Three Plus Two

Week in Review: May 2- May 9, or All About Birds

Bird Week!

The chickadee nest in our bluebird box, with eggs (photo by Katydid)

I had nothing to do with the "theme" of this week.  It was a force of nature.  Farmerboy, Pip, and Pop all suddenly decided that birds were fascinating and wanted to tag along on all Katydid's nature walks, keep their own nature journals, listen to bird call CDs, and color bird notebook pages.

Pip's cardinal page

So of course I was happy to oblige.

A chipping sparrow that the kids saw on one of their walks (photo by Katydid)

The kids also took a "night" nature walk (really, dusk) along the edge of the treeline in the field to listen for night birds.  Pip and Pop started out with Katydid and Farmerboy, but soon decided that it was "too scary" and came home for ice cream.  Katydid and Farmerboy came in later and reported that the only night bird they'd heard was a screech owl, but that was apparently exciting enough.

Other birds Katydid listed as "heard but not seen" this week: ovenbird and American woodcock (very exciting).

One morning a bird hit the dining room window while I was eating breakfast.  This in itself is not an odd occurrence -- even though I put things up in the window to make it look less like a fly-through.  But when I got up to see if the bird was all right, I saw a bird I'd never seen before.

A common yellowthroat.  And for a size comparison:

Yes, that's a Duplo brick someone left outside on the patio.  Tiny, tiny little bird.  The little boys all drew it for their nature journals, then colored a coloring page of the bird. 

The same day we read the section about Baltimore Orioles from The Handbook of Nature Study because...

... the crabapples and wild apple trees are blooming.  (Photo by Katydid)  The orioles always come back when the apple trees bloom.  Katydid informs me that she has heard an oriole, but we haven't seen one yet.

My personal favorite part about the crabapple in bloom (apart from the fragrance, which is phenomenal) is standing beneath it and listening to the steady hum of honeybees working the blossoms overhead.

Wild apple blossoms in the woods (Photo by Katydid)

We did a little math this week, and we read more of Our Island Story, and Gareth continued to read 1066: The Year of the Conquest instead of being interested in birds, and Katydid worked on about three different books that she's writing, and I sorted through all my writing and was pleasantly surprised to find that even though I have produced very little over the past five years, some of it is Not Too Bad, and by the weekend, all the kids had developed another cold with a wicked cough, and Sunday morning we woke up to find a dusting of snow on the ground when we had spent all our time before thinking about birds and eggs and flowers. 

But mostly this week was about spring time.  And our spring time girl...

... turned 11!  Happy Birthday, Katydid!

Bits and Pieces

What we're up to:

Watching the Olympics -- trying to deduce the rules of curling without looking anything up.  Wondering why it looks like they're using shower scrub brushes, and why brushing the ice in front of the stone makes it go where you want it to.  Realizing that we have lived in upstate New York for 5 years now (almost) and have never been skiing or snowboarding. Wondering when hockey is on??? Working on a 2010 Winter Olympics unit study  (Katydid) and remembering how very, very tall the ski jumps in Lake Placid are.

 

And also swimming and Marian Aides with the Little Sisters of the Poor (Katydid) and Farmerboy listening to The Goblet of Fire on CD over and over again (minus the last three discs, which are being held hostage by Gareth because he says they are too scary) and watching the snow blow out of our yard and into the road and wondering if the sun is ever going to come out again and knowing it will take a few months and building rock forts inside since the rocks outside won't be available until April and anyway, all the little boys have a cold and must stay inside out of the snow and wind.  And building Sculpey creations to go in the rock forts, too.

 

 

And reading Susan Wise Bauer's History of the Medieval World and Sons of Charlemagne and, if you're Gareth, a bunch of old Anglo-Saxon poems, just for fun.  And also if you're Gareth, you are beginning to think about Scout Camp and wonder if you might be able to work on the Sailing merit badge, because like the rest of us, you can't help dreaming of spring.

And me? I'm learning to soak grains and make old-fashioned oatmeal (soaked in buttermilk overnight) and getting in over my head because now the boys want "porridge" every morning, probably so they can pretend to be pioneers, and I do not have enough good glass or ceramic bowls to soak all the flour I need to keep everyone supplied with muffins and bread, and my counter space is really shrinking, but you know what?  Oatmeal tastes better this way.

Week 16... I think...

I'm not going to try to catch up on weeks 14 and 15, as mostly we cleaned house, had Thanksgiving, visited with Grandma and Grandpa, and I chewed gum assiduously in an attempt to keep early pregnancy nausea at bay... and alas, I have no pictures from this week because I was too busy participating in whatever activities the boys undertook (cookies, glitter) to wield a camera at the same time... but here are a few notes from this week... whatever number it is.

(Actually, I did take a few pictures this week.  But that was it.)

Read Alouds This Week:

Life of Our Lord for Children

Favorite Celtic Fairy Tales (Dover Children's Thrift Classics)

 Our Island Story

We actually had a couple of other picture books which it wouldn't let me add to the carousel.  The boys enjoyed them, though, so I thought I would mention them, too:

The Christmas Cobwebs, by Odds Bodkin

Gawain and Green Knight

Farmerboy's comment about Gawain... "It's a really strange book, isn't it, Mommy?"

The big kids seem to be slogging through some of their reading right now... Gareth informs me that The Two Towers has hit a "boring" point, and Katydid is determined to finish Little Women, even though, "The ending isn't as interesting as the beginning.  They're all older."

I had to confess to her that I had never finished Little Women either. 

And on the other hand, over the past couple weeks (and honestly, before I really wanted her to), Katydid has been perusing the stack of Advent/Christmas-related books I got for her, including The Anne of Green Gables Christmas Treasury and A Fairy-Tale Christmas: Creating Magical Celebrations Inspired by an Enchanted Castle.  Her favorite is A Fairy-Tale Christmas, I think.  She has loved fairy tales since she was very small.

Other than that...

We made cookies.  Once.  Snowball cookies.

The boys made cardboard spaceships from pizza boxes.  J. covered his in glitter.  Farmerboy got immensely frustrated trying to contrive a way to put landing gear on the bottom of his ship so that they would stay and hold the ship up.  N. cut himself with a pair of safety scissors while I was in the shower and bled much more than I thought possible from a cut given by "safety" scissors. (He's ok.)

