Suburban Homestead

Boston Tea-rrier Party

We've been drilling down into the American Revolution in our studies this past month - books, audio, video, and then this silly doggy Halloween float as our art component. I had the idea for the Boston Tea-rrier Party float last year, but we weren't able to pull it off. In fact, we nearly didn't pull it off this year either having set our sights high on things like - "A super tall mast!", "Boxes full of tea dangling off the sides!!",  and "Large feather head pieces for everyone!!!". We were also hoping to make it into an online research project (identifying all the pup parades in town, maping out our attendance, travel, etc.) But it turned out there was only one in town that issued prizes and so that was the only one my kids cared to attend. Last Saturday morning, after throwing the final touches on our ship, minutes before leaving the house, we headed out to the Marin Country Mart for their annual pup parade. The dogs wore little Indian attire, cut, fringed and hand stitched by the kids, puff-painted my mom. Tiny Buns walked around like a colonist, holding a bown of tea backs and dog buiscuts saying "Tea or treat! Tea or treat!". We took first place(!!!), a $100 gift certificate at George, which we put towards a new doogy bed and some toys for Oliver. Someone gave us the great suggestion that we should save the float for 4th of July parades, which we will definately do. Happy Halloween!!!

It's a Happy Halloween at Heath Ceramics

Last Friday, when we took a studio tour of Heath Ceramics in Sausalito, I noticed a small counter space up against a window. Through the glass, bright morning light came in and danced on the most unusual assortment of colorful ceramics. I couldn't quite make it out (probably because my vision is going south). It appeared to be a hodgepodge, really, and yet, I was drawn closer, squinting the whole way. (I mean, I had to figure out what the heck was going on on that counter). Turns out it was a recently assembled collection of Halloween ceramics, crafted by Heath employees. I was told this is part of an annual tradition there, and the result was adorable. For a relatively reasonable price ($20-30/each), you could pick-up one-of-a-kind Halloween themed ceramics, often made with the recognizable forms of popular Heath products. We were all so smitten with these characters, that we each ended-up picking one to add to our Halloween collection. I mean, really - do they not just put a huge smile on your face?

How We Homeschool - Week 6

MONDAY

9:30 – 3:00 Homeschool in the Forest

Today we did it in the rain!

Rain or shine, the group meets. It can feel a bit counter-intuitive to the modern parent, dropping your tiny buns in the dark, wet forest for a day of un-sheltered fun, but as their pack leader will tell you - the greatest memories tend to be made on rainy days. 

Above is the scene I left at drop-off. Games (lots and lots of games) before breaking into groups and heading out on their own. 

Emailed summaries from pack leaders:

5yo: 

"Monday Oct. 20th started out far colder and wetter than our previous pack meeting, Oct. 13- where heat and fire danger drove us to higher ground. There we could rest on the abundant mama madrones' cool refrigerator-tree branches...  The 13th also provided mossy, lichen-covered large live oaks in which we could try our hand at nest building.  

 

 We returned to the concept of nest building on the rainy 20th, not only with thoughts of shelter, but with questions of how does one make fire when cold in the woods?  Mia demonstrated at morning circle some of the woolly warm garments and rain-gear we should consider prepping for the cold wet winter at the lakes. 

 

As we headed west along Lake Lagunitas, practicing our awareness on the newly wet trail, we came upon someone who had fallen far from their nest with an injured wing.  It was a mysterious bird that the pups decided to sacrifice their plans for, and turn back on the trail so she/he might receive the help it needed in the well trained hands at Wildcare.  

 

BUT, as fate would have it all was not lost as the opportunity arose to see a game OLD to Dirt Time, but new to pups. Monkey-fist!...  was already set up and running with Mia, her foxes, Dane and the Red-tailed Squirrels!   After a rendezvous with the brave transporters of the injured wildlife, otters were spotted in Lake Bon Tempe, taking full advantage of the new kids on the lake... farm raised trout, having just drove in that morning from Sacramento."

7yo:

"The nice light amd warm rain reminded us that it was time to prepare for the heavier rains in the winter. Our fire kits are in no shape to make fires so each group has been given the responsibility of replenishing one part of the kits.  The fox lizards are responsible for the spindles.

During our search we practiced using different senses by first daring each other to not speak any English for about 15 minutes or so. Fun and somewhat frustrating, yet effective. I then challenged the crew to walk blind-folded with only the person in the back being able to see. That was not the groups favorite challenge but they finally figured it out, or almost at least :)

After our morning of sensory challenges we joined with the Redwood Squirrels for a relaxing game of monkey fist. After our game we found a wonderful completely dead elderberry tree, exactly what we needed. We sang to it, asked for permission and gently removed some pieces that may be good for spindles.  We also created a fort under it "Fort Sambucus" we decided to call it, after the Latin name of the elderberry tree. Upon return to the picnic area we journaled the unique bark and leaves of the elderberry. We will work more with the wood of the elderberry next week. It would be wonderful if everyone in the group could get knife certified soon. I am sending along the details in the next e-mail."

10yo: n/a

IN THE CAR THIS WEEK / AUDIO BOOKS

Johnny Tremain  Such a wonderful story. A must read/listen for all American kids.  "A story of the turbulent, passionate times in Boston just before the Revolutionary War. Johnny, a young apprentice silversmith, is caught with Otis, Hancock, and John and Samuel Adams in the exciting operations and subterfuges leading up to the Boston Tea Party and the Battle of Lexington. As Johnny is forced into the role of a full-grown man in the face of his new country's independence, he finds that his relations with those he loves changes for the better as well."

