American Girl: Felicity

R10 and I have started on a little journey through the American Girl book using Portraits of American Girlhood, a unit study written by Cindy Sotelo. We won't be hurtling through all of them in a row, but we will do several this year and several next year. I think. Unless I feel that she is outgrowing the idea. Gasp. Anyway, we've started with Felicity. As unit studies go, I really like this one. It's very laid back and it does have a breakneck schedule each week.

R has been doing some writing with a word of the week. This first week has been independence. She defined it and I had her list ways that Felicity shows independence in her character. She has been reading some biographies of famous people from that time. If you have been a reader for a while, then you know we have studied the time of the American Revolution a few times with Betsy Ross. So, we aren't going to dwell too long here right now.

 

One of the really fun things R10 has been doing is sewing at the home of a "grandmother" friend. The two of them are the perfect creative storm! They've been getting into a grand sewing stash and playing American Girl doll like crazy. Felicity is currently getting a new nightgown with a "lappet" from the original American Girl doll clothing patterns. I think when they are through with that, R10 will make herself a new gown. But along the way, they have created some other things especially using a ruffle maker attachment on the sewing machine- which R10 could hardly contain herself to use!

The other thing we really enjoy about this unit is the food we get to make! R10 loves to cook with me in the kitchen so this has been a treat for her. I'm also teaching an American Girl Survey co-op class this semester. I'll share what we made for her friends at co-op in a bit. 

The Sewing Basket

R10 has been doing a lot of sewing lately. She decided to put together a sewing basket and write about it.

 

If R10 wants to write about something, I encourage it! She put together the things she uses the most in a dollar store basket we had bought for the mouse kits. It's perfect.

Takin' It to the Next Level...

Many of you know that I was working hard to get Dan to put up a bulletin board. Some of you may know that Dan is the king of dinner explanations. The kids will ask a question which will launch Dan into a long explanation of "you name it". Sometimes I can't take it and I'll say the answer quickly to end it before he starts it! Trust me...if you have anything similar at your house, this action would tempt you as well.

Last night, I8 was telling us about a story he heard at his Pioneer Living class about a man who was  hauling logs in the winter and when two of the logs fell, they rolled down a hill and over some lake ice and up the other side and the logs did this over and over. Dan said it remind him of a Perpetual Motion Machine and that was it. The questions started and we began talking about "Perpetual Motion Machines". I was only half paying attention and asked, "Why would anyone think that would work?" You know...because of my awesome physics prowess from college, this made no sense to me! But the kids were hanging on his every word and as things got going Dan said, "Now if this thing were a white board, I'd be all over it!" He is referring to my bulletin board there. So, he quickly asked if I had push pins for it and a moment later he came back with a piece of butcher paper and a Sharpie.

I want to officially say, this took his dinner time teaching moment to a whole new level.

Everyone listens as Dan begins to illustrate one of the ideas for a perpetual motion machine

His drawing is really going now...all eyes still peeled and everyone asking engaging questions.

By the time he was done, he had covered a lot of ground. We've got the machine, friction, vectors...

So, as we were going along Dan tells the kids about how friction works- because this is one of the main reasons a perpetual motion machine cannot work. The designers did not take into account other forces on the machine. Besides, as anyone knows, you can get work out of something without putting energy into the system. Once I saw the force arrows, I coaxed Dan...I go, "Go ahead honey just say it..." Then he told the kids what vectors were.

I just want to say I did remember physics because I reminded Dan that according to the laws of thermodynamics, you cannot create or destroy energy...so that is a big one when it comes to perpetual motion. Then Dan thought he'd trip me up when asking which law goes with everything in the universe going to a state of chaos...Entropy! Oh yes I DID remember that! 

As you can see....dinner time is never dull around here. And now we've gone to the next level. Maybe I should look into a real white board on the opposite wall.

The Sewing Journal

When I saw this in the store is spoke to me. It said, "Sewing Journal".

R10 thought it was a terrific idea and she started right away. This is the cover page.

The first entry is that skirt that's on Kit a few posts below.

The next two are longer which is fabulous! One is a pair of headphone cozies she made for Dan (the foam covering the ear pieces is coming off) and the other is her sewing basket. 

I'm still having trouble formatting  my posts with the new Blogger posting interface. Sorry about the weirdness. I'm not sure I have time in my life to figure it out all at once so bear with me. Once such quandary is how can I add text to the area before the pictures begin once the pictures are loaded.