Chipmunk lovingly covered many, many sheets of construction paper in lots and lots of glitter.  I am thinking of cutting out ornaments from his glittered paper.  It can't actually matter that any more glitter comes off considering the amount of glitter already swept into the corners of the room. 

Chipmunk really would do well at a Montessori school.  He is in a "washing hands" period right now.  The problem: I can't really stay in the bathroom with him as often as he wants to go in there and wash his hands.  Sometimes this can be disastrous, as today when he got bored with washing his hands and decided to wash a sink full of stuffed animals, dirty socks, Legos, and a walkie-talkie.  Later, he got bored washing his hands and stuffed a foam sword and a bunch of Legos in the toilet.  And no, I do not really let him in there without supervision.  His siblings just need to learn how to close the door.

More on the Chipmunk/Montessori theme... he also likes to watch me cook.  I must supply him with measuring cups and spoons of his own and something to pour and scoop.  Not thinking one night, I supplied him with sugar.  Sugar should not really be used in Montessori pouring and scooping activities.  I mean, if you thought you might try it sometime.

One thing we have not done lately is go outside.  I just haven't had the energy to get everybody bundled up and deal with the mud.  I did stuff everyone in snow clothes to go outside on Tuesday so they could play in what snow there was before it melted, and good grief, it took at least 45 minutes, if not more.  It's no wonder I'm ready to move to Florida by the end of January.

The big kids continue to be dedicated users of the One Year Adventure Novel curriculum, putting in at least an hour a day, and sometimes two or more.  I would like to do a review, but I can't say when that will happen.  I will say that I think, in spite of the price, that it's been worth it.  I don't know that I'd consider it for a child who is a self-starting writer, who will sit and write for hours on his or her own... but for a child who wants to write a book and can't figure out how to start or where to go from the beginning... it's excellent. 

Week 12: Life with little ones

November 1-8

Katydid and Gareth were sick for at least part of week 12.  When Katydid first came down with whatever it was, it sure seemed like it was flu because it had all the classic "flu" symptoms: chills, sudden onset, fever, sore throat, upset stomach, body aches.  But it didn't spread to any of the little boys, really (although Farmerboy took a nap every afternoon that week.).  So I have no idea what it was.  The big kids all had their seasonal flu shots and the little boys didn't, so it seems odd that the kids who got flu shots would come down with a flu and and the kids who got no shots would avoid it.  H1N1 was aboslutely rampant in our area that week, bad enough that several schools were closed, but... who knows.  It was a mystery virus.

Anyway, because the big kids were sick, the week was mainly focused on little kids.  We did manage to finally finish The Hobbit, and to start reading Our Island Story and The Story of Europe, both by H.E. Marshall.  It felt good to get back to some history again. We're continuing to read A Life of Our Lord for Children by Marigold Hunt.  This is the third book we've read by this author (The First Christians: The Acts of the Apostles for Children and St. Patrick's Summer: A Children's Adventure Catechism are the others) and the kids have enjoyed them all.  More than that, they retain a lot from those books, some pretty deep concepts.

I'm afraid that we haven't done much that's special to mark any feast days lately, though... We make a point of praying for the Poor Souls every day, which I hope is enough.

Monday

The twins did a lot of "matching cards".  I actually had to invent some on the spur of the moment, because they would go through a set and demand more.  This is a Bug Bingo game.  Technically, it's supposed to be played like bingo, but for our purposes, I gave them the boards and let them match the cards to the pictures on the boards.  

 
  Chipmunk liked searching for O's in the Alphabet Zoop cards.  (He'd also already drawn on himself that morning, as you can see by the green on his cheek.) 

In the afternoon we headed outside to play on the logs:

Which are useful as forts, ships, and also sometimes nature study...

Tuesday:

Tuesday morning was devoted to all things dinosaur.  I got down a puzzle and the boys argued cooperated to put it together.   I also printed out some matching cards and coloring sheets from this Homeschool Share dinosaur unit.

In the afternoon, the boys shifted gears and concentrated on coloring King Arthur paper dolls from Paper Dali. (HT: Jessica, who shared the Paper Dali link in her Google Shared Items.)

Farmerboy has been on a King Arthur kick lately, thanks to Jim Weiss, and was excited when we encountered Merlin, Uther Pendragon, and Arthur in Our Island Story (in Week 13).

Katydid colored many saint paper dolls, but she immediately whisked them off to her room so I don't have any pictures.

Tuesday also happened to be Daddy's birthday, which he celebrated by making a business day trip and getting home late to eat cheesecake.

Wednesday:

Daddy celebrated the day after his birthday by making a trip to Boston.  The boys demanded American Revolution paper dolls.   They also complained that they couldn't build really good castles because there weren't enough wall blocks for all 4 of them to use at the same time.  I took a deep breath and offered to go down to the basement and bring up all the blocks I had taken away a few months ago because they were not being picked up in a -- shall we say -- timely and cheerful fashion.  We spent the morning sorting and building with the "new" blocks:

That's what it looked like on Wednesday of last week.  By Friday night, all the "new" blocks had been put up in a closet out of reach again, because that was the deal: If I bring these blocks out, you have to pick them up when you're told to, or I will have to put them away again.  Oh, yes, Mommy, we'll pick them up, can we pleeeeese play with the blocks?  Unfortunately, there was a breach of contract, proving yet again that home is not like school.  Many of the Reggio books you read have fantastic block creations and/or block areas, or at the very least inform you that you are to include lots of different kinds of blocks and other materials for children to build and dramatize with.  Personally, I agree.  It is hard to build big castles if someone has used all the wall blocks.  But at home with a large family, reality must be negotiated.  I don't have time to pick up millions of blocks every day, and I shouldn't have to.  (The two year old is actually far better at picking up than his brothers.)  So at some point the environment must be used to teach responsibility, respect, and obedience instead of science, math, or anything else.  In my experience anyway.

I do hope I can try again with the blocks, though, because I really like some of them, and so do the boys.

Thursday

Thursday we went outside.  We had been stuck inside for two days, which is not good for active young boys.  (Can you hear my fear of winter?) Anyway, it was a bit chilly -- temperatures down around 40 -- so we put on our bigger coats and headed outside while the nearly-recovered big kids stayed inside where it was warm and read books.