 

TUESDAY:

9:00 - 12:00 Big kids both enrolled in a combined-grade (2nd + 4th grades) locally taught homeschool courses Language Arts + Drawing Out Arithmetic (playing with the ancient tools of compass and straight edge, children will discover the skills and methods employed by the Ancient Greeks to uncover enduring mathematical truths"). Notes from LA teacher this week:

"Today we read and discussed our stories and wrote a  key word outline (KWO).  After completing, we went back and added in an excellent adjective, adverb, and verb.  We went over Who-Which clauses, and they each added one in on their KWO.  I told the kids they needed to add 1, but could add more if they wished in their paragraph to add interest and sentence variety. We finished the class with an adverb game.

Homework is to write a paragraph using their new KWO and the checklist. This week concludes our fable unit, and next week we will begin using Greek Myths to further our writing and grammar study." 

12:00 - 2:00 Open studio art class for homeschoolers. Imagine a fully stocked open room and the freedom to create whatever you want. Today the 10yo continued working on his moccasins, and Beanie did more mosaic. 

1:00 - 4:00 PreK for Tiny Buns

2:15 - 3:15 10yo has music class, currently focused on guitar and drums. Beanie and I run errands.

3:45 - 5:15 10yo soccer

6:30 Kids watch two episodes of LIBERTY KIDS - a fantastic way to get kids on board with the birth of our country.

 

WEDNESDAY

10:00 - 11:00 Spanish tutor. We launch our family Spanish session with a few worksheets. I thought we'd never do another worksheet since we left school, but it finally dawned on me that it might be a great way to keep three kids, spanning five years in age, all on the same page. It did bring a bit more harmony to our hour. Later we branched out a bit and finished our hour with a beautiful story - "La Casa"(which I sadly can not find a link to). 

We have a week off from Science + Poetry today due to host family's schedule.

11:30 - 12:30 We audit the Shakespeare Company's class for homeschoolers. 

This was a stretch - but it worked in my favor! The kids went in kicking and screaming, certain they could never enjoy a theater class, let alone one that revolved around the works of Shakespeare. But they were all entranced and envious of the obvious fun the other students their age were having. The instructor was fabulous and had an obvious gift for this. Each child of mine asked to be enrolled! We will do this as soon as our currently conflicting science class ends. I like the idea of mixing it all up.

On a related note, I've been reading this book and am completely sold on the concept:

1:00 - 4:00 Tiny Buns to PreK while the big kids and I head home and continue working on our Boston Tea/Terrier Party Halloween float. Yes, I did just type that. ;)

THURSDAY

8:30 - 9:10 Math tutor is canceled again (due to teachers daughter delivering baby) so Daddy steps in and takes over. I love the creativity he pulls out of a hat without warning. 10yo loves math-by-Daddy. Little kids make elaborate patterns with shape tiles.

9:30 – 3:00 Homeschool 4-wheel drive - the 10yo's second day a week in nature. Run by the same organization as Monday's class, this group happens have only boys enrolled at this time, which I love. It's great to see them just go off a wild adventure with a great male leader. This week's report: (not yet received)

10: 25 - 11:05 Pee Wee Soccer, cutest 40 minutes of my week! Beanie and I read during most of soccer. After class, little kids play on playground, then we eat lunch before dropping 5yo at PreK.

1:00 - 4:00 Tiny Buns to PreK

1:15 - 2:15 Beanie to French class

3:00 pick-up 10yo, 3:15 drop Beanie at soccer, 4:00 pick-up Tiny Buns, 4:15 pick-up Beanie

FRIDAY

9:00 - 10:00  The little kids loved writing the Spanish words to their favorite objects, as found in their Spanish picture dictionary. So cute. The 10yo actually said he enjoyed today's class (!!!) based on the fact that his focus was on reptiles. A big shout going out here to our local public library for making this all possible!

10:30 - 11:30 Field Trip at Heath Ceramics. Set-up by a fellow homeschool mom, this was a great way to show the kids the whole process, from clay to finished cup. 

EXTENDED LEARNING (AKA: THE WEEKEND)

We finally finished up our doggy Halloween float late Saturday morning -- just in time to make it to the parade/contest at 11am. Here is a shot of the kids getting ready to show the dogs in our float. (More photos to come in another post this week). Does this wrap-up our study of the American Revolution? Hardly! What's to stop one's interest in learning more?? It's all been SO fun, for all involved. :)

How We Homeschool - Week 5

IN THE CAR THIS WEEK

I love audio books. I can NOT tell you how good audio books are for us. For all that time spent in the car each week, instead of the pop music, we go educational. 

Johnny Tremain  We watched the movie last week, now listening to the book in the car. I wondered if this wouldn't be a bit redundant, but oh no! The book is rich with wonderful details and character development not found in the movie. We are all enjoying reliving the story in this format, often stopping to talk about things like... wonderful detail and character development. ;)  "A story of the turbulent, passionate times in Boston just before the Revolutionary War. Johnny, a young apprentice silversmith, is caught with Otis, Hancock, and John and Samuel Adams in the exciting operations and subterfuges leading up to the Boston Tea Party and the Battle of Lexington. As Johnny is forced into the role of a full-grown man in the face of his new country's independence, he finds that his relations with those he loves changes for the better as well."

Living Language - Spanish Started this as an in-car supplement to our in-home classes (2xs/week). I secretly love it when we are all repeating words and phrases together in the car. Highlight - 5yo: "Oh, mom. Did you hear that one? I just did a really good 'Buenas noches'."

MONDAY

9:30 – 3:00 Homeschool in the Forest

5yo:

"Played games with older kids, saw a huge buck, learned about the cooling properties of Madrone trees and laid on top of them."

