10%

I've been using an online schedule/grade book for home school this year (Homeschool Skedtrack). It lets me put in the activities we're doing, keep track of grades (optional, as we are independent homeschoolers and not required to do so by the state, but it is something I chose to do should we ever opt to go under an umbrella and need those little letters!), and even has a spot to record field trips, and print transcripts and report cards.

As I am filling in all the information, it alerts me to what day of school we are on. Yesterday was day 18, which doesn't sound very far in, but it is 10% of the way through our 180 day year, which seems crazy!

R & R and ice cream

We went to visit my parents this past weekend. Speaking of traveling, am I the only person who feels that all the laundry must be done (including the sheets and towels), all hose keeping must be caught up, and everything put away before I can leave town? Friday night my parents kept the littles while we went to dinner without ordering for anyone else, cutting up food, running children to the restroom, or cleaning up spilled drinks.

We had considered a movie, but we didn't find anything we were really interested in, so we went to a bookstore where we wandered aimlessly looking at all sorts of books. We hadn't done that in a very long time! Afterwards we headed to my parent's cabin. We watched a little TV before heading to bed, where we stayed until after eight in the morning. If you have little children who rise fairly early, you know that is a major event.

We got to be back with the munchkins less than 24 hours later, but it was nice to have that break. We got to visit with my parents, my sister, and even briefly with my mom's cousin who was passing though town.

Then we headed off to the annual ice cream social at the church I grew up in. Burgers, hotdogs, lots of potato salads, cakes, cookies, and of course ice cream. We got to visit with some of the girls I knew when I was the age of my girls. The kiddos played in a couple of inflatables as well.

Kate made some lady's day. The woman, who I was told is in her 80's, was standing near the inflatable, so Kate asked her, "Are you in line?" so as not to cut. Everyone thought it was nice of her to try to include her, but she told Kate she was, in fact, not in the line.

I forgot my camera, but it was a nice weekend!

Habitats

We're studying biology this year. I've been planning our course since midway through last year. All the sudden it hit me though--the outline I had read (and loved), from The Well Trained Mind, left out a few topics I wanted to cover. Some of it can be easily worked in, other things not so much. Kate isn't as gaa gaa over animals as some children are, so it isn't difficult to shorten that study (which is supposed to last 20 weeks) by a couple of weeks to add in some other biology topics. We are starting with a unit study on habitats. I plan to teach various habitats now and then she will relate that to those animals later when we get to them.

Our unit study is in depth and costly...just kidding. I have several books I picked up at the library (The Usborne Book of Wild Places, EyeWitness Science: Ecology, The World Wildlife Fund: Living Planet, and Animal Habitats [by Judy Press]). Just about any book on habitats for children would probably work. The World Wildlife one isn't for kids, but is mostly pictures.


We read about a habitat, looked at pictures, and I tortured the child by making her draw her answer.


She loves to draw, plus I get to see that she gets it. She was facinated by the carnivorous plants...here is a pitcher plant eating a bug on the right (on the left is a parrot). And in case you didn't know this about rainforests, she tells us, "They are really wet."


I have her draw a picture of the habitat, write one sentence to describe it, and then draw a picture of one animal and one plant that she could find there. She describes wetlands with the sentence, "They have lots of water," and she illustrates a snake and cattails.


I even had her draw a picture of her habitat (our house). Excuse the blocked out portions, but I didn't really want the whole internet to have our home address! There are steps, a flower bed and a lot of windows above the door.


I then bound her pages together to make a book of habitats to have on hand that she can look at as she goes through the animals later.

The Animal Habitats book is the book I've leaned on most heavily. I have really enjoyed the art activities. We haven't done anywhere near all of them (not by my daughter's choice!), but they have been fun and fit right in with the lesson. I would recommend seeking it out if you can.

Nate-isms

Nate opened a book, gave it to Justin, and Justin tells me he said, "Read to me, buddy."

Another bookworm?

All Alone

When you have more than one child, you have to be intentional to spend time with just one at a time. Let's face it, hanging out on the couch with them is nice, but is likely to be interrupted by the siblings. We try to take individual children on errands when it is feasible too, but sometimes it is great to do something special just with one of the kiddos.

Last week I took Kate to a science museum nearby, just the two of us. We got to spend time on things that are hard to do with the little ones. She got to 'fly' in the moon walk

and we went geocaching indoors and out.

This week I took Gabriella to see a movie.

We saw The Smurfs. It was her very first movie. Not one I would really recommend as a great work of cinematography, but it had some funny lines and was reminiscent of my childhood--I loved the Smurfs. Plus it was a great afternoon with you youngest gal.

Meanwhile, Justin took Nate for a nap...

Next month we'll switch and the girls can go on 'dates' with their Daddy.

A First Word

I write a lot about Kate's school, since that is much of what we spend our days doing. The littles join us here and there as they want or as things apply to them. Gabby has been asking to read for a little while, so I've been teaching her with Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. Kate and I brute forced our way through a McGuffey Reader, but being as Gabby younger than Kate was, I thought we needed to start a little slower.

We got to read her first word yesterday. It was 'me.' I was so happy for her...she was happy for the sticker that I give when they read with me!

Another happy little bookworm in the making!

Gabby-isms

Those blueberries don't make my tongue all comfy cozy in my mouth.

* * * * *

As the girls were 'hunting,' using their stick horses as rifles (We've been reading Little House in the Big Woods.)...

I shoot [sic] a rubber chicken over dere [sic].