Did you notice N's new glasses in the block picture?  It turns out his eyesight is really bad, and that's the reason he has always seemed so clumsy (which is why we took him to our developmental optometrist at just barely 4 years old.)  Now, his brother, J., has never seemed to trip as much or run into things as much, so I didn't schedule a screening for him.  When N. got his glasses, J. was most upset.  He therefore decided that he would wear his sunglasses just like N. wore his real glasses.  So he put them on in the morning and took them off at night.  I tried to comfort him by telling him that he does have an eye appointment scheduled in January, but of course that might as well be twenty years from now if you're 4. 

(And, yes, we do still think they're identical.  How identical is identical often depends on conditions for each in the womb, and N had to deal with an improperly implanted cord while J did not.)

Anyway, while we were out, we decided to take a short nature walk in the field, which was cut short by J being accidentally hit in the eye by Farmerboy.  On our way back we stopped near the house to investigate the milkweed seeds by the deck.  (J was feeling better by then.)

The boys called the seeds "parachute guys" and brought some inside to play with.

Friday

Friday is extra chore day, so mostly we clean.  But in the morning, the boys set up some domino rallies...

That's N, who should have his glasses on.  Confusing, I know.  And actually, Friday morning went kind of like this:

8:30 AM -- the little boys have already watched Curious George, a Dinosaur Train episode about poop, been banned from playing monkeys (an old rule) and orangutans (a new rule), searched through a stack of old copies of Ranger Rick and Your Big Backyard to find animals they are allowed to play ("We could play worms, Mommy!"), requested a stack of books about "jungles", moved on to dinosaur books, asked if I could go downstairs to find the dominoes and what about "that number matching game?" (Triominos), set up domino rallies, argued about who has more dominoes, and received instruction in both counting and social skills.  Can I take my shower now, please?

I was going to do a 7 Quick Takes post, but never got the chance.

So that was our week, with the exception of the picture books, of course...

 
 

 
 
 

Week 11: Halloween Week

Just the highlights... I imagine everyone in the US is either tired of pumpkins by now or has at least moved on to turkeys.  Our turkeys are spending their last days out in the field eating pumpkin seeds, which gives one a completely different perspective on the usual turkey crafts that crop up during the month of November.  But, back to Halloween.  This is what we did during Halloween week:

• Gareth started his Teach Yourself Old English course.  He spent quite a bit of time with it, actually.  The new grammar book he's using, Our Mother Tongue: An Introductory Guide to English Grammar by Nancy Wilson, also contains some neat little sidebars about the history of English.  One of those sidebars happens to be The Our Father in Old English.  I have to admit that I like languages, and when I was in college I took a "History of English" class from an excellent professor and studied a bit (a wee bit) of Old English. So I attempted to read the prayer out loud to Gareth in Old English.  He, apparently, thought this was quite interesting, and so here we are.  The grammar book itself is also going well, too.  In addition to being much more interesting than your typical drill-and-kill grammar workbook, it also seems to be less... hmmm... condescending.  This quality is hard to explain, but what I like about the book is that it seems to treat the subject manner in a much more adult way than most 7th grade grammar textbooks while also being easily understood by 7th/8th/9th graders.  I think this, along with the historical selections and the use of real literature as examples, appeals to Gareth.  The book is recommended in Ambleside Online's Year 7.
• Katydid started First Start French.  This program is set up in a very similar way to Memoria Press' Latina Christiana program, which we also use.  She has been very excited to start French, but was a little daunted at the pronunciation when we first began.  She wants to be able to talk to my mom in French over the phone.

( I'm going to start calling the twins by their initials instead of "Pip and Pop".  I considered more pseudonyms like "Tom and Huck" or "George (Curious) and Dennis (the Menace)", but finally I thought that they will grow up one day.  So Pop -- pictured here -- will now be known as "J." and Pip will be "N." Not as colorful maybe, but easier for Mama.)

J. produced a whole menagerie of "good animals" using 2 lbs. of Model Magic. 

Chipmunk found Duplos to be good for squishing Model Magic.  Here he's also shining a flashlight onto the blocks.  Flashlights were also a fascination this week, probably as much for the way they could be put together and taken apart as for their light. 

Model Magic after it has been impressed by Duplos.

Chipmunk also informed me that he needed better activities on his shelves:

Yes, those are plastic counters (fish mostly).  And, yes, he did stick them all, one by one, through the bars of the fan.  I could hear the sound of the counters in the container and on the floor, and silly me, I thought he was pouring them.  But instead he invented his own Montessori activity.

We also did some painting, because J. wanted to paint his "good animals".  Farmerboy had some problems with the dinosaur painting he wanted to make, so I took a piece of paper and sketched out a painting in the style that Farmerboy had wanted, demonstrating how to sketch with a small brush, how to make drips of paint into something else (birds, in this case), how to hide lines I didn't want... My picture is at the top.  After watching me paint my picture -- just meant to help him learn to calm down, really, and deal with "mistakes" -- he decided to copy it.  We used acrylics.  Chipmunk mixed the blue paint for us. ;-)

We did do some pumpkin related "stuff" as well.

One morning while I read -- well, actually Gareth ended up reading more than I did, which has become a common occurrence lately -- I set out some construction paper shapes so the boys could make pumpkins.  I had tried to suggest earlier in the week that we paint pumpkins, but that suggestion went over like a lead balloon.  Nobody wants to paint the same thing.  So we just did collage pumpkins.

 
After they were done, I mounted them on construction paper and put them on the wall of their bedroom, by request.  J. (Pop) did the yellow pumpkin face and the pumpkin on the very bottom right corner. N's (Pip's) are the pumpkin that looks like it is set on a pedastal and the one mounted on green paper.  As you can see some of the pumpkins have arms and eyebrows, yarn hair, and -- because we are talking about boys -- "bottoms".  However, you cannot see the "bottoms" (insert wild giggling) because they are appropriately located on the backside of the pumpkins.

Farmerboy (I'll probably be changing his name, too, as soon as I decide on something) whisked his pumpkins away and taped them to the wall by the bed before I could mount them.  (The pumpkin on the left has a mustache and a beard.)