7yo:

"We were surprised in the morning to find out we couldn't drive all the way up to the lake due to fire danger. But that turned out to be a blessing in disguise as exploring the Alpine area was really great.

 

I took the group to the spot where a bobcat once fooled me and we had snack there. We snuck up to mysterious sounds in the bushes hoping for a bobcat but discovering some towhees instead. Our mission of the day was to find water to soak our acorn meal in before it dried.  It was a hot day so looking for water was very appropriate. We looked for signs of water in the landscape and even tried to smell our way to it. It worked! We ended up following a dry creek to some mucky frog ponds, to some inlets and finally a gorgeous lake :)

 

Our mission accomplished, we looked for frogs, turtles and madrone berries and had a very nice sit spot by a giant rock.  I challenged the group to lead our way back, which was quite easy for them. Way to go fox lizards :)  This week we will be back at Lagunitas, continuing our learning about the animals that share the space with us.

 

Connections for home:

-Look for signs of water in the landscape near your home

-Journal a plant that grows by a creek

-When do deer loose their antlers? What is the rutting season?

10yo: 

"This week, with the gate closed, we explored a whole new region of "the lakes." From the entrance we walked through the Oak Savannah and found the mysterious trees - where two sets of Madrone-Oak are entwined, side by side.  From there we descended into a magical meadow, to play a round of yet another remix of capture the flag.  They just love it.  With more extravagant story and roles, we snuck around and "incidentally" found all sorts of deer bones and feathers (raptor? or turkey?).  It's just a natural way to allow them all to immerse in the landscape on two legs and on four, climbing around paying attention to sounds, smelling the smells of yerba buena as they step over it and activate it's minty smell.  

 

The journey continued along the dry creek until we found Alpine Lake.  Some went for frogs, some for rocks, and some a little of both.  We explored the changes between above and below the high water line, and imagined what it'll be like this winter.

 

A not-so-long journey back and we came across yet another deer kill site (legs with skin and hoof still intact) as we snuck up on Dane's group.  We all walked back together for a story and closing circle...

 

Looking forward to being back at Lake Lagunitas next week potentially with a couple guests - old Dirt Timers who have the day off school...good times."

A typical sight at pick-up - circle time, where everyone is giving thanks for their day. Makes me happy!

Tiny Buns sports his new shirt - a gift from his sister and grandma and their trip to DC. Perfect for him and for current block on the American Revolution. 

5:00 Time for the 10yo to make another journal entry about his Monday experience in the forest. Today's assignment begins with me writing in his journal "Homeschool in the Forest is..." and I tell him he has to give me ten descriptive lines from there. I tell him to highlight his favorite memories/experiences and to craft them with as much detail as possible. I tell him to play it out like bullet points, but that the goal is poetry. I give him a couple examples, but nothing that he can really copy. He gets excited as he feeds me ideas. I love them and show excitement in return. He's off and away saying he wants all his weekly writing assignments to be like this. The final product:

"Homeschool in the Forest is:

Playing games in the noon day sun,

Damming up a steam in the fog, 

It's starting a fire with nothing but sticks, 

taking turns playing mask on a crisp morning. 

Leaves crackling underfoot, 

Catching fish in an untouched stream,

It's catching frogs in muddy puddles, 

And making acorn brownies in late summer. 

It's lifting logs in search of king snakes,

And coming home drenched in sweat. 

Of course we ooh and awe over him. This coming from a boy who used to beg me - "Please don't make me put pen to paper!" He hates to write...except when it's meaningful. So the trick has been to find those opportunities and to jump on them. This exercise worked doubly well for him because he basically got to put his thoughts down in bullet points - and man-o-man, does this kid love his bullet points! Daddy talks with him about the beauty of poetry, how it "has the economy of words" and how in poetry "you aren't bound by the rules of grammar".

Then it's time for dinner and I need the table set. Daddy turns it into a game relating to American history. He picks a leader, talks about strong leadership skills, warns of a rebellion, praises the battle won. The kids assume their roles wholeheartedly to the point that when the 10yo tried to help the 5yo, Tiny Buns shouted: "You can't help me, you're my leader. I'm do all the work around here!"

 

TUESDAY

9:00 - 10:30 Drawing Out Arithmetic ("Playing with the ancient tools of compass and straight edge, children will discover the skills and methods employed by the Ancient Greeks to uncover enduring mathematical truths"). Incredibly enthusiastic teacher, Daniel, developed this class all on his own with the goal of getting kids to touch math and to have a physical relationship with it. I've never seen anything like this and when you see it in action it is super cool! D says this week: "We explored similar triangles. We took a yard long dowel and found the place where the top of the dowel matches the top of the tree from the ground. The distance from the eye to the dowel was also one yard making an isosceles right triangle. We measured the distance from the rod to the base of the tree. Since it was 25 yards and the triangle was isosceles, we determined the tree is about 75 feet tall. Back at the bat cave, I asked each student to draw a representation of our activity. They all did a great job! Finally, we constructed a more perfect model of the tree measuring activity with compass and straightedge. I introduced the term hypotenuse and showed them a teaser of how to calculate it's length."

10:30 - 12:00 Language Arts From the instructor: 10yo "worked on a keyword outline for ancient Greece. 7yo girls read the fable on page 36 in the book and wrote their own keyword outlines on page 37. Then we all added in colorful verbs, excellent adjectives, and LY adverbs to the keyword outlines. They each verbally retold the fable/Greek paragraph to the class adding in their extra words (using only their keyword outlines). I gave them some tips to improve (example to use more interesting words in place of boring banned words such as good or bad. We played an active adverb game at the end."

