My biggest hope for my children is that they would learn to love reading in the way I do.  Right now, Promise really is the only one that reads for fun and entertainment.  Jacy did read a Legend of Zelda magna series but that was it.  Now he is back to not reading anything for pleasure.  They do enjoy when I read aloud to them, but mostly just at bedtime.  Zion has been enjoying listening to The Complete Tales of Winnie-the-Pooh.  We found a copy at the thrift store for $2.99.  Score!  I think when Israel lays down for his nap, I am going to try to take the time to do another read aloud with them.  There are just so many good childrens books out there.  I want them to experience them all.  The list I have is pretty much endless.  For sure finish up Alice in Wonderland, read through the Narnia books and finish the Little House books.

Zion making pancakes

Thursday my little Zion broke his collar bone.  He got knocked into by the swing (with a swinger on it).  We weren’t sure how hurt he was until over night when he woke up crying with pain.  Right away Friday morning we took him to his pediatrician’s office for x-rays.  He kept complaining that his elbow hurt, but ended up being a broken clavicle.  She said it was pretty common for his age and that it will heal fairly quick all on its own.  He has his arm wrapped down to his side and that is it.  He’s been taking Tylenol pretty regularly for pain, but seems to be getting better every day.  He’ll be okay as long as he takes it easy and doesn’t re-brake it while playing.  Its hard to keep a busy guy quiet.

Zion gardening

Saturday meant gardening time.  Jason decided that it was time to get the garden turned over.  We added some organic compost and peat moss to the mix.  The peat moss really made the garden soft and fluffy.  Zion was a big help despite his broken “arm”.  We got lettuce, carrots and catnip seeds planted as all can survive an early frost.  Jason got the garden next to the house completely prepped.  We will need to get more compost to get the west garden prepped, but that garden is going to take a bit long since there is a lot of grass that needs to be pulled up.  Hopefully I can get Jason to do that this week and over the weekend.  My mom has a bunch of seedlings (that we planted together) that she plans on bringing over sometime this week.  They are going to need to be planted asap.  Hopefully it doesn’t freeze and kill the little baby plants.

Onto some homeschooling updates.  Brain Pop and Brian Pop Jr seem to be a big hit with Promise and Jacy.  Both have played at least once a day, usually more than once.  I’ve asked them to do either the quiz/test or one of the activities at the end of each video so I can have something to put in their portfolio.  Gabriel is the only one who refuses to even look/explore the website.  I am sure it is because he doesn’t want to do anything “educational”.  He really is driving me a little bit crazy with his refusal to cooperate in any sense.  At least he does his math and phonics without too much complaint.  Baby steps baby steps.

While I was at Lowes Saturday morning, I saw a poster advertising their Build and Grow program.  Every couple of weeks, they have a kids’ building workshop.  I think the big kids would have a lot of fun building some projects.  I am trying to convince Jason to take them.  This Saturday (5/8) the project is a trellis planter and 5/22 the project is a catapult.  I am pretty sure I can talk Jason into taking them to make the catapult.  I registered the boys for both (since I am pretty sure Promise and Zion will be at Mamo and Papa’s house those weekends).  We really are trying to do more outings with the children.  Jason agrees that it is the one thing we are lacking on for their education.

So far I have a few activities planned.  The two above building clinics, a park day, a trip to skatedaze, and a field trip to the Omaha-World Herald.  Most the of the activities are done with a local homeschooling group.  We were supposed to have a park day today, but the truck is in the shop, so we had no way to get there

I think that is all the jabber I have for today.  And now a random picture of Israel.

Israel thought the vacuum was a fun toy

The kids are kinda excited to be graded up.  Jacy will be 6th, Gabriel will be 4th and Promise will be 2nd.  Technically, the grade levels don’t mean much, because we will still continue to work out of whatever book they are currently in and still do the same work, but fun none the less.