Katydid did her own version of pumpkin collages, but made the collaged illustrations into a Halloween book for the boys.

(She used oil pastel for the drawings.)

And we carved some pumpkins, too...

(It's not a knife.  It's a spatula.)

 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

 

  

Learning Plans for this week

Forgive me a "gathering my wits" post, but I need to gather my wits. ;-)  We've had a week long break and are supposed to be starting our second quarter this week, but with Halloween and All Saints Day this weekend, and a number of doctor's appointments this week, it's going to be a bit of a wash... I mean, if Monday was any indication, which began with the toaster oven catching on fire and proceeded into eye exams, spending a really obscene amount of money on glasses, and lots and lots of driving.  (But we did manage to listen to three hours worth of The Bronze Bow.)

Anyway, I'm just trying to collect some ideas in one place of what we might do if we're not in the van...

Faith:

• The Weight of a Mass: A Tale of Faith

A Child's Missal from Patmos Publishing (Apparently this is OOP and now available only for a really shocking price, so I'm not going to link it.)

A Life of Our Lord for Children by Marigold Hunt

Focusing on the Mass this week...

Academics:

• Reinstate daily math and Latin for all the big kids
• Check G's grammar to date
• Present either the 1000 chain or addition activities (or both) to Farmerboy
• Sit down with K and get started on her new First Start French
• Bring Muzzy French up from the basement (I bought this used for a good price many, many years ago when Gareth was going through his "Monet" period.)
• Get G started on his Teach Yourself Old English Package (Book + 2CDs)  (Lest you think I require really odd academics, let me assure you that Gareth requested this!)

Halloween activities for Halloween week:

• Multi-media pumpkins: practice painting and add collage jack o'lantern features, or encourage use of pens, oil pastels, etc. to add details
• For K: pointilist pumpkin painting, using q-tips (from Children And Painting ) 
• salt dough fall cut-outs
• simple construction paper jack o' lanterns
• tissue paper lanterns
• "spooky tree" drawings or paintings
• bake pumpkins and make pie or bread
• Day of the Dead/ Mexican folk art drawings or paintings
• P/Pumpkin printouts
• carve pumpkins/little ones draw on baby pumpkins
• Books from the Halloween basket
• G: work on Halloween costume
• Work on All Saints costumes

(Some of these we will definitely do, like pumpkin carving and working on costumes, and the rest is just a list for me to pick from.  This is sort of how I plan, although I often am just carrying the list around in my head.  In the morning I assess the kids' level of interest, hyperactivity level, the weather, how messy the house is, time available, and my energy level.  Then I choose one activity to focus on or present to the little boys.  The big kids are pretty independent.)

Stuff I need to remember to do:

• Ask Andy to buy a new USB cable for the printer to see if we can get it working again
• Gather collage materials for pumpkins
• Check G's grammar
• Set up new learning charts for G and K
• Work on quarterly reports

 

Collage with Chipmunk

Chipmunk is two now, and eager to join in with his big brothers -- whether it's playing knights, Jedi, or making art. Over the past few weeks, the boys have done some collage here and there -- usually to decorate a box they want to use as a ship (space or pirate).  Chipmunk's approach to collage is a little different than the other boys', though.

When the other kids do art, we often talk about "filling up the page."  That isn't a problem for Chipmunk.

Chipmunk's method is generally to dig out big handfuls of collage materials and dump them on the paper.  This often gives good results, with a little adult spreading-out:

(I had an idea to try to draw the twins with their egg-interest into an activity using an egg-frame drawn on paper.  I set out a whole bunch of materials, drawing pens, and oil pastels.  The twins didn't want anything to do with it.  But Chipmunk climbed up on the bench and got right to work.)

While we worked here -- Chipmunk scattering sequin shapes and me wielding a bottle of Elmer's glue -- I tried to emphasize that he needed to put the shapes on the glue or they wouldn't stick.  I'm not sure how well that lesson "stuck", but we're working on it.  What I will often do  is to pour some glue (Mod-Podge is the glue I like best) into a bowl and give him a brush.  He gets glue all over himself, but it washes off.  And that way his "stuff" is almost guaranteed to stick.  He can't use a bottle of glue yet, but he does like to have one if the other boys' are using bottles, too.  If that's the case, I often squeeze out big loops of glue for him, and he just focuses on putting the materials onto it.

In the case of his "shiny egg", I have been thinking that maybe I could set out another one for him to make.  Then I could cut them out and glue them together, back to back.  Then I thought I might punch a hole in the top and hang it from the ceiling in the dining/learning room, where it could catch the light.  We'll see if it pans out :-).

Here's another of his collages that I particularly like, and that I enjoyed watching him make:

 You can see that I put down a little extra glue -- a bit ahead of where he was, I guess.  Pop was using the beads for something else at the time -- gluing them on a box, I think, as "buttons".  I started out by giving Chipmunk the long beads since he was insistent on having some.  (He does still sometimes put things in his mouth, so while he's doing this work, I have to sit or stand beside him all the time.  If he starts to put something in his mouth, I know he's done because he's not concentrating on his work anymore... he's beginning to just goof off.  He knows he's not supposed to put the art materials in his mouth.) He began carefully putting the long beads together in a train.  If there wasn't any glue beneath them, I moved them over just slightly -- trying not to disturb his concentration -- and squeezed out a bit of glue underneath it.  He had to work very hard to put the beads down just so.  It was good work for him, and he had that happy, fulfilled manner that Montessori talks about when he was done. 
  

Week 7: Busy Week

9/28 -10/4

Of course, the busy weekend could be coloring my perceptions of the whole week.  Swim lessons began (for Gareth, Katydid, and Farmerboy), violin lessons continued (for Katydid), there was a trip to the library, and the rain held off long enough for our Little Flowers and Blue Knights groups to meet at the Shrine of the North American Martyrs in Auriesville.

 
The shrine is built on the site of the martyrdom of St. Isaac Jogues and his companions.  Bl. Kateri Tekakwitha was later born here, and baptized just a few miles away.  We had a picnic lunch with one of the priests and the kids played soccer in the field by the gift shop.  

Another important event this week...

