Goodnight Moon

After we finished playing the moon game (a balancing game), J2 requested the Goodnight Moon game. I tried playing it with him before, but he wasn't up for it. So, this evening when he asked I jumped at the chance to play. Would you believe we've never even read the book to him? That's the trouble with putting all those FIAR books on a shelf! So, I read the book to him a bunch of times and then he was ready to play the game!

He wanted to play the version for 4-6 yr olds where you use the game board and find the object that is on the cards on the board. He LOVED it! I was just starting to think about what Before FIAR book we could do next. I think I've found it! I'll be sure to update on the activities we choose besides this wonderful game.

J2's Day with Mommy!

Since Thursday Dan's sister and her family have been here visiting. Friday they all went tubing at a local ski resort. By all reports they had an excellent day. However, J2 is too young for tubing so he and I stayed at home. Boy was he mad!!!! I tried to keep him busy.


First we painted. This didn't last too long though because he wanted cups and paints. I was up for dot painting! He really love my painting. It's called Winter Tree.

We played Playdoh which is always a good time! We made animal crackers and Teddy Grahams and put paw prints in lots of dough.

Cutting and rolling dough is fun too!

Of course there was a snack of Teddy Grahams and J2 was excited to eat at the school table.


After lunch (leftover pizza) we sat down to watch a show. I thought I'd catch a bit of weather first and you can see what happened. I knew he was having a fussy morning. Thanks goodness he slept! I got up and had some time to myself. One of the first things I did was to grab the camera. My camera was in the van, so these pictures are courtesy of E9's camera.

Our Unschooling Day!

This is the video E9 shot of one of the runs with his Kodak Easy Share camera- he was disappointed this morning when he loaded up the video to Picasa and he couldn't edit the darkness out.

So, yesterday as I was preparing for our FIAR review and playing Hungry, Hungry Hippos with J2, I could hear a lot of commotion around our door car ramp. The kids had begun sending cars down and playing. Normally, I would have corraled everyone and gotten them settled down for school, but then I heard some more chatter about testing various cars and measuring distances. I thought I'd see what would happen if I left them alone. The next thing I knew, I was asked if they could graph some results and I said sure as long as they used normal paper rather than the poster size (like we did for the popcorn). E9 then asked if they could graph it on the computer. Go for it I thought.

Eventually, R7 is getting tape and recording the car names and placing them down in their landing spots for measurement later. Did I mention they were taking video of the car runs? That was actually my first hint that I should let them be.

At lunch time, they told me all the details about their experiment. They had drawn some simple conclusions based on one good run. So, of course I had to seize the teachable moment to tell them what a good scientist would do...more trials of course! In the end, they decided on doing five trials of each run for each car.

Not only did they record data on the downhill run, but they also recorded which of these cars could go around the most in the Matchbox loop set we have.

When Dan got home he helped them tweak the data on the computer to be made into the graph- a reminder of how to get Excel to make the graph from the entered data.

Below are the results! I think I earned bragging rights on this unschooling moment at my house. All in all a some good science was going on! This is what homeschooling is all about!!

This is the bar graph that shows the results of their tests. They took the average of the data and you can see how they worked with their data if you click on the graph below. Apparently, the car that came with the ramp (labeled car 2 - ramp car) was the best performer overall.

Review Week and Wrap Ups!

We are having a visit from some cousins toward the end of the week so I thought this would be a great time to have some review. I'll be pulling out some games and making some new ones that help the kids review the books we've done and the places we've been so far this year.

Our mid-year review will include New England coasts, Pacific coasts, France, Austria, Australia, Japan, California, Idaho, and Vermont. We'll revisit similes, hyperboles, story endings and beginnings, onomatopoeia, and story structure. We'll talk about snowflakes, pumpkins, microscopes, balance, leavening, animals, etc. The kids have learned many new things in their travels so far. I know we'll all enjoy a look back at where we've been. Stay tuned for pictures of our review!

This is our game board. The kids really had fun with this, this afternoon. One thing I need to change is maybe the point values. My kids just kept gunning for the 10 pointers because they were aiming to beat the others at getting 100 points first! Also, I opted for a file folder because I can't think of where to store one more large poster at my house.

Many thanks to Kendall in GA from the FIAR forums for her game rules!

Are You Smarter Than a Homeschooler?