We just finished Unit 1 of the kids new science curriculum today.  There are nine units total and at this rate we will have zoomed through it by the end of our school year.  Perfect timing.  We are somewhat focused on this subject 1) because the kids really enjoy it 2) because we had been really focused on our readings and 3) the kids seem to need a bit of a change.

We’ve gotten into a really good schedule lately.  The kids wake up between 7am and 8am.  Sometime shortly there after they have breakfast and doing their after breakfast chores.  Around 9am we do morning lessons which consist of 2 pages of JumpMath.  Then Jacy does a page of Spelling and 2 lines in his copy-work notebook.  Right now he is working on some quotes from Shakespeare.  Copy-work is good for handwriting and exposing him to snippets of great writings.  Promise and Gabriel both do a short phonics lesson and eventually I will add a short copy-work lesson for both of them.  I think I’ll set a goal of starting that on July 1st as a weekly assignment.

It takes them roughly a 1/2 hour to accomplish the above.  Then we break for 30 – 90 minutes.  We have been doing science sometime in the late morning.  While Israel is napping in the early afternoon, we try to do some of our reading work.  My goal is for Jacy to do 5 things daily (math, spelling, copywork, science, and reading) and the other 2 to do 4 things daily (math, phonics, science and reading)  It is amazing how quickly we can get through things daily.  Then it leaves us the rest of the day for all kinds of activities; playing outside, cooking, exploring, using the computer, coloring (we color and draw ALOT), video games, watching movies, all sorts of fun stuff.  Nearly everything we do I could package into a neat study subject, but I don’t have the time or energy to keep track of everything they do.

I did just get the kids a free 5-day trial to Brain Pop and Brain Pop Jr. It is and I quote (because it is easier to explain that way…LOL)

See, now wasn’t that easier?  I am hoping the kids like it.  I am sure Zion will.  He loves stuff like that.  It is a bit on the pricier side, at least for us, at $9.95 and $7.95 per month for Brain Pop and Brain Pop Jr.  And then they require a 12 month commitment.   Brain Pop is focused for grades 3 through 12 and the Jr version is geared towards K – 3rd grade, so we kind of need a subscription to both.  Right now the kids are constantly playing dedegames, so I’d love to revert their attention to something a bit more educational.  I’ll post about how the kids like it once they have a good chance to try it out.

We started a new Science curriculum over the weekend.  I feel like I have talked about it before, but I think that was me just talking to myself in my head.  This is what we are using: Classic Science Elementary Life Science which for the Elementary Life Science book is completely and utterly free (except for the paper and ink I use).  The other three versions are $50 each (IIRC) and if they are anything like the first, they are completely worth the $$$.  Jacy and Promise said that they love their new science; Gabe said he hate it.  He “hate the reading and the stinky worksheets and the boring projects”, but what’s new there??? Nothing, he pretty much hates everything.  o_O He’s so hard to please.  (okay, so he did say that he likes his math, but that’s it)  Personally, I can’t wait to get to the Elementary Earth Science book

I’ve been kinda looking at a new curriculum for the upcoming year.  This one is called Galloping the Globe. It is similar to the AO that we have been doing, in that it uses a whole lot of living books, which I just love, but with a geography focus.  Lots of fun activities and worksheets (which for some reason Jacy and Promise just love)  We’ll see, I’m still thinking about it.

Last night we read a chapter from The Magician’s Nephew.  The kids are really into it.  We don’t read it much because everyone likes it, but it is hard to get everyone sitting still in the same room at the same time, Jason included. (although he missed this chapter because he was out of town.)  Tonight, we decided to read a bit of Alice in Wonderland again. It really is a rather difficult book to read.  Carroll is very comical in his writing and seems to go off into la-di-da land here and there.  He gets kinda long winded and ‘way out there’ with some of Alice’s thoughts, but the kids still seem to enjoy it non the less.  Except Gabriel, but he doesn’t much like anything in a general sorta way