The twins turned 4! Four years ago I could not imagine surviving to this point.  And yet -- here we are. :-) 

So those were the special occasions.  The boys had to unwrap presents early on Saturday morning as fast as they could, because Andy had to take Farmerboy to his swim lesson by 8 AM.  I don't think it bothered them much, though. ;-)

Other highlights of week 7...

The boys rediscovered stamping.  Here, Farmerboy is experimenting with thumprints.

 
Inspired by a project in The Usborne Complete Book of Art Ideas, Gareth cut up an eraser to make his own stamps.  He found that stamp ink worked better than the black tempera paint he started out with.

Gareth and Farmerboy also messed around with acrylics a bit...

Gareth's gas giants inside a nebula.  As he was painting, he realized he had very little black paint.  I provided him with a very cool book I bought off a bargain table several years ago, a collection of Hubble photos called The Universe.  Since some regions of space are full of colored dust, Gareth decided that might work for his background.  He tried to fill in some black in the gaps.  This was basically a painting to experiment with the qualities of acrylic.  Since I know very little about painting myself, I will need to do some research and experimentation to figure out how to extend his explorations.  I find that this is the area in which I often fall down.  I do a fair job at introducing the kids to novel materials and projects, but not such a good job at deepening skills.

Farmerboy was inspired by Gareth's painting, so he decided to paint his own planet:

The red circle is the planet, surrounded by purple atmosphere, streaming off into space.

Katydid and I fooled around with oil pastels this week.  I sat down one day when the boys were stamping to experiment with blending oil pastels.

I was just laying down patches of color to figure out how oil pastels work (on black paper).

Katydid drew a landscape instead:

On another day, she copied down this poem she wrote and illustrated it with oil pastels:

She and I also did some sketches for the monthly sketch project, but I'll put those in a separate post.

A Brief Summary of 1st grade academics:

I often forget to mention Farmerboy's academics, which are a little different (obviously) from the big kids'.  This is what we're using:

Modern Curriculum Press Phonics A , spending a longer time working on consonant sounds, as he has some trouble remembering them

Handwriting Without Tears , the 1st grade book

A mish-mash of reading materials, including silly sentences I write for him, word cards I cut out from cardstock he can use to make his own silly sentences (silly is a big draw here), and Sonlight's I Can Read It! series (Book 1).  I find the Sonlight stories a little weird in some places, but it's nice having them all together in a few books.

Mainly Montessori math materials... the 100 chain is what he has been interested in most since we began our school year in August.  He's learned to lay out the tens cards and count the beads one-to-one to 100.  He also counts on the 100 board, counts piano keys, counts lots of stuff spontaneously.  When we first began, he would often skip numbers, had trouble remembering the -9 to -ty (29, 30, etc) transition, but he's got them down now.  Last year I tried to use Singapore's kindergarten workbook with him, which was a disaster.  He learned to write his numbers, but that was about it.  (In my defense, I had to be able to do something with him while also rocking a baby for 2 hours every afternoon.)  This year, since we've switched back to Montessori, is going much, much better.  I've done presentations of the decimal system using base 10 blocks, and he is keen to be able to go on to the 1000 chain now that he can do the 100 chain.

 

A few words about the assortment of books here... on Sept. 29, the Feast of St. Michael and the Archangels, the kids reminisced about the year we made shields.  So Farmerboy got off on a bit of a knight tangent.  He made himself a cardboard and aluminum foil suit of armor, and shields for himself and his little brothers.  The boys then added their own coats of arms.  Why don't I have pictures?  I have no idea.

And then... the duck and chick books.  On and off for months, the twins have made it evident that they are fascinated with eggs.  They pretend to be flood monsters hatching out of their eggs (they lie on their backs and put pillows on their bellies for "eggs").  They pretend to be gigantic plum-plums hatching of their eggs. (Pip's invention.)  They pretend that they are chicks and I am the Mommy and they hatch out of their eggs and then go on the road. ("Chicks on the road!" they call just like we do when the chickens wander into the street.)  Their dearest wish is that we would get a rooster so instead of eating our eggs, we would let some hatch.  And then they became enamored of Daisy.  So I have been canvasing the library shelves for chick/duck/egg picture books.  I think I have found all of them by now, and will probably need to hunt through the rest of the library system.

(Ack!  How could I forget?  We also read Five Little Ducks about a million times this week!)

Read this week

Gareth: Peter and the Starcatchers, Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson; Fellowship of the Ring; St. Dominic and the Rosary (Vision Books); various Dig!, Muse, and Faces issues re: prehistory

Katydid: Little Women; Dealing with Dragons, Patricia Wrede; Louisa May Alcott issues of Cobblestone; Queen Victoria issues of Calliope; Dig! Neandertals

Read-alouds this week: The Hobbit (everyone); Farmerboy (little boys); Once Upon a Time Saints: Around the Year (appropriate pages)

Listened to this week:  Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, CDs 3&4 (mostly)

Watched this week: The Planets: Formation of the Solar System; Ken Burn's National Parks: Episode 3 (I have no idea why #2 was skipped)

 

   

 

Week 1

Before I forget what we did in week 1 ... here's a run-down, heavy on the little guys.

Also...

• Ice Cube Necklaces

Water and Weather:

Pop went through a phase where he would come in from playing outside every night and ask to check the weather for tomorrow.  The boys also watched a show about the effects of hurricanes: what hurricane force winds would do to a mobile home, how water could push a car off the road and wash it away, etc.  Ever since we watched the NOVA Flood! back in the spring, the twins have been fascinated by floods.  They build floods (using pillows and blankets) and pretend they are "flood monsters" who hatch out of "eggs" (they cover themselves with their pillows.)  So I decided to start out with a relaxed focus on water and weather.

 I made a weather chart for our first week.  Farmerboy enjoyed filling it in, but we forgot about it a few times.  I'll have to make another chart and get going again.

Week 1 was hot, so the boys played in the hose quite a bit.  Playing in the hose involved flooding certain areas of yard and driveway, and doing experiments with matchbox cars and other objects, to see how much water force was needed to push which toys.  I think Farmerboy did a few float-and-sink experiments on his own as well.