Supplies:

trifold board
3 library pockets
markers/stickers/paint
index cards
index card file box
glue
1 velcro dot (optional)
contact paper (optional)

How to make the game board:
Decorate your heading using markers/sticker/paint. Ours reads "Are you smarter than a homeschooler?" in red stickers.

Label each of the 3 library pockets with 1, 5, and 10 respectively. Glue them on the board. (Ours are in a centered, horizontal line under the heading.)

Write one question per index card. (I do not write the answers on the back of the cards.) I write multiple-choice, T/F and open ended questions. I base the point value on the difficulty of each question and then I write the value on the back of the card in the upper right hand corner. Cards are sorted in their respective library pockets. Extra cards are stored in the file box.

Optional ~ Write "LIFELINE" on an index card. Cover it with contact paper for durability. Adhere it to the lower left hand corner of the board with a velcro dot.

Object of the game:
The first player to reach 100 points wins.

How to play:
The youngest player goes first. Play proceeds clockwise.

Player selects a 1, 5 or 10 point card. The host pulls & reads the card. The player is then given time to answer the question. Points, based on the value of the card, are only awarded for complete correct answers. Wrong answers are not penalized.

The host is able to be a player, too.

Rules of the game:

1. Each player gets one LIFELINE. A lifeline can only be another player. A player can select who she wants to be her LIFELINE. Points earned, the value of the card in play, must be split 50/50 between the player and her LIFELINE.

2. Bonus Questions are worth 25 points each. Bonus Questions are kept in a stack near the game board, i.e. They are not stored in a library pocket. (You can make a library pocket for them if you'd like.)

A player can choose a Bonus Question only after she has earned at least 50 points. A correct answer to a Bonus Question earns 25 points. An incorrect answer to a Bonus Question equals -10.

Tip:
We make review questions for FIAR and all of our other subjects. It works great for EVERY subject. Ideally, I'd like to write questions at the end of every week. Realistically, I write cards every whenever I get around to it.

Somebody I know Must be Praying for Snow!

But they need to allow for their driving time so they get here safely!! Seriously in the last two weeks since we found out we are getting a winter visit from some cousins, we have had full snow cover completely melt- TWICE. Including just yesterday and the day before. Our visitors announced they wanted to see and enjoy some snow. We recovered from a snow melt and flooding once only to have it happen again Sunday into Monday. Lucky for them snow showers here are a major storm where they are from and that's what we've had last night and today. And when the wind blows over the lakes snow will fall here. Sometimes it snows hard! Today's forecast was for occasional snow showers. The picture above is a snow squall within those bands of showers. If you aren't familiar with snow squalls they are sudden burst of snow that occur and it'll produce white out conditions and drop an inch or so of snow in about a half hour. It looks like the temperature will hold below freezing which means the daily snow showers will stick around through the weekend.

Happy Bookshelves!

Maybe that should really read Happy Heather! This weekend we did a lot of work moving bookcases and building shelves. I have been waiting for a few months for this to happen and we finally did it!

My goal was to put a nice looking bookcase in our living room to hold my Creative Memories albums and some of our most loved or at least most referenced books. However, nice ones are pricey and I began to think creatively. Then it dawned on me. I already had a nice bookcase, but it was in our learning room/playroom. So began the quest to acquire more shelving for the learning area. But, I had to wait.

I have been planning and waiting for several months, but it was finally time to get the materials and I began preparing the bookcase downstairs for the big move. Saturday I finished emptying it and we moved it. We also had to move our sofa a bit and Dan insisted on vacuuming underneath of it and cleaning that out. Amazing what you find in and under a queen sleeper sofa! I have decided jelly beans are banned from the sofa area in general.

I packed away a lot of books and bundle some to be donated to the MOPS library- it really is time to part with books like, What to Expect in the First Year type of books! I think getting rid of things is like my new hobby!

Here are the results! Enjoy!!

This is an old before picture, but it gives you a good idea of what the shelves looked like.

Here is the bookcase on the right in the picture above in our living room. Along with my desk and a windsor swivel chair, I had this bookcase made by an Amish man when I started teaching and I was still living at home with my parents. One of the best things I purchased in those days. The other was my car- my beloved Emma- a Saturn SL. I think the pictures above the sofa will need to be recentered- unless askew is in. Perhaps you all can comment on that for me!

Here is another view. Remember the hutch I got rid of about a month or so ago? The bookcase is much less dominating and it fits nicely. Fairly soon the dining room wall to the left will be painted with barn red on the bottom and I think I'll leave it white on top. With luck there will be a chair rail too. You know I'll update when that happens.