So, the sewing journal was a gift to have thought of and I'm so glad I did! R10 is all about recording the things she has made and adding new things. For example, the sewing basket she made really was an idea for the journal that she made after she wrote about it. She also is very excited to share this book with others so we are editing as needed. So far, this has been a great tool to get R excited about writing. She even asked if could only do one per day or if she could do more!

At first, she wanted to be sure more of her details could be in the drawings rather than in the writing. However, she loved the idea and was willing to give it a try. Now she eagerly grabs it to write down the next entry. She's also excited to put prints of her real work in it. I know you'll be hearing more about R10's Sewing Journal. I'm delighted to have found something to do with writing that is inspiring to her! (besides poetry)

Is there something  your child is passionate about that would make a good journaling experience? We are still doing the Year of the Dollhouse journaling which is give and take, but this is something R can record on her own and just think of the keepsake it will be when she is older!

Talking Duplos!

So, I stumbled upon this idea while viewing a Tumblr...from Filth Wizardry. I fell in love. And I instantly knew what I could do with our Duplos. J5 can use them to form three letter words, etc and my next two oldest can use them to form sentences. R10 had a great time putting together a sentence that she copied into her grammar book and adjusted the punctuation. The first one she made was a nonsense sentence. So, then I had her make another sentence, with the same words, that conveyed a conventional notion! I think the idea will go a long way with reluctant writers. I used the Peggy Kaye books below to come up with my word list. By the way, if you've never seen Games for Writing or the other Peggy Kaye books, head to your library now and prepare to be inspired!

letters on labels for J5

label stickers to the rescue!

Both of these books by Peggy Kaye came in handy in choosing the words I wanted to use.

The formerly non-chatty box of Duplos

Wordy Duplos

Autumn Nature Study 1

I have really committed to using our nature study this year to improve our art skills and to learn more about some things the kids really enjoy. We've been driving around a lot this week listening to bird call CDs. My kids love them and here's a fact for you...blue jays often mimic hawks- and very well I might add. That explains why we never see that hawk. 

This autumn season my goal is to take the kids out every week to The Lab of Ornithology and observe the changes we see. This week was our first week and I brought the back pack of nature study. I brought The Handbook of Nature Study and some watercolor pencils. The little boys love the walk and the adventure and play along with the notebooking portion. R10 loves the art part!! E12 likes to learn more about the animals. There is something for everyone. Here's a look at our first trip.

I8 is suited up with his compass, bird watching binoculars, and his hat. He is all about getting a Tilly hat for Christmas. I love this kid.

Can you see him? There is a downy woodpecker right in the center of the photo- our Digital Rebel Canon SLR camera needs a fixaroo so these are all taken with our Sony CyberShot. I miss my Canon!!

Mushroom- anyone know what kind?

We never leave without the hand lens for close up discoveries!

The view over the meadow as we headed back for drawing

J5 and I talked about what might be living in a spot like this.

Black-Capped or a Carolina Chickadee? Either way...one of my all time favorites!

There's that Downy Woodpecker again.

We all drew some pictures of our choice from the walk with watercolor pencils.

Later that day on the school playground, while waiting for E12 at soccer practice, the kids all took a moment to brush the water on their drawings.

I am so not an artist, but I model for the kids the things I ask them to do. I have several book and some Squidoo lenses from Barb at The Handbook of Nature Study blog to use to improve our drawing. I'm looking forward to it.

J5 drew a fern. He wanted someone to touch it while he was sketching to see if it was fuzzy.

R10 did a fantastic job on her ducks near the water.

We sure would like to know what this is...my guess is that it has a very short appearance in our world each year.

All in all we had a terrific trip! The only thing I need to be mindful of is time. It took much longer than I had anticipated. E12 needs to finish his up and then I'll add it in.

Chess Masters

E12 has loved chess since he was about J5's age. He really took off with it at 6. Here he is playing with J5 and J5 is picking it up pretty well.

So, uh...Blogger is changing their post interface. I think I need to figure this out. Something is not right!

Finished Doll Skirt

Remember the skirt R10 made for her dolls? Kit tried it on the other day!

Night of the Moonjellies 2010

We have an annual tradition here at our house. We start our school year each August with our very first "row" Night of the Moonjellies. We talk about the book lessons and learn something new in the world of oceanography. This year we focused on mollusks using the DNG Sunny Seashells.

sea animals made from Play Foam

We did some map work with CT.

