Neglect

Neglect! I don't even think that accurately describes what has happened to my blog. It seems other forms of media have taken over. With social media I can share quickly and I only have to write a word or two. Taking pictures and sharing is the easy part, writing is challenging for me. The girls are getting ready to begin 5th and 7th grades next month. Maybe I will make it a goal to share what we are doing at least once a month, maybe not. Anyway, we are still having fun homeschooling. Can't believe Zoey is half done with school and Sierra isn't far behind. And since I like sharing pictures here are a few of them enjoying some summer fun "camping" inside.

2015-2016 Done!

Another school year complete. There are days when the minutes move so slowly (usually when teaching Zoey math) but now 2nd and 4th grades are done and I can't believe it. We finished our school work the first week of June but testing didn't happen until the last week of June. June was especially fast it seems with the Regional Convention and Mat's mom visiting. So now it is July and the planning for next year has begun. As usual, some things will stay the same and some things will change. Maybe I will blog about the changes for next year later.

This last school year we made a change a few months in. We had been using Rod and Staff spelling since Zoey was in second grade but it was not working for Zoey. She was getting increasingly frustrated with it. I was disappointed with it also. I could not see it teaching any spelling rules. It seemed like it was just a list of words, work with those words and have a test on Friday. Spelling in clearly not a strength of mine so I can't teach her spelling rules as we go. I also did not like the list of spelling words. So we switched to a program I have wanted to use for years but just didn't want to take the plunge because of the cost. Mat and I discussed it and decided to go for it. We both are very happy with the switch. The program we are using now is All About Spelling. It is not a program with grades. When you start, you start from the beginning. Zoey liked this because she knows the words easily. The challenging part has been memorizing the phonograms and spelling rules. Still she did very well and progressed through level 1 and almost all of level 2. She started a few months in to the school year so her progress is great.

Sierra had also started with Rod and Staff spelling this year. I let her decide which program she wanted to go with. I let her watch Zoey and I a few weeks and she couldn't wait to start. She started after Zoey but also progress through level 1 and part way through 2.

Here is the best part...we ALL love spelling now. Even I am starting to understand spelling! So we will continue with All About Spelling this year.

That's all for now. Thanks as always for reading my ramblings. I had hoped to do more of a year in review in this post but I am out of time.

The girls working on their TerraNova2 tests. 

Solitude

It is not very often that I am completely alone. Last week the girls both had a class at the nature center and instead of running errands I went for a walk on one of the park's trails. It was so peaceful. I love homeschooling and the busyness that comes with being a mother but for a short while I enjoyed the solitude. 

It was warm that day but when I was by the water it was much cooler. 

I walked for 2 1/2 miles. 

I was surprised by the hills on this trail. 

There were two trees in this trail that were much bigger than the rest. I'm sure they are dead too. They were so interesting though. 

Just me and my shadow...

It turned out to be longer than I thought. 

But I made it. It felt good to take my shoes off and relax for a while while I waited for the girls' classes to finish. I hope the weather is nice next week so I can try a new trail. 

Fun Art Friday

It has been a crazy week with so much going on. The girls started biology class and Muddy Boots this week. They loved both classes too.  They have homework for biology. Zoey is thrilled. Sierra hasn't said much. They keep talking about the classes so I know they enjoyed it and learned so much. 

To end the week we finally got around to art. They didn't like the art idea at first but when they did it they really got into it. The project was resist painting using oil pastels and watercolor paints. It looked like such fun I had to try one of my own. 

Focused! 

Done painting. Just hanging out. 

Zoey's completed project. 

Sierra's completed project. 

Mommy's project. Mine is much smaller than theirs but it is hard to tell. 

That's all for now. Thanks for reading. 

Back to school 2015

That's right we are back at school again. The girls are starting 2nd and 4th grades. Here are a few pictures of the first few days. 

First day of school tradition- brownies! Sierra made them this year. 

Day two, starting our new science curriculum. We found butterflies all over this garden of Zinnias on our observation walk. 

The new desk for Zoey is working wonderfully for her. 

We have to take breaks to get our bodies moving. Thankfully the weather hasn't been so horribly hot this week. 

This had nothing to do with school. It is just funny. Thanks for stopping by. 

Inclined plane

A few weeks ago our science topic was inclined planes. What started out as a simple experiment .....

rolling marbles and a golf ball down an inclined plane......

quickly escalated...

and then escalated even more. 

They laughed as they experimented and tried new things. We discussed all sorts of things like why does it work, why do some things go farther and why do they stop. 

Next we painted with an inclined plane. 

Marble+paint+paper+inclined plane=pretty cool art. 

Painting marble in action! 

We even made inclined planes with our snack. 

I think they got the concept and had fun too. Thanks for reading. 

Bloggers Block

Oh poor, sad and lonely blog, when will I update you? Who knows? Is it a case of writers block? Or too busy to slow down and type a few things? Maybe any or all of those. 

Japanese Style Dinner

Tonight we enjoyed a Japanese style dinner to expand our studies of Japan. Sierra is finishing the book A Pair of Red Clogs and Zoey completed Grass Sandals. These books are both excellent and we really have enjoyed them.  Sierra and I wore our robes to look like kimonos. I used a blanket and scarf to make a kimono for Zoey. Daddy wore a shirt and jeans. Lol.  We had a variety of foods. Zoey really wanted to try sushi. She tried it but does not like it. Great job tring it Zoey! 