And we read a few books:

• Weather Words and What They Mean
• The Storm Book
• The Magic School Bus Inside A Hurricane

Pip and Pop drew pictures of thunderstorms, but for some reason I don't seem to have any photos.  Hmmm.  Could have sworn I took some pictures of their pictures...

Art:

Quite a bit of "random" and not so random art in the house during week 1.  Over the weekend prior to our first day of school, I chanced upon a Jo-Anne's while we were out looking for clothes for Andy.  I rarely get out to actual craft stores, so I jumped at the chance.  Then I remembered why I don't usually go to craft stores; they make small children nuts.  Anyway, I stocked up on a few supplies: clay, stickers, fabric for Katydid, wooden stuff to paint...

Pip loves to paint and will do it for long periods of time.

He's using a foam paint I bought a long, long time ago from Discount School Supply.  I got it out for Chipmunk to smush around with his hands.  The paint itself is like shaving cream. I'm not sure Discount School Supply carries it anymore.

Katydid used tempera paints to paint a crucifix.

It was kind of funny; as soon as I took all of the containers of dead tent caterpillar moths and dirt that once housed earthworms out of our science/nature area and cleaned it up, Pip immediately brought in an orange bucket full of dirt and we needed a place to dry treasure chests and crosses.  Oh well.  It exists to be used, right?

In the category of "themed" art, Katydid drew a Victorian girl to accompany her Sunflower Basket...

And Gareth, inspired by the book Swords: An Artist's Devotion, began a series of pencil sketches of swords, which he continues to work on.  (He's experimenting with shading these days.)

We also got out the new clay.

 

And had baths.

The theme of the day seemed to be "farm animals".  Pip and I made that cow in the center.   Pip gets very frustrated when he can't make his hands and materials cooperate with the vision in his head.  It's my job to provide him with direct instruction on how to use the materials, show him how to use the materials, and to be very, very patient.  He really wanted to make a cow, but he couldn't get the "foot" to stick onto the leg he'd made.  So I showed him how to rough up the clay and use slip to stick the parts together.  Then he was still upset so I had him guide me through the process of making the cow.  After we were done, he happily made a snake on his own, using the techniques I'd shown him to attach a head to a body.

(These are my new shelves, by the way.  I originally wanted them for paint, but they seem to have begun holding in-progress work by default.)

ABCs and 123s?

Well, a bit.  I was going to try to start doing some of Farmerboy's academic work with him in the morning so that the twins could sit in, too.  The problem: keeping the twins involved in the same activity for more than five minutes, and keeping Chipmunk from eating the tips off all the markers.  So Farmerboy is once again doing phonics and math in the afternoon. 

Here are a few of the Montessori-ish activities (homemade) the 3 and 6 year olds did this week:

I made up some pattern/matching cards using stickers. (I originally say this activity a long time ago on one of Katherine's blogs.) The boys did all the fish and butterfly cards --although the twins seem to have trouble with the idea of "matching" when their natural inclination is to make all sorts of interesting sticker pictures instead.  I have to admit that I'd probably rather make sticker pictures, too, but Farmerboy liked making the patterns and whizzed through the harder ones that I'd made for him.

Pop also did a bunch of scissors exercises, and Pip worked hard on coloring ladybugs and bees in the Handwriting Without Tears preschool workbook which I dug out of the basement for him.  They both want to do "math" like the big kids, complete with books, so I will have to see what I can do.

Not quite your average day

The other day I picked up an old favorite that I used to read every year, Homeschooling: A Patchwork of Days: Share a Day With 30 Homeschooling Families.  Reading it reminded me of what homeschooling used to be like before blogs.  It also reminded me that I haven't done a "day in the life" post in a while.  As it happens, on the day I decided to do a day in the life post, it also turns out that it was "Day in the Life Week" at the Not Back to School Blog Hop over at My 3 Boybarians.  But, as usual, it took me a week to actually write this post (because I don't know how to do anything that isn't long and complicated) so I missed the deadline.  However, if any of you, dear readers, would like to share a "Back to School" day at your house, I would love to read it.  Just leave me a comment with the link!

A few notes before I start. 

1) This day was "not quite average" because Andy was home for the morning, and then left around lunchtime to go on a business trip for most of the week.  This happens often enough, though, that it's just not "quite" average.  This is just our second week of school, so we did do school today. 

2) I don't usually work this hard first thing in the morning.  Usually I'm on the computer for a little while.

Monday, August 24

7:15 AM  I wake up, later than I wanted to.  Chipmunk went to bed at 11 last night and I woke up in the middle of the night feeling like I might have a touch of whatever Pip and Farmerboy had this weekend.  Thankfully, I feel decent this morning.  The little boys are getting up, and Andy takes care of them while I take a shower.

8:00 AM: The boys are eating breakfast when I come out.  Gareth is up, too.  I head down to Katydid's room to begin the process of getting her up. (Which sometimes takes a while.)  The little boys finish their breakfast and talk Andy into letting them watch Chased By Dinosaurs: "Most Dangerous Seas of All Time". Andy made me some eggs, and while I eat I switch around some binders so I can organize the originals of some new recordkeeping forms I handwrote over the weekend.  (The USB ports on our desktop are fried, and the software from our printer is incompatible with the Vista on my laptop.  So I have a copier, but no printer right now.)

 

My "desk": tea cup, garden/nature journal, planner, record-keeping book, new Circa notebook for forms, etc.

8:30 AM: Katydid finally comes out. Now everyone is watching Chased By Dinosaurs.  Andy wants to take some food from the garden we (along with our Little Flowers/ Blue Knights group) are growing for the Little Sisters of the Poor.  We have a couple bushels of potatoes to give this time, several pounds of zucchini and patty pan squash, and there's more zucchini out in the garden to pick.  I head out while everyone is occupied and come back with several more pounds of zuchinni.

9:00 AM: Time for prayers.  After prayers, Gareth and Katydid go to brush their teeth and start on their chores, which include feeding and watering all the poultry (turkeys, layers, meat chickens, and bantams).  All together, we have a total of 59 chickens right now, and 6 turkeys.  It takes a little while to get it all done.  The kids dawdle a while, so they're a bit late getting out.  When they come back in, they do their inside chores: collecting and sorting laundry, and wiping out the bathroom sinks for Katydid, and cleaning up the breakfast kitchen for Gareth.  Andy takes the time to take the trash out to the curb so I won't have to do it tomorrow.  Farmerboy is supposed to be picking up the family room, but right now he is involved in a complicated game of "Divers into Dangerous Seas."  Props for this game include all my pots and pans, and cameras, which the boys construct from various toys and tape:

(I help with the tape a little bit.)