This is a view of our sectional wall. On the other side are the stairs leading to the front door and the basement. A very typical 1970s split foyer is what we have here...in fact how do you like that fake brick wall? You'll never guess what is behind that. Would you believe brick wall paper? Oh yes...it is that bad! Someday that will be history as well. For now I was able to move the pictures to spread them out. The right side of the ledge used to have my albums.

Dan is the best! Here he has begun the task of hanging the new shelves. The load bearing is on the studs and the cross bar at the top is attached to them. The bracketing was then hung from the load bearing piece. Fascinating to think how much weight this shelf will be holding.

The newly hung empty shelves! My job was to clean up all the messes he made and to move everything around. It was raining today (the snow for our soon-to-be visiting cousins is in serious jeopardy!) so Dan had to use the circular saw right in our playroom. I was in charge of vacuuming sawdust from everything in sight. A small price to pay for immediate gratification. Trust me.

Finally, the shelve reloaded! Taking everything down gave me the chance to reorganize. I found that I was forgetting many of my instructional materials because they were thin books all stacked together on the other shelf. So, tonight as I stared at the empty shelves and the books all around me, I came up with a new plan. I decided to group the books by subject area. This way I could access all of my like materials at the same time. When I go to plan science lessons, all of my science stuff will be in once place. Very nice.

Want a tour?

• Top Shelf- world puzzles, math game, balance, and the preschool ziplock games
• Shelf 2- adult dictionary and thesaurus along with general kid activity books and my graduate texts on education (hey there might be something worthwhile there!)
• Shelf 3- (from left to right) pattern blocks, language arts and reading books, math books and teacher manuals, and Five in a Row manuals along with other literature units, and Funtastic Frogs
  
• Shelf 4- laying on their side are social studies materials and to the right are the science books
• Shelf 5- laying down on the right are more general homeschool materials like puppet making books, unit study authoring book, Dinah Zyke general manuals and on the right are the art books and references
• Shelf 6- Five in a Row, B4, and Beyond FIAR children's books along with my seasonal book boxes
• Floor- So far I've put one box which has our Leap Pad turbo twists in it along with extra cartridges.
  

This is it so far. I put paperwork and file folder units and ideas went on the bookshelf on the left which has sides. I also put children's non-fiction by topic on the left hand bookcase. I have a few more things to tweak and then I think I can safely move on to a new spot in the house.

Not Much Has Changed between Mothers and Sons in over a 100 Years...

At the breakfast table this morning:

Me: "(E9) don't put so much in your mouth at once and chew with your mouth closed."

E9: "This reminds me of my favorite line in Farmer Boy."

What is the line?

"There's something for you in the woodshed, " Father said.

Almanzo wanted to see it right away. But Mother said if he did not eat his breakfast he was sick and must take medicine. then he ate as fast as he could, and she said:

"Don't take such big mouthfuls."

Mothers always fuss about the way you eat. You can hardly eat any way that pleases them.

And yes, he actually quoted the part in bold to me as part of our conversation. Great kid.

Superheroes

I had a couple little superheroes running around this morning. Who ever thought swimming goggles and a kitchen hand towel could do so much!

In the Box...A Trip Back in Time!

One of my recent goals has been to clean out this big box of teacher stuff. This is just one of the boxes I brought home from my former middle school classroom. When I left I took it all (back then I had the room!) and I've slowly been getting rid of stuff. I have about four to five smaller boxes that I've gone through at least once. I'll probably visit them again, but for now I decided to tackle the largest box of them all. When it's empty, it will get holes drilled in the bottom and we'll use it out on the porch to store outside stuff in the warmer weather when we use it a lot.

At one point I had stuffed some of Dan's graduate work on the top and once I took that off, this is what was left behind. We have a set of slates that I used for cooperative learning games, a nice set of organic chemistry models, some student games and art work, the signs that were posted on one chalkboard where I left work for those absent, the sign for my time out desk- THE ABYSS (yes, it was scary and I used to tell my students that an abyss is the biggest, deepest, darkest trench on the ocean floor where NO ONE can find you or help you. There was a full sized human skeleton that stood next to it too. And yes, it worked. I hardly ever had to send anyone there!), a basket of bathroom passes- ewwwww probably a crazy set of germs on those. They are already in the trash. Under that are two large piles of files to go through. I'm part way done now.

