She Blonde Swede's EP

So this has nothing to do with homeschooling, but one of my best friends from college released his EP today. Track two is my favorite - I remember him writing it and us sitting in my college apartment singing it with my roommate. I even got to play tambourine. :)

Nature Center

Today we met my friend and her kids at the local nature center. Though my boys enjoy going, they usually complain because they are not allowed to do things like climb the trees. This time there was no complaining by anyone. They had a great time "adventuring" with their friends - catching lizards (all the lizards stayed there), finding spiders and their webs in the trees, and trying to spot fish in the big lake and little creeks. I enjoyed hanging out with my friend and talking about things like Latin, art, and field trips. :) 

We did not take any pictures this time, and there were very, very few birds to spot. We did find a snowy egret just before we left. Another highlight was when one of the nature center volunteers brought out some just-hatched water turtles, and let us follow her when she released them. The kids kept a close watch for approaching fish to make sure the turtles at least survived their first dip in the water. Overall, it was a very stress-free 2 1/2 hours spent at the nature center.


When we got home, the boys made a list of everything they saw. There were very many spiders, a couple birds, some lizards, and quite a few water turtles. They also made note of the bugs they saw inside the small nature center building - a tarantula, a millipede, walking sticks, a black widow and a brown widow. Then they drew a picture for their nature section of their notebooks, and wrote a sentence about the trip.

Lazy weekend

We had a pretty nice, long weekend. Surprisingly, on both Saturday and Sunday, my oldest wanted to do a lesson from the Hooked on Phonics Master Reader program. He's still working through the last of the regular levels (he's in the green and blue workbooks), but he wanted to see what the computer lessons were like. He did a very good job and even read the little story card that accompanied the first lesson. I told him that if he wanted, he could do his regular green/blue workbooks and reading books 3 - 4 days a week and then a couple days a week, he could work on a lesson from the Master Reader program. He is amazing me by how much he is reading now (there were times in the beginning of this calendar year where I wondered if he'd ever figure reading out). It still isn't his favorite activity (though I think he likes impressing us and surprising us with how much he can read), but he is making great strides in becoming an independent reader.

Weekly Wrap-Up

Well, we definitely had our up and downs this week. It was our first full week without dad home to help (poor guy had to go off and resume teaching math to high schoolers). I have to say I am happy we are all getting to bed earlier, which means we are all getting up earlier, which means we can actually get through the different things I want to accomplish. The boys are very much enjoying learning about birds. My oldest is loving Our Island Story, and both my 5 year old and 8 year old love to listen to The Burgess Bird Book. 

My 3 year old is having fun doing "school" things. This week, I hand-wrote two pages (one on one day and one on another) with a big A and little a, and a picture/word that starts with a (the first day was ant; the second day he wanted pie, so I wrote apple pie). His coloring is getting better - he's developing his hand-eye coordination (it's very apparent when we play catch outside - he likes grounders and he's starting to move his glove to the on-coming ball). 

I'm also impressed with how much my middle son (5) has matured school-wise. I can tell he's making some big leaps mentally; maybe that is why he's been having more issues behavior-wise - his brain is just too busy right now integrating all he's been learning to bother with impulse control and following directions. ;) 

We had our first real art day today. I got out both the regular pastels and the oil pastels for the boys to use. I can tell that we need more practice with art, and also more exposure to art. I am excited to begin our coop with our friends next week with Meet the Masters. I also am taking one Friday a month to study Medieval art history (using the book Art in Story and any pictures I can find on-line). Eventually I'd like to invest in a good "coffee table" art book for all of us to look through. I have a couple books published by Usborne for kids, but I'd like one of those thick books of prints. 

I'm eagerly awaiting our Song School Latin order. I'm already thinking it might be good for me to order the next level of Latin (I'm leaning towards either Latin for Children A or Lively Latin. I'm not sure yet, and I have not yet broached the subject of spending money on yet more curriculum with my husband (though he tends to tell me to go ahead and buy whatever). For now, though, I'll stick with learning with the boys through Song School Latin and reading Minimus together. 

Next week I'd like to get an actual history activity done (either a map or a "Book of Centuries" type page with copywork and a picture). We also need to finish up our "compost" science experiment and make paper. It's a short week though; dad will be home on Monday, I hope to get to the library and/or nature center on Tuesday, and we have art coop on Friday. We'll see what we get done.  

Sharp-shinned Hawk

Last night the boys were sitting on the porch and I was walking past the open door. We all heard a bird call that was very different from what we are used to (most of what we hear are the crows and occasionally the sparrows or pigeons). We all went out and stood under our tree and saw a bird we'd never seen before. I got a picture of its back and tail (not very good) and I noticed that the tail was gray and black striped. The bird suddenly flew from our tree to one across the street and I swore it looked like a small hawk, but thought there was no way it was one as those usually stay in the park a mile or so away.

I went in and found the local bird guide and sure enough, we had a Sharp-shinned Hawk in our tree. We were all so excited. After it flew away (first it flew to a telephone pole and then flew overhead a little bit before going too far for us to see), we came inside, listened to the call on-line and found some more pictures. The boys thought it was the coolest thing.

What is a Bird?

We are continuing to read a few sections of What is a Bird? each day. Before the boys woke today, I went on-line and found some free coloring pages of birds, copied them into Publisher, and then added text lines underneath. All three picked the bird they liked, and worked on coloring them while I read. After I was done, each boy took turns telling something that makes a bird a bird. Then, after they were done coloring, they wrote the four main attributes of a bird on the lines under their picture. For my oldest and middle sons, it was their copywork for the day - they told me the attributes, I wrote them on a separate piece of paper, then they copied the words onto their papers.

 

This is my three year old's bird picture. We looked up his bird in the Audubon First Field Guide of Birds and he did a very good job getting his colors close to the actual coloring of the bird. (I wrote for him. ;) )

 

My middle son's picture. He was very proud of his coloring of the cardinal and his printing.

 

And my oldest son's picture. (He *loves* cursive writing and makes sure I put all his copywork in cursive for him; he not as fond of "translating" printing into cursive even though he can do it.) 

Tonight we will continue reading about Peter Rabbit's bird friends from the Burgess Bird Book. I think next week we will take a field trip to our local nature center and see what we can find there.

Playing with numbers and counting

My 5 year old was in his room getting some small cars to take in the bathtub. I could hear him counting by 2's: 2, 4, 6. Then, he counted them by 1's: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Suddenly he exclaimed, "Mom, it's the same number if you count by twos or count by ones." I didn't hear him totally clearly and wasn't sure if I understood exactly what he meant. He came out to me and said, "See Mom?" He proceeded to line up the cars and count them by two's, arriving at the total of six. Then he lined them back up again and counted by one's, again arriving at six. "Isn't that cool Mom? It's six if you count by two's or by one's." I love it when they make connections like that on their own.