9:30 AM: Pop used buttons (like the kind you sew) for his camera, and Chipmunk (who is sitting on the table) is enthralled.  He wants me to identify the colors of all the buttons.  The other three little boys are still involved in their diving game, so I sit down with Chipmunk and help him sort the buttons according to color.  On one of Pop's trips through the dining room, he notices what we are doing and wants to sort, too.  I don't have enough buttons for that, but I set him up with some dyed feathers. Chipmunk soon moves on to pouring the buttons.  He's been occupied for about 30 minutes.

10:00 AM: The boys decide they want to glue.  I get them set up with collage materials, cardboard trays, scissors, papers, and their choice of glue -- Elmer's in a bottle or Mod Podge in a bowl with a brush.  Chipmunk is soon covered in glue, but does manage to also put some on his tray.  There is some frustration on the twins' part: Pip is gluing natural feathers to a piece of cardstock and unfortunately, most of them are small down feathers which are hard to glue without getting all gummed up and coming apart.  And Pop's scissors are not cooperating with him.  This is pretty typical.  My role is to dart from one kid to another providing help, encouragement, and exhortations for patience.  Andy tells me that there is a special room in heaven reserved for homeschooling mothers. 

Pip sets up his collage as part of our nature area.

10: 45 AM: By this time Katydid and Gareth are involved in their own activities.  We're experimenting with different ways to plan for them... or actually, to help them plan their own work. I asked on the 4real boards about planning with Literature for a Young Lady and Jen helpfully replied with how she helps her eldest plan her own work.  I presented that as an option for the kids, and they decided they would like to give it a shot.  So I wrote out a chart (no printer, remember) with days and times on it, and on Sunday we sat down to figure out what they wanted to do during the week, and also what was required for them to do (like math, Latin, and language). 

I clipped off a bit of the top, but you get the picture. 

When I emerge from helping the boys with their collages (and washing all the glue off Chipmunk), I find Gareth working on his math and Katydid comfortably esconced on the couch with Little Women.  Andy takes a break from working on the computer to get the little boys dressed and play with the transportation counters on the floor -- more sorting. Farmerboy can no longer avoid his chores and must get dressed and pick up the family room.  Because people need me -- often -- it takes a good 45 minutes to clean up the dining room. 

11:15 AM: Gareth is now working on his religion and informs Farmerboy that he's going to be done soon so Farmerboy had better get to work if he wants to go out to the archery range.  Katydid didn't know that Gareth was going to do archery, so she scraps the plans she made yesterday to go out and shoot, too.  She's been reading for about an hour with only a brief break, so it's just about time for her to do something active.

11:30 AM: The dining room is not completely clean, but the little boys are clamoring to be let out of the small fenced yard by the deck, and it would be nice to talk to Andy a while before he goes.  Andy takes the little boys out with him to feed greens to the turkeys, and the three older kids head out to practice some archery.  I pick up the transportation counters for the nth time this morning and follow.

 

(Andy took these pictures.  Gareth told me later he got a bullseye!)

While the big kids shoot, the little boys play "dinosaur hunter" in the sideyard with me.  They're gathering sticks and pretending they're dinosaur bones.

12:15 PM: Everyone is hungry by now, so we head in for lunch.  Someone lets Chipmunk in the bathroom first to wash his hands and is not supervising and Chipmunk dunks his truck in the toilet.  I clean him up (and the truck) and then make cheese quesadillas for the kids.  Andy and I eat leftover steak from the night before (I found a stash in the back of the freezer) and canteloupe. At lunch Andy mentions a book that has been recommended to him called The Ten Commandments of How to Fail at Business.  We have a discussion about that, and also about how a Christian should view or use wealth.  Then Andy loads his luggage and the vegetables for the nuns into his van and heads off to the airport.  The big kids are in charge of cleaning up after lunch.  The little boys and I go outside to play some more dinosaur hunter.

2:00 PM: I'm taking the little boys in for some read alouds and a nap.  Katydid comes in to get the camera, because she says the older three want to "study turkey behavior".  It turns out they just want to make the toms strut.

(Pictures by Katydid)

While I admit that the Naragansett tom is particularly impressive when he struts, banging things and making a lot of noise to get him agitated is probably not a good idea.  So no more "studying turkey behavior".

While the big kids are outside, I read Dinosaurs Big and Small (A Let's Read and Find Out title) , Little Tom Turkey (a book about wild turkeys told from the point of view of a small male poult; the writing is not so great, but it's tough to find picture books about wild/heritage turkeys), and a tractor book to the three little boys.  Then it's to bed for them.

2:45-3:00 ish: I've gotten the boys to sleep. When I come into the kitchen, I notice that the cleaning job done after lunch was not all that great.  But now it's time to do some concentrated book work with the older 3 kids.  Since the twins and Chipmunk require most (if not all) of my attention in the morning, the bigger kids have to save anything that needs my attention until the afternoon.  This is not my preferred way of doing things -- nor, to be honest, always the preferred way for my kids either.  But it's what we have to do.  It turns out that they have come in at 2:30 just like they were supposed to and gotten to work.  We've had this basic template schedule for a long time now, but this is only the start of our second week after being "off" for summer.  So I'm pleased that they're readjusting to our school schedule so quickly.  Katydid is working on the first lesson of Lingua Mater 6, and Gareth has finished his lesson for the day in Lingua Mater 7 and is on the couch reading Fellowship of the Ring.  Farmerboy has already done his handwriting (Handwriting Without Tears, My Printing Book) so I take him into the dining room to work on some phonics.  First I need to see what letter sounds he remembers from earlier in the summer, so we do a short "quiz".  Turns out he's forgotten about half his letter sounds.  He wants me to write some words for him to read, though, so I compose a variety of silly sentences using mainly -at words. (Sample: "I sat on the cat.")  He enjoys this and runs to show Katydid and Gareth how silly the sentences are after we're done.