12:00 - 2:00 Free play art class! Everyone's favorite time of the week. The 10yo begins on a pair a leather moccasins for himself (G. guides him through the basics: pattern making, stitching, etc.). Beanie does mossaic work. 

1:00 - 4:00 PreK for Tiny Buns

2:15 - 3:15 10yo goes into his music class, still focusing on guitar and drums. Beanie and I walk down to a cafe to take turns reading from an easy reader adaptation of Les Miserables. I love these super-duper abridged versions of classics. They give the perfect amount for her, and just about enough for me. They allow us to get the foundation for one story while working on reading skills, allowing us more time to hit other related topics or activities. 

 

We were both thrilled to finally get to the part that takes place underground in the sewer system of Paris! We learned about this while we toured that exact place in March, and it's actually the entire reason I reached for the story to read together. 

WEDNESDAY

Now the 10yo is sick. Such a bummer. The rest of us are finally on the mend and he's the last one to go down. I need to get him in a better mood than the one he wakes in. I make him tea, prop him up on the couch. He asks me to read to him, suggesting National Geographic. He pics the cover story on sugar. 

You know I love reading to my kids. There is just this magical thing that happens when I read out loud to them. No matter what I'm reading, they listen. There we all were in the family room this morning, drinking our coffee and teas, wrapped in blankets and spread-out all over the floor. Even Tiny Buns, forever the engineer, sat building something out of paper clips and rubber bands, listening to me read about the history of sugar, injecting his commentary here and there. It bought us to the map several times, locating the hot spots in the world where sugar can grows best, had us doing math in our head to calculate daily recommended quantities in comparison to those amounts found in soda and candy and even had us touching on the history of world exploration and colonization. All this before toast! ;)

10:00 - 11:00 Spanish Tutor

Today's lesson was just the little kids, myself and the mestro. Because we didn't meet last week, we focused on review and went into colors. We finished with a reading of one of our favorite books, but in Spanish - Si Le Das Un Pastelito A Un Gato (If You Give A Cat A Cupcake).

Teaching children a language is tricky. We are still a bit all over the place and conjegating verbs is nowhere in our near future. Dare I say...we might all benefit from just using some worksheets. :-/

11:45 - 12:45 Beanie goes to science class hosted at a friend's house (sick 10yo runs errands with me). Note from instructor:

"Class Update

We reviewed each of Newton's laws of motion using a set of balls.  

 

Newton’s First Law: An object in motion tends to stay in motion unless acted upon by an unequal force.  An object at rest tends to stay at rest unless acted upon by an unequal force.

 

The ball has inertia.  It resists moving until acted on by an unequal force.  Moving balls will keep moving until an unequal force opposes the movement.  

 

Newton’s Second Law: Force equals mass multiplied by acceleration (F=ma)

 

When the force of a more massive ball is transferred to a less massive ball, the less massive ball accelerates much faster and goes flying off.  

 

Newton’s Third Law: Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.

 

In a Newton's cradle, 5 marbles are lined up.  When you pull one marble back and let it fall and collide with the other marbles, a marble on the opposite side pops out as the equal and opposite reaction.

 

To assess the level of understanding of Newton's three laws, the group drew cartoons to demonstrate each law based off of the example activities or ones they came up with on their own."

1:00 - 2:00 Poetry for 7yo

1:00 - 4:00 PreK for Tiny Buns

3:00 - 5:00 Beanie bakes a flour-less chocolate cake with her grandma. They bring it home to our house and my mom, myself and the two big kids head out to dinner and a one-time showing of the documentary  ON THE WAY TO SCHOOL. Grab a box of Kleenex, watch the trailer, and know that the movie did not disappoint. 

THURSDAY

9:30 – 3:00 Homeschool 4-wheel drive - the 10yo's second day a week in nature. Run by the same organization as Monday's class, this group happens have only boys enrolled at this time, which I love. It's great to see them just go off a wild adventure with a great male leader. This week's report: (not yet received)

10:25 - 11:05 PeeWee Soccer

1:00 - 4:00 Tiny Buns PreK

1:15 - 2:15 Beanie does French 

3:00 Pick-up 10yo, 3:15 Drop 7yo at soccer, 4:00 pick-up Tiny Buns, 4:15 Pick-up Beanie, 5:00 10yo makes journal entry about day in nature.

FRIDAY

Spanish lesson is canceled so we can host Tiny Buns' 5th birthday party! Almost one month after his real bday, we eek our an early morning party for the boys in his preK class. I swear that this will be the last party I ever throw. ;-)

1:00 - 4:00 Tiny Buns PreK

1:30 The big kids and I start watching America: The Story of Us. I watched this series last year with the then 9yo, and it's honestly worth re-watching every year. Still heavy at parts for the 7yo, so I sheilded her eyes and ears multiple times.  

EXTENDED LEARNING (AKA: THE WEEKEND)

We snuggled on the couch, Satuday morning and read a small stack of books from the library. The best one was The Adventures of Mark Twain By Huckleberry Finn, beautifully told and illustrated!

We are LOVING one of the vintage games I picked up on Etsy last week. QUINTO is similar to SCRABBLE, just with numbers. It's a great one with kids still strengthening their math skills. Tiny Buns is ALL sorts of motivated to learn addition. 

On Saturday we begin the paper mache component of our Halloween float. More to come on this. 

I'll close with the above photo because I just love what it represents - child directed learning. I had been outside for a long while, working on our Halloween float, when I came inside to find Tiny Buns creating this marble ramp, and testing the marble's force on a variety of wooden blocks and figures. Who knows what was going through his mind but he kept trying new things with its construction, and with the objects he was looking to hit. When I see my kids in these moment, long and thoughtful, I'm so grateful because I know they wouldn't necessarily have these if they were in school. Like I always say:

Do not overestimate the education a child gets in school, and do not underestimate the education you give your kids at home!