This was the first week of school a few weeks ago...school table still too messy so we saddled up to the dining room table- reorg was going on at that time.

J5 begins his Kindergarten year- letter Mm for Moonjellies!

There is more to report on this, but this is a good start. I hope to share the Sunny Seashells in our final notebook. As usual, stay tuned!

Portraits of American Girlhood: The Kick Off

So, R10 is starting her first unit of Portraits of American Girlhood which begins with Felicity. We also started the American Girl co-op class last week. Our first girl? Felicity. More on that to come. It is a real joy to teach that class!

If you have a fan of the American Girl collection, then I highly recommend this program written by Cindy Soleto. R and I (as in me) are going to have a terrific time. Yesterday morning before class, we made a raspberry flummery.

So, what's with the video? E12 got a new web cam for his birthday and Dan set him up with some new stop motion software to have fun with. He's thinking Star Wars LEGOS. Of course. BUT, I think we can convince him to help direct an American Girl movie. Stay tuned!

In the meantime, enjoy the talent of this young lady (not our young lady!).

Nature Study: UNplanted Garden Style

So, after all of our garden studies last year, we didn't plant a thing this year. We had plans for a Dill's Atlantic Giant Pumpkin (we own champion seeds over 1200 pounds of pumpkin champion there!, a few seeds from a 300 pounder and some regular ol' commercial seeds from our 4-H group pumpkin group) and some other stuff. But Dan is grumpy about gardening and I didn't have the inertia necessary to overcome his anti-garden philosophy. Maybe next year...I am seriously considering blueberry bushes. We'll see how that turns out.

However, as the summer wore on, we noticed that even if we didn't plant things on purpose, plenty of stuff started to grow! I decided it would be a terrific study to see what grew in spite of us. Here are the results.

The gardening spot

My absolute favorite flower of all time...Black-Eyed Susans- The Maryland State Flower!

Remember our marigolds from last year? I didn't realize marigolds are annuals. Yay for us!

Maple seedlings! A whole group of them....undoubtedly from our large trees next door.

While out that morning I took a few shots of the "bush fort" Dan made for the kids in a large brambly bush

Here's a close up of the seat up in the branches. I'm not sure the animals love the spot Dan cut out of this bush, but the kids sure love it!

We went out that morning knowing there was a lot of rain on the way...it sure was windy and take a look at these clouds. I made sure to get some shots so that we could talk about them later.

We played some soccer. The older boys both play on youth teams this year. This is E12's last year as homeschoolers can't play on school teams here. We have at least one other option for next season.

And of course there was some stick "sword fighting"

All in all we had a most enjoyable morning and we did take a lot of notes about what's in that garden. Just as soon as I snap a picture of what the kids did, I will share it. The lap boards worked terrifically. We are all looking forward to more outdoor studies. More information on this very soon!

Calipers and the Vernier Scale

I always love it when Dan decides to show the kids how something works. Recently, he had to use his caliper to measure the tubing on my bicycle seat. So, he took the opportunity to show the kids the measuring device and how to use it. Have you ever seen the Vernier scale on a caliper? It's used to measure increments smaller than 1mm.

You can measure the outside diameter or the inside diameter of a cylinder.

A terrible close up picture of how to count out the increments smaller than a mm.

Just another example of real life math at our house. A caliper is a GREAT way to practice decimals because you can measure tenths of a mm. Very cool.

I should point out that the Vernier scale isn't just used to measure out increments smaller than a mm, but smaller than the smallest increment on your measuring tool which in this case was a caliper with mms on it.

The School Spot

Do you have a spot in your home that always looks messy just because there is too much stuff there? I do...in our school spot. I'd like to be one of those homeschooling moms that just has a shelf or so of books and kids working at the dining room table. The kind of place where you see some tasteful maps on the wall and a globe on the bookshelf too. Kids work at the table or lounge in chairs or in their bedrooms to do work. You see projects and things going on, but in general you know these folks are homeschoolers. Completely without the desire to recreate school- at home.

Then there are those homeschoolers who have nice school rooms all full of awesome classroom "stuff". You know who they are...you have a mental image of those rooms now. Maybe some of you wish you could have that kind of space. Some of you are glad you don't have it! Nice pocket charts, maps, and posters adorn the walls. Student work is proudly displayed. Each student has a desk or at least a space to work in.