3:30 PM: Katydid is done with her language, so we move on to Latin.  We're redoing the lesson we ended with in June, Review Lesson III from Latina Christiana I.  For some reason we only got through half the book last year.  I'm hoping to do better this year.  Farmerboy wants to get a board game out of the closet and "pretend to play it himself". Ok... he actually chooses the Rush Hour puzzle, which I mentally chalk up to math for the day.  I'm still trying to figure out math for him. I bought Making Math Meaningful Level I for him in the spring, but it turns out I don't really like it at that level. 

4:00 PM: When we're done with our chants and reviewing the vocabulary, Katydid switches to math, which she is able to do independently for the day.  (She is using Making Math Meaningful Level 4, which I do like at least for Katydid, as it seems to be sticking... no small feat for her.  Sometimes it requires me to make presentations, but I think she's finally gotten the concept of multiplying two digits by two digits... albeit in the non-traditional way taught by this curriculum.)  Gareth has written on his chart that he is going to work on a book "response" to Out of the Silent Planet, which he read last week.  He can either work on a graphic novel/comic book version of the book or he can write a book report.  I expect him to choose the comic book, but he surprises me by choosing the book report.  We spend a little over a half an hour discussing the book, how to write a book report, and then planning it out. 

4:45 PM: The kids are done with their work for the day, and Chipmunk is up, but not up, and is dozing on my shoulder.  I check email and the kids have their computer time.  Katydid heads back to her room when it is not her turn to practice her violin and say a rosary.

5:15 PM: Chipmunk is now up and playing with the Rush Hour cars that Farmerboy neglected to put away.  The twins are up and clamoring for their computer time, too. I go to start dinner and realize that I can not make a Dutch Baby because I do not have enough eggs.  What?  Right -- we gave away a dozen eggs on Friday and I made scrambled eggs and ratatouille one night for dinner.  Now we have to wait for the hens to build the supply again.  I remember that I have some frozen spaghetti sauce downstairs in the freezer, though, so I can still make dinner!

I also have to work on the mess left over from lunch.

Chipmunk keeps me company with the pots and pans.

6:00 PM: It took forever to defrost the spaghetti sauce. Dinner is going to be late.  The little boys are clamoring to be let out of the gate (again), so I take my record book and head outside with them while I wait on dinner.

7:00 PM: Dinner's finally ready.  I cave and let the kids eat in front of the TV.  I'd like to say they watched something educational, but no, it was SpongeBob.  And I eat in front of the computer, starting this post. Then Andy calls to let me know he's in Chicago and will be departing for Iowa shortly and also that the Little Sisters would like pictures of us planting the garden for their newsletter.  I am embarassed to say that I have no pictures.  We'll have to take some pictures of harvest instead.

7:30ish: Time for after dinner chores.  Usually I clean the kitchen, Katydid picks up the dining room and kitchen and sweeps both rooms, Farmerboy picks up the family room and vacuums the rug, and Gareth has the living room/entryway area, picking up and sweeping.  This makes it sound as if everything ought to be clean, but this doesn't account for stacks of books and other things on tables and counters, or the disorganization of the toy shelves.  Plus tonight the kids will have to knock off early to do all the chicken/turkey chores that Andy usually does (with Chipmunk and the little boys tagging along).

8:00 PM: The kids are out putting the chickens in for the night and I am trying to hurriedly wash the last pans and sweep the dining room and kitchen floors and switch the laundry before the little boys rev up too much.  (My kids never look tired because they just wind up more and more as they get tired.)

8:30 PM: I didn't make it.  There are still pans in the sink but it's time to get the little boys in their pajamas.  When the big kids come in from doing their outside chores, I ask Katydid to read to the little boys while I put on my pajamas.  Pop has been fascinated by the weather lately, so we also check the weather on the Weather Channel.  Then Katydid reads Keep the Lights Burning, Abbie! while I change for the night. 

9:00 PM: The boys still want books.  Katydid reads a couple of tractor books to Chipmunk, Little Tom Turkey (again), and Where Do Chicks Come From?  I take this opportunity to rotate the books in the book display, which sorely needs it.

9:30 PM: Time for bed.  Gareth and Katydid head back to their rooms and bathroom to take showers and read until who knows when.  The little boys want to know if I will read Farmer Boy while they're in bed like Daddy does.  I tell them that since it's Daddy's favorite book, we'll save it for him.  But I will read the next story from Egermeir's Story Bible.  Chipmunk is not having it, though.  I tell the boys I can't read because I need to nurse Chipmunk.  Pip starts complaining.  I attempt to balance the heavy book precariously past Chipmunk while I nurse him and read the story of "The Great Flood."  It begins with Enoch being taken up to God.  Pop wants to know how people get to heaven, and once you're there, how you can get back home.  Farmerboy tells him you can't get back home.  Pop starts to cry.  Farmerboy tells him that heaven is a wonderful place where you'll know everything, including what happened to the dinosaurs.  Pop says he wants our home to be his home forever.  Farmerboy says, well, his soul will go to heaven after he dies.  Pip says he doesn't want to go to heaven if souls are there.  Farmerboy says everybody has a soul.  Pip is furious because he thought souls were bad things! I'm sure he's confusing them with ghosts.  I would just really like to go to sleep.  But no.  As soon as I get them calmed down, Chipmunk starts fussing because this isn't our usual routine.  I try to take him into my bedroom, and Pip starts crying because he wants Daddy.  I sit back down in the rocking chair, and Pip stops crying but Chipmunk starts.  Finally, I have to take Chipmunk into my room and just let Pip cry for a while.  It's keeping Pop and Farmerboy awake, but I have to get one of the two fussing kids to sleep. 

10:30 PM: Chipmunk is finally asleep and I go back in to sit with Pip.  I bring my book and read a little in the hall light.

11:00 PM: Pip is finally asleep.  I add the last few things to the dishwasher and turn it on.  Then I head back to my bed, where Chipmunk is sleeping for the moment.  I try to write down a few notes, but apparently the scratching of the pen wakes Chipmunk up again.

11:30 PM: Everything is finally quiet.  Andy won't be home till Thursday, and I'm not sure I can survive that long. (But obviously, I do! :-)