 

How We Homeschool - Week 4

This week was tough. I was sick, Daddy was out of town, and two of my three were on-and-off sick the entire week. We had to miss some of our classes, some of our classes canceled on us, and each day felt like a juggling act. The good part was we wrapped-up our focus on the Rennaisance after attending the fair on Sunday, and we launched into Colonial times and the American Revolution, which will take us through Halloween week when we showcase our Boston-Tea-Terrier-Party-themed-doggie-float at various pet parades. Dork alert! DORK ALERT!!!

IN THE CAR THIS WEEK

I love audio books. I can NOT tell you how good audio books are for us. For all that time spent in the car each week, instead of the pop music, we go educational. 

Living Language - Spanish Started this as an in-car suppliment to our in-home classes (2xs/week). I secretly love it when we are all repeating words and phrases together in the car. Highlight - 5yo: "Oh, mom. Did you hear that one? I just did a really good 'Buenas noches'."

Johnny Tremain  A story of the turbulent, passionate times in Boston just before the Revolutionary War. Johnny, a young apprentice silversmith, is caught with Otis, Hancock, and John and Samuel Adams in the exciting operations and subterfuges leading up to the Boston Tea Party and the Battle of Lexington. As Johnny is forced into the role of a full-grown man in the face of his new country's independence, he finds that his relations with those he loves changes for the better as well.

FINISHED UP

Leonardo da Vinci - Science of Giants Another great one and only 2.5 hours. Lots of fun tidbits to keep kids engaged. (Note: You might want to listen to track 11 + 12 of disc one before sharing with younger kids. Some heavier/sensitive content there.)

Shakespeare for Children: A Midsummer Night's Dream + The Taming of the Shrew, Jim Weiss. These short adaptations are a great starter for any age (40 and over included :). Easy enough to understand in today's modern world, they offer a nice foundation, with just enough original wording to get everyone comfortable in the world of Shakespeare. A great primer. 

 

MONDAY

Because we are down south still for the Renaissance Faire, we decided to skip our Monday Homeschool in the Forest, and spend the day in Santa Cruz, taking our time driving home along the coast. We took our breakfast at the infamous, Gayle's Bakery, and while it wasn't meant to be more than a quick *lesson* in eating snickerdoodle muffins, it evolved into a lesson in fractions after Beanie meticulously removed one muffin crumb at a time, until she was left with a perfect 1/4 wedge missing, and exactly 3/4 of her muffin remaining. What I've noticed with homeschooling is that because we know we are 100% responsible for our children's education, we step-up at every opportunity to teach them. Never does a moment slip when we might be able to awaken their senses to something new. And I just love this.

After breakfast we plopped ourselves down at Natural Bridges State Park and took in the perfect fall day with hundreds of brown pelicans and a pod humpback whales off the coast. :)

 

TUESDAY

Language Arts + Drawing Out Arithmetic were canceled this week. Instead I worked with the 10yo on some of the assignments his math tutor gave him - a math cross word puzzle, making a deck of fraction flash cards and building a dodecahedron out of rolled paper. (This took about three hours to complete!!)

I have Beanie work on her penmanship and she's off to do imaginary play with her little brother. 

Chores: brushing, cleaning, bed making.

12:00 - 2:00 Open studio art class for homeschoolers. Imagine a fully stocked open room and the freedom to create whatever you want. 10yo works leather pieces, cutting and stitching. I forget to ask Beanie what she worked on.

2:15 - 3:15 Music for the 10yo. He's super excited to get his aunt's middle school guitar re-strung and proudly brings it to his lesson. While he's in his lesson, Beanie and I hit a cafe where we order hot drinks and take turns reading Who Cloned the President. I'm thinking this series will be good for her as she just returned from DC and her reading skills are finally taking off. 

3:45 - 5:15 Soccer 

Tonight the 10yo finishes up his latest book - The Boys of Blur, by N. D. Wilson

 

WEDNESDAY

Chores: brushing, cleaning, bed making. 

9:30 Kiddo haircuts, followed by tag in the park, a stop at the library and then breakfast out. I'm feeling guilty about enjoying a quiet breakfast out with my kids and so we go over our manners once the meal arrives. 

12:30 Drop 10yo at a friend's house who will bring him to science class and back. Beanie is sick and will stay with me. Report from science instructor for this week: 

"This week we worked on our review of the nervous system.  We finished our neurons and assembled our spinal cord with the different bones that make up the vertebrae.  We added it to our posters and labeled the different parts.  Next week, we'll connect the nervous system to how the fingers move."

1:00 - 4:00 Tiny Buns does PreK  

3:00 - 5:00 10yo and his buddy go to Nana's house and fish on the creek. They get nibbles, but no bites. I'm just happy that they are on their own, doing boy stuff. I will always wonder what they talk about, if anything. ;) Beanie and I are at home, I'm super under the weather, she plays in her room. I start reading her an easy reader edition of Les Miserables. We've been meaning to do this since we went to Paris. 

 

THURSDAY

8:15 - 9:15 Math tutor for 10yo. 

