two field trips

In the past two months our homeschool group has had two fun field trips~

In August, we visited J&K Farley Farms to pick grapes. The kids love picking their own grapes, and the prices are awesome! Each of the kids was able to fill a cardboard box for just $2.

They also have a small petting zoo there, with the normal farm animals ~ cow, donkey, goats, pig...

...oh, yeah, and an emu!! The kids were frightened of it at first, but gradually got closer and closer until they were actually petting it... I mantained a respectful distance, myself.

Then, last month, we went on a field trip to the zoo. Our group decided to do the guided tour, and I was a little worried that my kids would be bored by it. Luckily, I was totally wrong about that, and they had a great time.

I was able to relax while she led the kids around the zoo and pointed out interesting things to them. They were able to get up close to this owl, and also chatted for quite a while with zoo employee at the reptile house who showed them a snake and answered all their questions.Later this month, we will be visiting the pumpkin patch. I always make my kids take lots of pictures there, so I'm sure I'll post about that when it happens!

Homeschooling: part 2

Math:
For math this year Hunter is continuing to use the workbook provided by the charter school we were using last year - Progress in Mathematics by Sadlier-Oxford. He enjoys math and is good at it. His mind is always thinking in numbers - he is constantly counting or adding things. He is almost halfway done with the first grade workbook, and I am still deciding what we will do when he finishes it.

Madison is using the MCP workbook, 4th grade level. She placed advanced on her STAR tests last year in everything except multiplication so we really need to work on memorizing those this year. She is pretty good at math most of the time, but is easily frustrated when something is hard for her.

Kaden is learning to count. He knows up to 5 pretty well. Usually while the other two are working on their math he will sit at the table and color in a coloring book or a blank notebook. While in Target the other day we found some cute little monster stamps and he has really liked playing with those. We will count how many of each one he stamps and we also make patterns with them. Besides actually learning the numbers, he is working on fine motor control and just getting in the habit of doing "work."

In the past I have struggled to keep the kids attention on their work - a simple math worksheet that should really only take a few minutes would take an hour or more, due to doodling, dawdling, and distractions. About a year ago, I started bribing them giving them an incentive. Now, each child gets a small amount of candy (like 5 M&M's) in a paper cup. We go over any new material in the lesson and what I expect them to accomplish, then I set the kitchen timer for 10 or 15 minutes. If I notice them being distracted from their work, I take one of the candies from their cup. When the timer beeps, they can eat their candy. At that time, sometimes they want to keep working, but I don't require it. If they haven't finished they just continue the next day. Hunter can usually finish two or more worksheets during this time, and Madison usually gets one done - her problems are more difficult, though.

Friday is a fun day here, so we play games instead of doing workbooks. I like Math Card War and Chess, but I also allow games that are more fun, and less "math-y." We also try to do a cooking project on Fridays - which incorporates some math as well. Last Friday Madison and Hunter made blueberry muffins from scratch, with very little help from me.

our fun morning

So Kaden had a dentist appointment at 8:00 this morning to have a crown put on one of his back molars. They sedated him, which I am glad of, but we have been home for about an hour and a half, and I have just now gotten him calmed down.

First he wanted to watch Little Einsteins. Not just any Little Einsteins, "the flower one"! I have no idea which one is the flower one, but apparently it is not any one of the 14 I have saved on the DVR. So after we went through all of them at least twice, he decided he was hungry.

I would think so, since he hadn't eaten since dinner last night. I was supposed to start him on clear liquids so I offered him some juice. He wanted juice in one cup and milk in another cup. But not either of the two bottles of juice that were in the fridge - a new bottle of juice (same juice, new bottle). I thought, whatever, it will get used up sooner or later....

So I put the juice in the green cup and the milk in the yellow cup, just like he asked. Then he wanted some cereal. We managed to get some cereal (two different kinds, in just the right proportion) into a bowl without too much drama. Then after he sat at the table, he wanted me to move the table. I moved the table. That wasn't good enough, he wanted to move to a different seat. I moved his bowl and two cups to the spot where he wanted to sit, which was obviously a horrible thing for me to do, because it caused a full meltdown. I put everything back where he wanted it. Then he wanted Madison, not me, to help him move to the other chair. I guess she did something wrong, because that chair was no good either. He picked a third spot.

Okay, so we're all set, right? Juice in the green cup, milk in the yellow cup, cereal in the bowl (again, after being dumped out sometime during meltdown), chair and table positioned perfectly.... but no. Now he wanted the milk in the green cup, and the juice in the yellow cup! So I poured out the juice. Which caused a full screaming total fit.