With Zoey's book Grass Sandals she learned about the Japanese poet Basho who lived in the 17th century. The books contains haikus. We explored this different type of poetry and Zoey even wrote a haiku of her own. She wrote it on the hat she made like Basho's hat. 

Here is what she wrote:

Sunset bright and clear

Birds chirp and twitter calling

Evening crisp and clear

I am quite proud of her work. Poetry has never been a gift of mine. Mat has written some very good poetry. No haikus that I know of though. 

A special thank you to Mat for everything he did for our Japanese dinner. 

Well that is all for now. 

One last thing to add. Zoey is sleeping tonight in her sleeping bag on the floor. Japanese style she said. Cool. 

Still here

So you are thinking I fell of the face of the earth, or just quit blogging. No neither of those I just have either been busy or just not inspired. However, before our first day of school is here and I start sharing things about our new school year I thought maybe I should sum up the end of last school year.


It really is hard to believe Sierra completed kindergarten and Zoey 2nd grade. Last year really did go quickly now that I am here looking back on it. The girls both learned so much last year and we managed to have fun too. Sierra completed Before Five in a Row and began Five in a Row volume 1. The first book she choose was Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton. She loves this book. She had such a good time with it she wants to do it again for the first book of the new school year. I would rather move on to other things. Anyways, one of the things we learned about with Mike Mulligan was personification. This was fun because I made big eyes and put tape on the back and let them personify things around the house.

 She personified the plant,

her jewelery box,

 and my laundry basket.

 

Zoey got in on the action and personified her light switch. Pretty funny I thought.

Other lessons we learned with this book included the history of the steam shovel (very brief), new vocabulary words, being flexible with changing times, drawing basic trees, and showing motion in a drawing. We used the sandbox to try out some road engineering and also took some time to look at all the road construction going on all around us. I also got out the geo boards so we could explore geometry and both of the girls loved using them. Looking back I can see why Sierra had so much fun. 

Road Construction

At the same time Zoey started Five in a Row volume 4 with the book Albert by Donna Jo Napoli.

This is a heartwarming book about a man who is a bit afraid to leave his apartment but he sticks his hand out his window everyday to see if the weather is just right. One day when he does this a cardinal starts building a nest on his hand.  We love how this story turned out. Check it out from your local library to find out for yourself. You won't be disappointed. The illustrations are beautiful too. Since this is a volume 4 book there are many more activities to do. We took a long time to explore this book. We learned about city living and apartments. Zoey made and painted her own apartment building from a cardboard box. We discussed compassion, discovering the truth, and subtle symbolism. We had fun imagining where the plane in the book was going and what was in the packages the people on the street exchanged. We also explored comics. This had led us on what is called a rabbit trail, further learning about a subject a child is very interested in. Zoey had made some of her own comics a few months before this just for fun. Now she started drawing comics again as we did a little research about comics. We extended it even further this summer. We started a unit study called Crazy Cartoons. It is Download N Go. We have used some of these in the past. We have not finished yet but so far Zoey is loving it. She loves to draw, tell jokes and write. Perfect way to combine these three things. More on this in a later post. 

Other subjects we explored with this book were the mathematical aspects of baseball, observing birds, cardinal research, joints in the human body, and so much more. We spent weeks on this book. Another  thing the manual suggested was learning about pantomime. I explained what it was and we tried pantomiming ourselves. It was pretty funny. Then we looked up videos on YouTube of Marcel Marceau and Charlie Chaplin. They begged for more Charlie Chaplin. Weeks later they asked to watch more. They really thought Chaplin was so funny. I agree.The crazy thing is even with all the time we spent with Albert we still didn't do everything I had planned. Maybe next spring we will explore this book again. Zoey liked the book so much I bought her a used copy on Amazon this summer. I am going to surprise her with it on the first day of school. Using the library book was fine but now she has a copy of her own. (Note to self, need to get Mike Mulligan for Sierra)

While Zoey finished up Albert, Sierra started a new book Papa Piccolo by Carol Talley. This is a story about a tom cat that adopts two orphaned kittens. It takes place in the city of Venice, Italy. We learned all about Venice and gondolas and streets of water. We did so many wonderful activities with this book too but I will just share pictures of one fun thing I took pictures of. The girls got to try out painting one way Michelangelo painted. 

Sierra was so peaceful when she was painting. Zoey didn't like having to wait her turn. 

While all this was going on we continued on with our regular math, spelling, phonics, handwriting, grammar ancient history, and art class. They also had so much fun with Muddy Boots and other science classes at the two local nature centers and finished another year with PE class at the recreation center. No wonder I haven't blogged! We have been seriously busy. Here are a few pictures of the last day of school. I put together buckets filled with fun little surprises like bubbles, stickers, colored pencils, and more. They loved it. (Thanks to Grandma and Poppy too) 

Last day of school.

Oh and I can't forget the zoo, organic dairy farm and strawberry picking!

Sierra riding horses at the zoo.

Zoey feeding lorikeets.

Lorikeet and Zoey hanging out.

Sierra not so sure about feeding the lorikeets.

Riding horses at the dairy farm.

Feeding hay to baby animals.

Zoey riding horse at farm.

I didn't take any pictures of the cows. LOL!

Strawberry picking!

Well I think this is enough for now.

No wait just a few more pictures...

PE class

Last day awards.

Library book club group picture.

Zoey doing her Laura Ingalls Wilder presentation.

OK, now I think I am done. I know that was long but I suppose that is what happens when I don't blog for so long. 

Coming soon.......

Crazy Comics and Summer Download n Go

and 

Chicken Mummy!

and 

Back to School (in September)