9:30 – 3:00 Homeschool 4-wheel drive - the 10yo's second day a week in nature. Run by the same organization as Monday's class, this group happens have only boys enrolled at this time, which I love. It's great to see them just go off a wild adventure with a great male leader. This week's report:

"We started our day playing a migration game in the morning, as the "Hawk Watchers" tried to 'catch' the migrating hawks on their journey south (and north).  Our day started warm and sunny, but as we approached Mill Valley we could see the fog lingering...and linger it did, all day long.  We enjoyed some sound exploration in the tunnels up there, and made our way up to the top of the hill for snack, only to realize how cold and windy it really was.  Like animals, we made our way back down the hill to a little microclimate that was protected from the wind.  Some stealth games in the tunnel, with fog rolling in, while I played flute or didjeridoo made for an epic game - that they didn't want to stop.  After a couple rounds, we came back to the warm spot for some raptor journalling, drawing and learning more about the birds we chose at opening circle.  We headed up the hill to explore wingspans of various raptors and see how we measured up.  Atop the hill, we were still in the fog, we we found a place to process some acorns.  Since our last search for Black Oak Acorns, at Azalea Hill, wasn't a success, I brought some from home.  We cracked open hundreds which I've since leached on the stove, using a hot-water leach.  I'll dry out the acorn meal and save it for some autumn treats.  If we had running water, we could have done it that way as well.  Our search continues for more wild ingredients to make some wild foods this autumn."

Tiny Buns has sickness flare-up, stays home from soccer and PreK. Instead we drown our sicky sorrows in comfort food for lunch. 

Meatballs and French fries. 

1:15 - 2:15 French class for Beanie. This is a time when I plan to walk for an hour and get some much needed movement. I am finding that I'm sitting entirely too much with all the driving around I do. But Tiny Buns is with me today and sick, so we just hang out. :(

3:00 pick-up 10yo, 3:15 soccer drop 7yo 4:15 soccer pick-up

8:00 We watch Johnny Tremain, a 1950's Disney movie on the classic, and perfect for the kids. I found it while online at our county library, searching *Boston Tea Party*. I love, love, love our county library and all that it affords us. Every few days I'm on the website, researching subject matter and ordering audio, books and videos to be delivered to our local branch. 

 

FRIDAY

Our Friday morning Spanish class was cancelled due to it being Tiny Buns' birthday party. Unfortunately, Tiny and I have been sick all week and so the party is cancelled. We are home all morning which gives us the perfect opportunity to get started on our big history/Halloween project - a doggie float which we plan to enter into local pet parades. We'll call it "The Boston Tea Terrier Party". More to come on this exciting project. For today, we begin crafting our float out of cardboard, making templates, learning about planning one's project out, mock-ups, pattern making, trial and error. When the kids need a break, I have the 10yo read to the others about the BTP while I keep going. They spend much of the morning crafting a first round of doggie costumes. Despite me throwing my back out during this activity, it was super cute to see them all get so into it. 

Kiddos scrubbing a wagon which will serve as a base for our history project/Halloween doggie float.

The doggie costumes (colonists disguised as Indians!) are coming along!!

7:00 Kids watch Old Yeller. 

 

EXTENDED LEARNING (aka THE WEEKEND)

SATURDAY Soccer games and I'm out with a bad back. Daddy takes kids out to play and eat burgers. These awesome, never before used board games arrive! I found them on Etsy while looking for math games. I'm super excited to try them with the kids. 

SUNDAY Pancake breakfast at the firehouse, a birthday party for one, fishing with Daddy for the other two, dinner with three other families. Phew!

The Renaissance Faire

Last month, when I realized we would actually make it to this year's Northern California Renaissance Faire (I haven't been since I was 13), I began peppering our home studies with books and audio that touched on the Middle Ages and Renaissance periods. This is how I like to approach travel and other areas of interest, from all angles. To be able to oversee this with my own kids, has been an incredible gift. I've realized that while the world is full of subject matter that kids might not necessarily gravitate to on their own, almost all of it will interest them if presented in the right way. Is Shakespeare *the man* really interesting to a child of seven? Methinks not, my lady. But what if that child learns about the playwrite's impact on history, and the English language, by way of crafting 500 year old housewares, creating new words for the English language, or listening to his plays, modified for young, modern ears? One of the many things I love about homeschooling is that we can do this, in depth. We focused on this period in history for an entire month, and then we put on our tacky costumes and topped-off the whole thing with a day at the Renaissance Faire. I LOVE my job!!!

I had big hopes of crafting our own costumes, starting with Beanie's. I might have even made OVERT suggestions that we could "CRAFT IT OUT OF PAPER!!!", just to be super nerdy and annoying. But she didn't bite. So instead we threw a couple cheap Halloween costumes in our Amazon cart and called it a day. I, myself, had big dreams of being Bottacceli's *Flora* (the goddess of flowers + the season of spring), as she was depicted in Primavera, but time was not on my side this year. 

Moving on. The *rides* were a huge hit with the kids, of course.

These guys were amazing with their show on sword fighting. Informative and hilarious, I now know more that I ever cared to about swords. 

 

My kids are now begging to take rock climbing lessons. Weekly. :-/

 

The highlight of everyone's day was the magic and fire-eating show by Broon. 

 

And this guy... what was going on with this guy?? He was our favorite faire-goer, and we were lucky to keep running into him again and again. 

How We Homeschool - Week 3

People are always asking me what our days look like. The truth is, they are always changing depending on the season, what courses are being offered in our network, how we're feeling, and which way the wind is blowing. I love hearing about all the different ways people learn, and how everyone finds their own way through their own education. Unfortunately, I can only seem to find this sort of information through live conversation, with friends and family. I've never really be able to find these stories, in their entirety, online. So while I kept a handwritten journal of our learning last year, I decided to put it online this year, in hopes that it might help others to understand what we do. We are just one family, and for now, at least for this week, this is what works for us. This is how we homeschool:

IN THE CAR THIS WEEK

I love audio books. I can NOT tell you how good audio books are for us. For all that time spent in the car each week, instead of the pop music, we go educational. 