Several minutes later, after he calmed down somewhat, I finally figured out what I had done wrong - he wanted me to wait until he sat back in his chair to pour out the juice. So I got the milk in the green cup. Now he wanted the juice in the yellow cup. So I waited until he sat in his chair like a good mommy, and poured out the milk in the yellow cup. But now he wanted "new" juice, again. Well, the bottle of juice I just opened for him was the last bottle of new juice I had.... so I took the bottle of juice out of the fridge and used it to fill up the other bottle of juice - "tada! - new juice." That was acceptable - so I poured the new juice into the yellow cup.

Finally satisfied, he ate a few pieces of the cereal, and had a sip of the milk, and then decided to go outside and play with the other kids.

Keep in mind that throughout this entire process he is on the verge of total meltdown (and frequently going over the edge)... normally I would not be nearly so accommodating to the whims of my three year old, but he was still coming out of the anesthesia, tired and groggy and grumpy. I know that nothing I could have done would have made him happy, but I sure tried.

Homeschooling: part 1

Ah, my poor neglected blog!

It's been so long since I added anything here...
We have been pretty busy lately, I guess!

Much of what I have been busy with is planning our homeschooling year, so I thought I would share some of that. I'm going to do this in a few parts, or else I could be here all day!

We have been homeschooling for four years already, but all of that was with a charter school. They provided all the lesson plans, books, and materials. Around the end of the last school year I started feeling dissatisfied with our experience with them for a few different reasons and wanted to have more freedom than they provided so I started looking for other options. I didn't want to build a curriculum from scratch, but wanted the freedom to combine Madison and Hunter when appropriate, and to add and take away from a program to make it suit our family. So I searched and I searched, and discovered the Charlotte Mason philosophy. That seemed like a good fit to me.

For example, Charlotte’s students used living books rather than dry textbooks. Living books are usually written in story form by one author who has a passion for the subject. A living book makes the subject “come alive.” - from simplycharlottemason.com

After some more searching, I discovered the Ambleside Online curriculum. It is designed to be as close as possible to what was taught by Charlotte Mason. While this was very close to what I wanted, there were a few things I wasn't entirely happy with. So I kept looking. And then I discovered Milestones Academy. Here I found a wonderful curriculum following the Charlotte Mason principles that I love, using many of the same wonderful books as Ambleside Online, but adding in an LDS perspective. I finally found something that was a (nearly - I will be doing a little tweaking) perfect fit!

In the next few posts, I will share our curriculum choices, scheduling, and whatever else I can think of!

Birthday Boy

We had a quiet family party at home for Kaden's third birthday ~ we had cake and ice cream and lots of presents. His favorite was a Rocket (from Little Einsteins) bath toy. Madison and Hunter used their own money to buy presents (matchbox cars) for him.
Let's hope he's going to grow out of the terrible two's and into a terrific three!

Butterflies!

A few weeks ago Madison found this critter devouring the leaves on the orange tree in our yard:

Of course, he had to be brought inside and put in a jar to be studied thoroughly... we gave him some of the orange leaves that he loved so much and the kids had to check his progress often. I guess he was a little shy, though, because he waited until we left the house the next day to change into his chrysalis. Everyone was disappointed to have missed the event, so we looked it up on YouTube! You can see what he did, here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=U4V_locq3yY

All the information I could find about butterflies said that he should stay that way for about two weeks, but just one week later we woke up and found this in the jar:

It is a Tiger Swallowtail butterfly ~ Madison's favorite. We were disappointed to have missed the transformation once again, but YouTube came to the rescue again (http://youtube.com/watch?v=vjvR_Mt4z8Q&feature=related). He did oblige us by sitting very still for quite a while on the branch of one of our trees after we let him out of the jar. We were able to examine him very closely while he warmed up and got ready to fly away.

Last week Madison found a giant Tomato Hornworm on the tomatoes (where else would it be?) and insisted on bringing it in for observation as well (ewww!). After a day or so it stopped eating and seemed to be looking for something - I did a quick search and discovered that they form their chrysalis underground. We took everything out of his jar and put in a few inches of dirt for him and put him back in. Within a few hours he had dug himself a hole and settled in for his nap. Apparently they turn into a big moth....

A Confession

I've been stalking Jessica Sprague.

I've been reading her blog for months now and she doesn't even know I exist...
but now she has this little contest, so - hi Jessica! I really love your blog, and all the great photoshop tips you so generously share!

She calls this one Photo ShaZAM, and I love what it does to my pictures. I will definitely be using it often!

Here is my picture of Kaden before I shaZAMed it:

It was a pretty good picture to begin with, but just look at it after:

Now, go visit Jessica's blog to see how to do it yourself!