And then there's me. An enigma between the worlds. Our school space is in our playroom- the playroom is the space where most people would likely have a family room space. Except that when we moved here we had a toddler with another on the way and we had no furniture to have a family room. We had moving boxes made into a tunnel and we had a crate shelf from IKEA. I put toys on it. We also had an old kitchen table from my husband's childhood home. Then there was a bookshelf and my writing desk. A hodge podge of things that didn't necessarily go together, but were put together out of necessity. Some of those things moved around a bit, but eventually they all came together in the same room.

Then we had more kids and we got more toys. And more books. I got craftier and we had more fun together. People asked if I ran a daycare. And then we started homeschooling. The first semester we had a tiny bookcase upstairs and we sat on the sofa a lot and worked at the kitchen table. I even had a tiny table in the boys' room where my 6yo could do his work! But then my other kids started getting older and changes started to happen. I've tweaked as time has gone on and well here we are!

So, I guess we have a "school room". Not because I really, super want one, but because I have so much STUFF that it all just comes together here out of functionality more than anything else. My kids would be content with the kitchen table or the living room sofa or the floor or a blanket outside or...wherever. Despite the appearance of our room, we have a relaxed homeschool environment. I have a routine we follow, but we leave margin in our school days for things that present themselves at the last minute. No matter how much I want to get a large list of school things done in one day, what happens is plenty of school and not always in typical fashion. We have lots of good conversation, we read a lot, we do challenging math adventures, we love geography and do tons with that on any given day. We always have a fun unit study going- mostly FIAR but also focusing on the kids' interests. If a question arises on how something works, we take the time to find out. I try to have the kids pursue questions to a natural conclusion rather than making them wait or just giving them an answer. It's hard to resist the request to keep reading when we've already gone 3 chapters and they want "just one more!"

I think I need more margin in our space to compliment it though. There is peace in simplicity.

The computers and the reference rack- Remembering we have a Kindergartner, I have the calendar up front and center! Our reference books are there and right on the other side of this picture is our school table. That same kitchen table I mentioned earlier only with shorter legs and some great sturdy chairs. Dan made me three sets of legs so I could have one of those "adjustable" tables for pennies compared to the price of a classroom one. Our chairs are super and great for carpet from Lakeshore Learning- called Tuff Stuff Chairs. We even bought the same one in a teacher chair for R10's art center.


The very full bookshelves. The one on the left holds magazines on top and the books for the kids on the rest of the shelves. They are categorized by subject and I put stickers on them. Did I ever tell you about that? Hmmm...each subject has its own color. I also have boxes for Newberry books, biographies, etc. The shelf on the right is my teacher shelf. It has all my resources by subject area and since it does have ends I stack things on the end. That makes things look pretty messy. On the bottom shelf are all of our FIAR books.

This is where my desk used to be- instead I put together a makeshift counter top on top of college dorm room crates. Really. This is where I have math manipulatives for the kids to grab and put back on their own. It's also where I keep the playdough tools. Because playdough is important and deserves prime real estate. The counter top is left over from R10's art desk.

The resource corner- lots of markers, crayons, glue, rulers, etc. You name it and it is probably there. I have drawers for free drawing and paper airplane making paper, stencils, and cardstock for lapbooks.

The listening corner- a basket full of books on CD and a CD player along with a comfy seat. The bags on hooks are dress up theme bags.

My desk in its new location- this is sort of a dead spot in our room. And wow! It's been a while since I've managed our craft closet. What a crazy mess that is! On the floor in front of the closet? Our science kits from birthdays this summer... The desk has my laptop on it and is my homeschool prep station. It makes a great place for me to sit while the kids work and they can bring things to me.

The Workbox Wall- you know...these just do not match our homeschooling style, but we continue to use them to store our many, many, many notebooks. It also gives me a place to put work that I prepare ahead of time. So, that it doesn't get lost.

You can bet this space provides a jumping ground for our children's imaginations. There is hardly ever a moment when there isn't some creating going on either at the table or on the floor or anywhere in between. Elaborate systems of invention or paper airplane factories or wooden trains that sprawl. Oh my.

Very soon my kids will be older and older kid things will replace a lot of this stuff. Only too soon they will be grown and I'll be able to do whatever I want with this room. Until then...we'll try to simplify without losing the creative space.

So, there it is...note the messy. Just keeping it real for you all!