Living Language - Spanish Started this as an in-car suppliment to our in-home classes (2xs/week). I secretly love it when we are all repeating words and phrases together in the car. Highlight - 5yo: "Oh, mom. Did you hear that one? I just did a really good 'Buenas noches'."

Leonardo da Vinci - Science of Giants . Another great one and only 2.5 hours. Lots of fun tidbits to keep kids engaged. (Note: You might want to listen to track 11 + 12 of disc one before sharing with your kids. Some heavier/sensitive content there.)

FINISHED UP

Shakespeare for Children: A Midsummer Night's Dream + The Taming of the Shrew, Jim Weiss. These short adaptations are a great starter for any age (40 and over included :). Easy enough to understand in today's modern world, they offer a nice foundation, with just enough original wording, to get everyone situated in the world of Shakespeare. A great primer. 

Little Town on the Prairie, Laura Ingalls Wilder. The one book we were forced to skip in the series due to it not being available when we traveled. I love researching/learning before a trip, but it's also nice to learn more after you return home. Just two different experiences. 

The Shakespeare Stealer, by Gary Blackwood. Picked this one up on the recommendation of the librarian when looking for Renassance relevant content in preparation for the fair. So far, so good. Kids are hooked, and I'm super happy to discover this is an actual series with two more books to go. 

Shakespeare, by Bill Bryson. This one was for me, and my prepping for the Renaissance refresher. But like so many adult books I read or listen to, I feel there is a lot of wonderful information that is perfect for curious young minds. Typically I listen to these while alone in the car to make sure the content is OK for young ears, and then I play it again while they are with me. They always tune in, and I just love that. I don't believe our culture gives kids enough credit for what they can take in. Here is another adult audio book we enjoyed together in the car.  

MONDAY

9:30 – 3:00 Homeschool in the Forest

Leader summaries:

5yos group: n/a

7yos group: "Hi there parents of the Lagunitas Fox Lizards,

Our crew picked a name for our clan last week. It took some great consideration, compromising and creativity, but we did it. Actually the process was quite admirable, I tried to stand back as much as possible and let the kids figure out the choosing of the name themselves. So there it is now "The Lagunitas Fox Lizards" a combination of the lake we hike around, an animal we love and an animal we see a lot on our adventures. We are witty, fast and in tune with our environment :)

Last week started in a fun, unusual way. The group was excitedly talking getting to know each other paying much more attention to each other than where they were going.  I decided to test their awareness a bit and quite obviously stepped to the side to stand behind a tree that was right in front of them.  They just kept walking, I wondered how long they would take to notice that their instructor was no longer in front.  Instructor always is front is a rule of ours.  After quite a long while they did realize and then started running.  I was of course following close behind.  Finally I started running to keep up with them and someone turned around to notice me. :) 

Well the theme of our day became lost-proofing. 

We went over some basic lost proofing techniques, and tried to find north from many different spots.  We defined what good landmarks would be and tried ot notice obvious things about where we were. We also looked for acorns and identified the different oak trees we were seeing. We also processed acorns. Of course we also made time for some games of cat and mouse and exploration. We will continue learning about hazards, mapping and start diving into identification of animal tracks and sign.  In Dane's absence, I may take the youngest group next week and have Daniel be with this group.  Daniel is a tracking expert so that might be fun.

Connections for home:

* Find a leaf and acorn of as many different oak trees as you can

* Journal the most common oak trees of the area

* Try to find north and draw a compass rose in as many different places as possible"

 

10yos group: n/a

3:30 - 6:00 Library with former neighbor/daughter of dear friend - a Monday ritual. Pick her up after school and head to library for a weeks worth of fresh reading. We hang-out for about an hour and then head to an early dinner of burgers and fries. Imagine my excitement when I discovered the Spanish aisle and load-up on some old favorites!!!

BEDTIME READING:

10yo: Brian's Winter, by Gary Paulsen

Little kids: Fossil, by Bill Thomson. Love this illustrator's wordless books! We take turns narrating the story, page by page. I encourage them to replace simple words with ones more descriptive.

 

TUESDAY

Kiddos wake-up between 7 and 8. I set berries, yogurt and toast on the kitchen table decorated with juvinile magazines for browsing. We currently subscribe to Ladybugs, Appleseeds, Muse and Dig (as well as Smithsonian, National Geographic, Reptiles and All About History - these for the big kid). We love magazines!

until 8:30 breakfast and morning chores (grooming, clean room, make bed)

9:00 - 12:00 Big kids enrolled in locally taught homeschool courses Language Arts + Drawing Out Arithmetic ("Playing with the ancient tools of compass and straight edge, children will discover the skills and methods employed by the Ancient Greeks to uncover enduring mathematical truths"). Incredibly enthusiastic teacher, Daniel, helps reinforce the priciples of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division by having each of the four students saw one 36" dowel down into 1/2 units. (He also teaches them how to find the center with out measuring :) Using these units (1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128) he challenges them to a wide range of math problems. Daniel has put this class together based on some higher-level theories he learned as an adult. I ask him how to qualify it and he hesitates before saying, "You could call it bianary multiplication, but you wouldn't get the right info if you Google that term." He's developed this class all on his own with the goal of getting kids to touch math and to have a physical relationship with it. I've never seen anything like this and when you see it in action it is super cool!

At home during this time, Tiny Bun paints some water color thank you notes, and we watch a video in Spanish about counting 1 - 10. He gets it and can now count 1 - 10 in Spanish. :-)

12:00 - 2:00 Open studio art class for homeschoolers. Imagine a fully stocked open room and the freedom to create whatever you want. 10yo worked on props for his Halloween costume (a steam punk) and Beanie cast her hand in plaster, spun a clay bowl on the wheel, and began knitting a hat. 

