slightly shorter this week and see if it can be a more positive experience. The good news? He has it memorized (which was what I wanted most, anyway!)

Henry copied part of the First Article of Faith. Ian copied his name. On the whiteboard. And I didn't take a picture of it. I worked with Ian on letter formation; he and Henry have both learned some bad writing habits in preschool, where their writing is more like drawing and they have their own way of drawing the letters. So we worked on his three favorite letters: I, X, and O; on starting at the top and moving down. I wish I'd taken a picture of it.

Science: Nature Walk Monday (see previous post). And, I actually ordered the Handbook of Nature Study. It should be here in a week. Yeah! That is progress! We worked in the garden every day, adding to our compost pile, watering, and observing plant growth. Our tomato plants are definitely growing. We haven't seen any blossoms yet. We also planted carrot seeds and a few sunflower seeds. Saturday, Daddy did a lesson on Food Chemisty. I should have taken a picture of the white board. I should have stayed for the lesson, since the notes on the white board where way over my head. They did an overview of macromolecules, and focused on amino acids, peptide bonds, proteins--and how they are changed or denatured through heat, whipping, and how they act as an emulsifier. (I had to have him dictate that to me. Did I mention it was over my head? I just have never been that interested in chemistry.) The kids loved it.

Physical Fitness: Martial Arts: Kimball, two hours a week. Check. Other than that, there was lots of bike riding but nothing formal. And we didn't do the jogging that I had planned. I do want to, though, since I am trying to become a runner and it would help Henry in soccer season if we were running year round.

Reading: We'll do a separate post on this. We read. LOTS. That's the easy part around here.

History: I finally ordered The Story of the World Part 1 (Ancient history) and the workbook that goes with it . When it comes, I'll choose a few lesson plans to do this spring and summer before we start with the Renaissance/Middle Ages next year.

Hymn of the Week: Did You Think To Pray, Hymn 140--Kimball & Henry each know if perfectly. Ian glosses over a few words but can sing along.

Family Principle: Respect. We introduced this at Family Home Evening on Monday. We talked about why respect was important in a family. The kids came up with some ways that we could show respect in our family: respect to God, to parents, to each other, and for our property. We came up with these things to work on this week:

Have personal prayers morning and night (respect for God)
Do what Mom & Dad ask (respect for parents)
Speak without sassing (respect for parents)
Listen to each other without interrupting (respect each other)
Not tease in a mean way (respect each other)
Treat our things well (respect our property)

Each member of the family signed the bottom of the paper and we put it on the fridge for the week. Most mornings at our family devotional we reviewed it, and then we reviewed it again if someone was struggling with one of the above items. Everyone really tried hard and we saw some improvements in the harmony in our home this week.

Scripture Study: We read Alma 12 and discussed it together (we only read a few verses each day and discuss, because of attention spans). It led to some discussions about Adam and the fall and about resurrection, big topics, which are crucial to understanding the plan of salvation. I am so grateful for the clarity with which the Book of Mormon teaches these principles.

Life Skills: Kimball and I worked together on this blog, which was exciting for him. Henry and Kimball have both made big strides in loading the dishwasher properly. They have been very helpful in the gardening, as mentioned in the Science section.

Cub Scouts: Kimball has fulfilled the requirements to receive his Bobcat at pack meeting this week.

Having Fun: We went to the park three times, which is more than usual. We played Connect Four many times, and I taught Kimball how to play Golf (the card game). As I mentioned, on Friday I wasn't having much fun, but it was my own bad attitude and a little burnout. I'm feeling much better now and ready to face a new week.

I also decided this week that we really need to stick to a schedule, at least for the mornings. We let a few things get in the way at the beginning of the week and when I was ready to sit down and do seatwork, the kids had a hard time focusing. This shouldn't be news to me, since I know that at least my two oldest kids thrive on a schedule. So instead of embracing the flexibility that homeschooling provides, we are going to embrace the opportunity to learn together without distractions until noon each day. I'll let you know how that works out.

I am grateful for this opportunity that I have to teach my children and to be with them so much. I am humbled by the influence that I can have in their lives and am really striving to make improvements in my areas of weakness. I love these sweet kiddos.

Monday's Nature Walk

2008-04-16T16:12:00.000-07:00

Monday we took a nature walk. Near our home is a creek and a wilderness area with a winding walkway. We love that we are in the neighborhood and yet feel like we are taking a walk in the woods (except for the paved path.) We were especially paying attention to birds as we walked and listened.

We heard woodpeckers and eventually Mom spied one, but he blended in so well with the tree that the others had a hard time spotting him, and when she tried to take a photo, he disappeared. We saw some birds that looked like this one:

We haven't researched it yet. We really need to get the Handbook of Nature Study. Anyone know a good website for identifying birds?

The boys took one path that wasn't fit for strollers and got a little closer to the creek. They took these pictures:

The bottom one is out of focus, but we were excited to see a mother duck with her ducklings. We counted seven of them and wondered if mommies can have seven babies at a time (Mom says it is rare.) The duck and ducklings were all quacking while they swam.

We found lots of acorn tops with the nut inside gone. We wondered if birds or squirrels had eaten them. The boys estimated that there were 1,000 squirrels living along the stream (I think that the neighbors would complain if that were true.) We wondered how we could get a better count.

We also picked up trash that we found along our walk and deposited it in the trash can at the end of our walk. This has been a habit instituted by the boys since our trip to Monterey last summer, when they learned that litter ends up in streams and then in the ocean, which can be dangerous for humans, fish, and animals.

We love taking these nature walks and wish that they lasted longer. We always seem to be hurrying back to get Henry to afternoon kindergarten. We are looking forward to having everyone home full time in June and next school year.

The Week's Plans

2008-04-15T11:58:00.000-07:00

Read Aloud: The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare

Math: Saxon Lessons 90-94 (K), assigned homework (H), tanagrams and linking cubes (I)
Copywork: Paragraph from The Family: A Proclamation
Science: Nature Walk, gardening, Science Friday lesson TBD
Physical Fitness: Martial Arts (K), bike riding, jogging
Reading: The Wizard of Oz (K), Nate the Great (H), Two Women of Galilee (Mommy), plus assorted library books (all)
History: Um . . . library books and The Bronze Bow. I need to work on this.
Hymn of the Week: Ere You Left Your Room This Morning, Hymn 140
Family Principle: Respect
Scripture Study: Alma 12-13
Life Skills: Build a website/blog, dishwasher loading, gardening
Remember to have fun!