I will save some stuff. I can't give away all my labs and stuff from 6th and 7th grade science. After all, I still have to teach it in just a few short years. I am only keeping the good stuff though. It will be exciting to part with this big box. I've got plans for a filing cabinet in its place. The implementation of a vision continues!

All Aboard for Mailing May!

Mailing May Week Two:

• Monday- saliva, vocabulary matching
• Tuesday- Daniel Boone (we've been reading a Childhood of Famous Americans book about him since last week)
• Wednesday- life in the 1900s, Daniel Boone mini book, railroad song and book
• Thursday- What things cost then and now, stamps and money
• Friday- domestic vs wild animals, wrap up loose ends and notebooking
  

Illustrators can use facial expressions to show the character of a person in the book. R7 tried this out when she drew a picture of her brother and her after he took something from her.

We went out on a field trip for the day last Friday so the saliva lesson was on Monday this week. Why saliva? Well because people used to lick stamps, remember?

Vocabulary was written and matched on postcards and there are some Idaho facts and its location.

I-5 did the lessons as well. He is an expert on the trestle!

For the next two weeks we'll be rowing Mailing May. I'm hopeful for a field trip to the post office next week and for some fun studies about trains which the two littlest boys here will find fun.

• Monday- Idaho, art- before we read look at the book cover and predict the story, review of Daniel Boone (read aloud a story about him), problem solving, and begin our look at trains.
• Tuesday- alliteration and hyperbole, fictionalizing a true story
• Wednesday- drawing people to show their character, more trains
• Thursday- shapes/quilts/pattern block play
• Friday- saliva

Today we colored the quilt to be just like May's and then the kids used the pattern blocks to try and make quilt shapes.

Book Basket List:

Mr. Putty and Tabby Take the Train by Cynthia Rylant
Hiawatha Passing by Jeff Hagan
The Fast Sooner Hand by Arna Bontemps/Jack Conroy
Eyewitness Train by DK Publishing
The Story of Trains by Jane Bingham
Terrific Trains by Tony Mitton
Usborne Railways and Trains by Caroline Young and Colin King
Train Song by Diane Siebert
Inside Freight Train by Donald Crews
A Better View for Gordon
Freight Train by Donald Crews
Usborne Discovery Trains
The Steam Train Jigsaw Book by Heather Amery
Thomas' ABC Book
Big Book of Trains DK Publishing
Trains by Gail Gibbons
Usborne Train Stories
I Love Trains by Philemon Burgess

Mailing May- Life in the Early 1900s

Today the kids did a lesson on what life was like in the early 1900s. Mailing May takes places in the year 1914. I don't know what folks did before the internet, but it was easy to pull up pictures of life at the turn of the last millenium using Google images! While I was looking at photos of cars and things it occurred to me that the kids would really like to see what our town looked like back then.

This photo if of a train station that was here long ago and the best is the water tower with the train signal and the shot of the approaching engine. There is a similar picture in the book. The kids were delighted!

In Honor of National Pancake Day...

...which was yesterday, I will share with you all our most favorite pancake recipe ever. No more boxed mixes, no more flat, dull pancakes for us! This recipe was tweaked from one that appeared in Cook's Magazine using the techniques suggested by Alton Brown.

Blueberry Pancakes

1 3/4 cups buttermilk
2 cups all purpose flour
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
3 tbsp butter (unsalted)
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1 cup blueberries

Melt butter and allow to cool. Set out eggs and buttermilk and allow them to come to room temperature. Whisk together all the dry ingredients. Whisk together butter and egg until combined and then whisk into milk. Pour into dry ingredients and gently mix until JUST combined. DO NOT OVERMIX! Batter will be VERY thick. Heat skillet or griddle and spray with non-stick spray over medium heat. Use a scoop to put batter on the skillet, immediately drop 1 tbsp blueberries onto each pancake. Cook until edges are dry and bubbly and then gently flip. Cook another minute or so longer. Keep warm in oven on a plate until served.

Make sure you follow the instructions and don't try to skip stuff like whisking the egg and butter first. You know Alton is particular about this sort of thing. Also, make sure you pull out the cold things to get to room temperature first thing.

We make a triple batch for our family of six. Our boys can really pound down a pancake! Enjoy!

Remember My Desk?

Before - as embarrassing as this is! It became a dump spot.

After- the mostly finished product. I need to find a spot for a few things on the floor and I'm considering a move for the filing cabinet. Those things will wait until we move the bookcase and finish that big job.

Dollhouse Renovations are COMPLETE!