Jacy has been reading some MathStart books for fun today.  Turns out the library has about 35 of the books.  We have 4 or 5 that I bought on a whim from one of those scholastic book order things.  I think I might see if we can’t get a couple held for us.  I’d much rather sit and read an engaging book with the kids than do a worksheet.  Although Jacy and Promise are almost the complete opposite of that.  They just LOVE worksheets.  Jacy always has; as a preschooler, he’d devour who preschool workbooks.  Like the ones Wal-mart sells.  How I wish I would have known about Kumon workbooks when he was that age.  Or at least checked out the workbook section at Borders.  Holy moly they have a whole shelf, front and back, devoted to workbook-like curriculum.  He’d have been in workbook heaven.

Which totally reminds me of the math workbooks I found for the kids.  Pretty sure I haven’t blogged about this yet.  Somewhere at the beginning of the year I was introduced to Jump Math.  They have the first so many pages of each book available to print off, so I thought what the heck, lets try it.  The kids weren’t into what we had been doing that much anyhow.  It is really kinda hard to describe how Jump works.  It helps teach how and why math works.  Definitely from a different point of view than all the math I had been taught as a child.  Instead of pages of pages of drill work (which even Promise, my math lover cannot stand) it has short concise lessons, that slowly build up skills without being repetitive.  Teaching on step at a time and going up from there.  It teached from a different angle, showing how finger counting can work for the benefit of the child, plus line counting.  Giving the child all sorts of tools to make math work   Really I am in love with the program.  Even Gabriel doesn’t complain (too much) about doing math.

I started out Jacy in book 4.1 (instead of 5.1) because there were some skills in the 4.1 he had not come across in public school (or at home).  I put Gabriel in the 2.2 book.  He just isn’t quite ready for 3.1 and multiplication.  He needs a bit more confidence in his addition, subtraction and problem solving skills.  Promise on the other hand, I put in book 2.1 instead of 1.1 because the 1.1 (or first grade equivalent) just seems so below her skill level.  So far she is just sailing along.

Yesterday, we made strawberry jam and biscuits from scratch.  Here’s some photos of our adventures in cooking.  Enjoy!

Jacy mashing the strawberries

Cookin'

Nom nom

Our jars all lined up, canned and sealed.

The kids have mostly been playing computer games today.  Right now, I kicked them off and sent them to play something.  It would be a lot easier if it wasn’t rainy and muddy outside though.  I did get Gabriel and Promise to sit still for 15 minutes while we read a chapter in our 50 Famous Stories Retold.  We read about Arnold Winkelried whose name really got Gabriel’s attention.  Interesting story; I had not heard it before.  The things I learn while teaching the kids Jacy started reading a chapter in his Marco Polo book but he was really fussy about having to do it today.  I think he just needs a short break from reading “required” books.  I’ll give him a break today and tomorrow by reading with him and letting him to a couple independent lessons (whatever he chooses)

Lately, Jacy has been big into reading these Legend of Zelda Magna books that are based on the video games by the same name.  I had been buying him one book a week, but surprised him yesterday with book 6 and 7.  Vol 8 and 9 will be here tomorrow.  He doesn’t know that they are coming.  He devours these books and have become a spring board into some other magna books.  Hopefully we can cultivate a love of reading in him.  I love reading myself and hope to pass that on to my children.

Charlotte

Charlotte Resting

Charlotte Resting on my new rolling drawer cart thingy. She approves.

Side thought for the day : my goal for the next 4 weeks is to try to let my kids think for themselves more and brainstorm more on their own.  I think the older 3 depend on me too much to tell them how to figure out xyz.

So last night, my mom took me and the kids out to Applebee’s for supper.  The asst. manager there promised the kids a magic trick if they ate their supper good.  Unusual for them, they did.  They ate every last crumb.  Weird.  Anyway, the Asst.  Manager came back and showed them an easy slide of hand trick with a quarter.  You know the one; the quarter goes in his ear and out his nose, etc, etc.  Zion was completely and utterly impressed.  Of course, that meant that all morning today, the big boys have been performing magic tricks for Zion.  They are getting pretty good figuring out how it works and making up their own tricks.