Tiny Buns is under the weather and skips preK. Instead he plays with Fimo clay while we are home.

2:15 - 3:15 Music for the 10yo. He's super excited to get his aunt's middle school guitar re-strung and proudly brings it to his lesson. They work on basic guitar beats, and hit the drums for the final 15. While he's in music I'm outside with little kids. It's a mixture of squirrel family games and subtraction flash cards. Beans is good with subtraction, so we focus our energy in teaching the principles to Tiny Buns. He loves it and I can tell he's feeling proud.

3:45 Soccer drop-off, back home, quick walk with puppy, 5:15 Soccer pick-up

6:45 - 8:45 Daddy heads out with 10yo to see a concert of his music teachers students. This is good for the kid - to see the hard work paying off. 

Meanwhile. I'm at home with little kids and begin making Pomander balls as part of our Renaissance block. 

 

WEDNESDAY

We all wake between 7 and 8. Beanie reads to her Daddy. Over breakfast I read another chapter from Shakespeare activity book while kids continue working on their pomnaders. 10yo brushes up on multiplication (per his tutors request), and builds 3D triangle our of rolled paper scraps. 

Chores: brushing, cleaning, bed making.

10:00 - 11:00 Maestro Jason for family Spanish lesson. 30 minutes of crazy, then verb conjugation. Beanie prefers to draw pictures and label them than to just write out words. I love that she can do this freely. 10yo checks out mentally at ten to the hour. I have him go to his room and read. Hubs later mentions it's crazy to even try to teach kids this young to conjugate verbs in Spanish when they can't even always do it properly in English. This cracks me up. He makes a good point. 

 

Off to science and poetry classes at another family's house.

11:45 - 12:45 Beanie takes SCIENCE with 7yos (while 10yos BAKE SCONES with host mom). Report from instructor for this week: 

"This week, we raced cars down a ramp and measured the distance they traveled.  We raced three cars that weighed different amounts.  One car had 0 extra weights attached, one had 5 weights, and the last had 10 weights.   

On the rough carpeted surface, the cars experienced the slowing force of friction.  The more massive cars were able to go farther because they have more mass.  More mass means an object has more inertia.  Inertia is a resistance to change so the more massive cars are more resistant to change.  Since they are already moving, the change would happen in trying to slow them down.  The more massive cars are harder to slow down because they are more resistant to change and are able to travel a farther.  

 

Our results varied on the smooth surface that had very low friction.  In this case, our lightest cars ended up going the farthest.  In the absence of friction or an opposing force, a moving object will keep moving forever.   Our heavier cars must have had some other force acting on them to keep them from going very far."

 

1:00 - 2:00 Beanie (and the 7yos) move over to poetry class with lovely language arts instructor. 

1:00-2:30 10yo+ SCIENCE class. Report from instructor for this week: 

"This week we began our review of the nervous system.  We made a clay model of the four lobes of the brain and the cerebellum.  We attached the functions of each lobe onto our model.  We also began constructing our model of the neuron."

 

While big kids in their classes, Tiny Buns and I hang out and make stuff with stickers. 

3:00 I drop 7yo at her grandma's house for home economics. Today they make a shrimp cocktail appetizer to bring for dinner, and begin cutting out fabric for a quilt. 10yo takes his fishing pole and walks to his other grandmas house (the gmas live about two blocks from each other) where he fishes on the creek for two hours.

 

THURSDAY

8:15 - 9:15 Math tutor for 10yo. A rough session and we realize we need to make some modifications to our math program, if you could even call it that yet. We are still finding our way here this year. Homeschooling all three kids is a whole differnt ball game and everything I figured out last year doesn't seem to apply anymore. 

9:30 – 3:00 Homeschool 4-wheel drive - the 10yo's second day a week in nature. Run by the same organization as Monday's class, this group happens have only boys enrolled at this time, which I love. It's great to see them just go off a wild adventure with a great male leader.

Little kids spend the morning playing Legos. I'm good with this and don't want to interupt until I have to.

10:25 - 11:05 PeeWee soccer. Beanie and I do some math on the side. Again, the math part didn't go so well. Starting to wonder if math ever goes well. 

Home for lunch then off to Prek for Tiny Buns, 1:00 - 4:00

1:15 - 2:15 French class for Beanie

3:00 pick-up, 3:15 soccer drop, 4:00 PreK pick-up, 4:15 soccer pick-up

4:30 - 10yo journals about day in nature. I have him write a page then I go over it with him and discuss ways to improve it, starting by replacing simple verbs for more descriptive ones. He then re-writes the entry with his new changes. A little teeth-pulling, but it gets done well.

 

FRIDAYS (ARE FOR FIELD TRIPS)

8:30 Grandpa picks up the 10yo for a day on Alcatraz and at Fisherman's Wharf. 

The little kids and I head into SF for some beach time. Sunshine, seashell counting games, simple math in the sand, the beautiful bay, fish tacos while catching the Giants game on a big screen, and organic, dipped soft serve are just some of the reasons why we homeschool! ;-)

 

EXTENDED LEARNING (aka THE WEEKEND)

SATURDAY soccer games then we drive to Santa Cruz. Dinner on the wharf with family, total surprise that tonight marks the 100 year celebration of the wharf. Fireworks at 9, boardwalk open until 10. Super fun night - cousins have a great time. SUNDAY at the Rennaisance Fair! So much research, preparation and anticipation has gone into the fair over the last month. Kids loved every minute of it. I'll post about the whole day at the fair next.