What do you think? It used to be white with lavender trim on the roof and front side trim only. We updated it with a fun dark pink and lime green trim. The first time I painted it she was 2yo so I'm excited for the make over and it'll be fun to get down to house keeping!

Dan puts the finishing touches on by hammering the backing onto the house.

The finished product- after the additions of walls and repainting and a backing added.

Back up in R7's room- at last! The sculpey kitchen appliances have been added.

Uh-oh! These are defenders of the fortress or evil schemers who plan to take over. Either way it is clear that R7 and I will have stiff competition to keep her brothers OUT of the way. Why do I have the distinct feeling I'll be competing with her as well!?

You Know There's Too Much Star Wars in Our House When...

John the Baptist and Jesus appear as Jedis during the baptism of Jesus.
(this was I-5's Sunday School lesson today and I ought to know since I'm the teacher...imagine my surprise when I saw he'd added light sabers to this occasion.)

Cricket Plans chapters 7-10

Map work on China and some hot touristy spots

Mapping Italy and visiting some hot spots

We used Time for Kids homework helper as a wonderful geography reference. I found it using our Usborne Encyclopedia of World Geography internet links. You can go anywhere in the world and hit the highlights of every country. VERY cool website.

We are in the final two weeks of our study of The Cricket in Times Square. I know we always look forward to a new book toward the end of a study. This week E9 will:

• Monday- take a brief look at the Chinese language and identify a few characters, vocabulary matching, read chapter 7
• Tuesday- observe US Currency and identify markings, design his own currency
• Wednesday- discussion question, more vocabulary, Coney Island, read chapter 8
• Thursday- discussion question, read chapter 9, facts about rice, make fried rice, and work on Mark Twain book report/oral report
• Friday- Ivory, chapter 10, types of music, Vaudeville (the kids will make their own and we'll use that trusty video camera to record the fun and share it- hopefully)

E9 also does the Bible study supplement that goes with Beyond FIAR. He reads the passage for the chapter and follows up with the Bible verses. Then he has to choose the theme the author was going for from the book and choose one verse to copy into his journal- in cursive. That is the extent of his practice in cursive though I do occasionally remember to require it from him at other times. As a person who never liked it, I hardly use cursive myself. Not to worry though, he seems to be picking it up.

Facts about US Currency and E9's own paper 31 dollar bill with Laura Ingalls Wilder's face on it. For those interested, the new release Presidential Dollar coin is going to be released on Valentine's Day. It will be the James Monroe coin.

When we were reviewing for his dad what has to be on a coin by federal law, he gave a nice list. When I prompted him for the last one he replied, "Someone's head!" No, that wasn't the right answer...date minted, liberty (on the new dollar coin Lady Liberty counts), e pluribus unim, and In God We Trust. Check the side of the coin if you can't find them all!

The US Mint has a terrific website for kids. Check it out for all kinds of facts and plenty of lessons and color sheets. There are whole units on the 50 states coins and the Presidential dollar coins.

E9 agrees to make the rice, but he won't eat it!

R7 is a rice lover and can't wait to lend a helping hand in the process...

The finished product. Not bad for a first try at home made fried rice. Next time we'll need two batches...one with onions and one WITHOUT (In case you haven't heard, I'm violently allergic to onions and I got tired of picking very carefully each one out of my rice!)

Beyond FIAR Plans Jan 21- Jan 25

Microscope work- lesson on bacteria vs viruses, facts on the element neon, and a potato experiment having to do with germs and washed vs non-washed hands

art lesson on perspective

E9 Cricket in Times Square

• Monday- Review non-verbal communication, neon minit book, begin Mark Twain biography
• Tuesday- Mark Twain, chp 4 Bible study, Opera- read Mozart book
• Wednesday- Art lesson on perspective, who was Orpheus, Mark Twain
• Thursday- bacteria and viruses, potato experiment, journal time, read chapter 5
  
• Friday- microscope time (with R7) to check out potato results, vocabulary

Beyond books can last up to 9 weeks, so each week we try to get through two chapters. He has a lot of ongoing work during this unit including (so far) adding items to his study of NY and his biography of Mark Twain.

To see the work he has done so far check out this previous update.

Discussion question and book report form (step 1) for Mark Twain

Map assignment and the back page

Maps of Connecticut and New York

Assignment on bird migration and a notebooking page on our backyard birds- the bird counting page comes from the FIAR nature studies. These studies are a real treasure so check them out!