Gabriel, Promise and Zion decided to play ‘school’ today.  *chuckle* For sure they had

Architect Time

‘architect’ time (they drew houses with crayons) and show-and-tell.  I’m not sure what else they did since I was busy helping Jacy get started with his school work.  He pretty much is independent in his work but follows a somewhat schedule.  My schedule printout shows what we need to get done weekly.  We have been a bit ‘behind’ (although it really isnt a big deal) so we are taking this week to go back and do things that we have missed or skipped.

Jacy’s science book that he has been reading is The Burgess Animal Book for Children.  Gabriel and Promise have one by the same author; The Burgess Bird Book for Children.  The books are super cute.  It teaches about animals or birds in a narrative story format.  The main characters being Peter Rabbit, Jenny Wren and Mother Nature.  Lately, I have been printing off coloring pages to go with the chapter they are reading.  Soon I am going to have Jacy start to write facts about the animals he is learning about.  All three kids need to tell me an oral narration tell what the chapter was about.  You can read more about Narration and what it means here. So far today, Jacy has read two chapters in his Animal book.  Usually it is two chapters a week, not per day.

All of us listened to me read a Just-so-story; How the Leopard Got His Spots.  Cute story.  It is entertainingly written with lots of fun words.  It does have one instance of using the ‘N’ word, so I just didn’t read that part aloud.  Jacy wasn’t required to listen, but the stories are so much fun to hear.  We also read a couple Aesop’s Fables, but some of them get lost in translation.

Later today, Jacy and I will be starting to read Romeo and Juliet out of the book Tales from Shakespeare.  It is a version made to be read by children but doesn’t’ lose all of the Shakespeare-iness, especially in the conversations.  Gabriel, Promise and I have been working on A Midsummer’s Night Dream, but I think it would be helpful for them to have some way to act out the characters.   I hear some parents use playmobil people for the characters or paper dolls.  I am leaning towards the paper dolls for now because they are significantly cheaper.  Eventually, I am sure we will have enough playmobil people, but right now we only have a few pirates and Romans.

We usually do math and Spelling/phonics daily, but I am trying to get our readings caught up for the time being.  Next week, I am sure we will be back to our regularly scheduled format.  It has just been so nice outside, that they kids have been opting to climb trees rather than sit and listen to stories.  Thankfully, it is raining today, so lots of work can get done.

Now for some pictures

What Israel does while we are busy with work.

G coloring his bird coloring page. Pretty sure that is a Hairy Woodpecker.

Gabriel and Promise’s weekly plans (12 weeks worth) Jacy’s looks the same, but different books

Z coloring

Busy playing Little House on the Prairie.  Can you tell which doll is Laura and which doll is Mary?

Busy with Autumn themed crafts

See my tree mama?

Busy driving a submarine

Busy spelling with the letters O-C-T-O-B-E-R

Busy making an army fort.  Yes, that is a fort, Gabriel has such a wonderful imagination.

We also finished up reading Little House on the Prairie…next up, On the Banks of Plum Creek.  Yipee

Obi getting Jacy

Zion seems to think that he can drive his car in the snow. Silly boy.

Promise and Jacy did a bunch of Halloween crafts.  Promise and me also did a couple chapters in a new life science book we found for free.  You can find the Lab of Mr.Q here.  The Life Science book is F-R-E-E.  It is super cute.  The word definitions were a bit hard for Promise.  Like matching the word up to its meaning, and the crossword puzzle, but she enjoyed the activities that we did.

And onto the 24 pounds part :O

There is my Gabe and Promise trying to cut the pumpkin up.  We carved on earlier in the day and got this one just for eating.

Pull pull pull!!

Got it

Gabriel took this one of me cutting up the pumpkin so we could boil it and make it into puree.  I think he has a good eye for photography.  Aren’t my bowls purdy?  Vintage pyrex. It took me 3 hours to chop, boil and blend all that pumpkin.  In the end, I got 30 cups of pureed pumpkin.  Only cost me $3.99 for the whole thing.  The pumpkins are priced by each, not by pound.  So we got the biggest one we could find.  16 cents per pound…not too shabby.

So far, we have made 2 batches of roasted pumpkin seeds.  One was seasoned with chili seasoning and salt and the other with soy sauce.  The latter was my favorite.  The flavor was amazing.  We also made Baked Pumpkin which Jacy declared is even better than pumpkin pie.  Gabriel and Promise didn’t agree.  It was very rich and tasty. I think today, we might make actual pumpkin pie.

]]> http://shoefairyknits.wordpress.com/2009/10/12/24-pounds/feed/ 0 shoefairy3 2009_1011June_09_0001 2009_1011June_09_0015 2009_1011June_09_0014 2009_1011June_09_0019 2009_1011June_09_0031 2009_1011June_09_0033 2009_1011June_09_0034 2009_1011June_09_0042 http://shoefairyknits.wordpress.com/2009/09/28/new-goal/ http://shoefairyknits.wordpress.com/2009/09/28/new-goal/#comments Mon, 28 Sep 2009 18:25:01 +0000 shoefairy3 http://shoefairyknits.wordpress.com/?p=324 ]]> I am going to try to be a more regular blogger.  I really should try to get something in on a daily basis, instead of this once every other week think that I have been doing lately.

I guess I can start with some recent finished objects

Up first, is a single Dashing fingerless mitt.  I used a Russian bind off that came reccomended from Wendy Knits, but i think it is a little loose for me.  I will make the 2nd one to match, but try a sewn bind off if I make another pair.

Yarn : Berroco Comfort

Next up is a cardigan set I made for Kaya (Promise’s American Girl doll.  I used A Very Easy Cardigan pattern except I skipped the buttons.  The skirt was of my own design. I cast on 80, did a twisted rib band for about 1/2″ for the waistband.  Then in stockinette, I increased using a M1 between every stitch.  I could have gotten away with casting on less stitches and increasing a fewer amount of times, but it still turned out rather cute none the less.  It also has a crochet chain drawstring because I find that easy to make than an elastic waist band.  Plus I like the way the bow in the front looks.  This is going to be a Christmas present for Promi, so don’t tell.

I’ve made a few others things, but they need to be photographed, but over all, that has been the majoirty of my knitting.  Oh, I have been working on a pair of Marlene socks.  This pair of socks have been full of twists and turns, and I am not even talking about the ribbing.  First of the color sun bleached out, then I dyed it really bright, now the foot part shrank.  They are going to be another Christmas present for Promise now.  I think the one turned out pretty.  I am about 40% done with the 2nd sock and will most definitely be making more from this pattern.  The yarn is Peace Fleece DK sport btw.

Onto some homeschooling updates.  We are still reading Little House on the Prairie, but over the weekend I lost my copy of the book.  I guess I will have to borrow a copy from from the library tomorrow.  We also have watched the first half of the Little House on the Prairie mini series movie.  Not the one with Michael Landon, but a new version made by Disney.  I got it thinking it was the TV series, but we were pleasantly surprised while watching it.  It starts out with them getting ready to leave Pepin.  The 1st DVD ended with the Indians coming to the homestead when Pa was out hunting; such a cliffhanger.  Hurry up Netflix and mail our next dvd out.  We will wait to get the tv series since I think that show is set in South Dakota and we haven’t got that far in our books yet. Besides we are number 12 in line to get it at the library.  Could be a long wait

On Saturday, we went to a neighborhood family fun day at the park near Mamo and Papa’s house.  It was really fun.  We ate lots of food and played in a raffle.  The kids had a blast playing on those blow up bouncing things.  Zion went down the giant slide over and over and over.  A representative from the library was even there giving out free books.  The kids each took two a piece.  I love free books; best kind of freebie ever.