Nature Day with Mrs. Megan

My friend Megan keeps a garden and has a big, shady yard with bright flowers and a hammock.  She recently discovered these black swallowtail caterpillars in her herb garden, and invited us over to play and look at the caterpillars.

She talked to Suzi about the life cycle of a butterfly...

While the little ones played and bounced.

And we found this little guy!  You can't tell from the picture, but he is a huge slug.  When he realized we were all standing around him, he tucked his antennae away and made himself look just like a rock.

Here is the conversation that ensued.

Megan, to the children:  Would you like to pet the slug?

Me:  Eww.  Is that okay to do?

And later...

Megan:  Sigh.  It's so relaxing out here.

Me:  Eek!  A bee!

So I think you can see why it's Nature Day with Mrs. Megan and not Nature Day with Mama.  I try and am getting better, but I'm so glad for all the unique role models in my kids' lives.

Did you know that Mrs. Megan is also the leader of our homeschool co-op, All Things Bright and Beautiful?  We have a great time there. If you are in the area, you should think about joining!  There are limited openings in both age groups.

Games, field trips, and a little unschooling

I can't believe I am posting again already!  Yay for me!  This is kind of embarrassing, but one important thing I've done recently is attempt to reacquaint myself with the library.  I love the idea of going to the library, but actually taking my three kids in there is rough.  They can be loud and unpredictable at times.  Besides, I've never been great at finding what I need.  As a result, I buy piles of books secondhand and when I need something specific, I order it.  As Suzi gets older, though, I want her to have access to the library so she can research whatever interests her with wild abandon without money being an object.  So on Saturday, Jordan and I took the baby step of going together to one of our local libraries, getting a card, and checking something out.  Maybe we will make Saturday library day so I won't feel overwhelmed by the kids.  I think this will save us money and space in our house, while introducing the kids to a valuable lifetime resource.

And now on to the pictures.

I found an idea somewhere--I think online--for a Race to 100 game with base ten blocks.  All you need is the blocks and a die, and I cut out those pieces of paper to match the 100 piece so they could see how close they were to finishing.  The girls enjoyed playing it for math, even though Ivey lost interest part of the way through.  When we don't include her in our games she feels left out, so I was glad she could participate in this one at least a little.

They are too young to grasp the rules of this one, but I also let the girls build with this Cranium pyramid game I found at a yard sale years ago.  If nothing else, I used it as an opportunity to better explain what a pyramid was, after we'd spent some time earlier in the week learning about Egypt.

Here's Suzi with her drawing of King Tut.  She's been very interested in him after we found a children's book at Goodwill about how his mummy was found.  Luckily, there were several National Geographic documentaries about him on Netflix, which she sat and watched, and then she stayed up late drawing lots of mummy pictures.  I love National Geographic.  And Netflix.

Homeschooling on the Cheap, one of the books I'm reading at the moment, recommended making some letter cards like these.  I made up two sets.  First I let Suzi go through and try to pick out all the vowels.  She needs a little more work on those.  Once we'd picked all the vowels out (y included), we played a short game of memory with them.  When she turned a card over, I asked her to tell me the sound the letter made.  Then we brought the consonants back into play to see what words we could make.  Hopefully this little game will help Suzi with sounding out words!
 

One night this week, Daddy spontaneously decided to show the girls how you can make a compass out of a bowl of water, a bottle cap, and a magnetized needle.  Jordan's tablet shows that it worked--see?  Ivey magnetized that pin herself with her tiny little hands.

I swear.  The man is awesome. 

Today was a field trip day.  I took both girls to see the Royal Drummers and Dancers of Burundi.  They danced and played drums made from hollowed tree trunks and animal skin, a tradition for events such as births and funerals in their culture.  One thing they are celebrating with their performances is fertility.  I loved it.  Below, on their way off the stage, they are playing the drums while balancing them on their heads.

We were able to see this show because of our local university performing arts center's Tri-Art series.  They line up 20 or so one-hour shows each school year, and because they are generously sponsored, tickets only cost $2 each!  Some are even free.  We paid $6 today to see these performers from Burundi.  It just doesn't get any better, especially in a small town like ours.  Local schools pick a show or two and bring their classes on field trips, but homeschoolers can come to as many as they want, as long as they are age appropriate (some shows are for ages 8 and up, for example).  We are going to six shows this year, and Daddy is even joining us for the next one!  To be honest, I love these shows as much for myself as for the kids!  Ivey had to stay at Grandma's house when we went last year because the minimum age is three, but this year she can go with us.  I was on the verge of tears last year when she had to miss the performance of her then-favorite book, "Goodnight Moon."  But no more!  My mom and dad continue to keep Robert while we attend, which we greatly appreciate.

I don't have any pictures of it, but we ended our homeschool week with a karate playdate.  My friend's younger brother does karate, and he agreed to spend a few minutes teaching our kids about it.  Suzi was excited.  Eventually I'd like to enroll her in a class, but for right now I not only appreciate but admire this awesome guy for volunteering to share his knowledge with a group of little kids.  Heck, I have three kids and still nearly break out in hives when standing in front of a room full of other people's children.

Mama, Daddy, grandparents, inspiring book authors, friends, libraries, community programs...  Look at all the wonderful help that surrounds us.  Sometimes homeschooling can be a little scary.  It can feel like just me standing alone, responsible for teaching my children.  But actually, it's not that at all.  It takes a village to homeschool a child.  More on this in my next post!

27 days down!

We just completed day 27 out of 180 last night. It's not always pretty, but we're getting it done! Homeschooling two non-reading children with a busy toddler in the house is hard! While I'm showing the girls some fossils, he's dumping my coffee in the floor. While I'm helping Suzi add, he's gotten into my sewing supplies and is unrolling every piece of elastic I own.

See what I have to put up with?

Jordan captioned this naptime photo: Hmm... What should I do to aggravate them next? I'll sleep on it.

But! We are getting it done! We are settling into a comfortable routine comprised of approximately 75% unschooling. The other 25% is me helping Suzi develop her reading skills and practice writing, do basic hands-on math, and learn social information I consider important. I'd like to keep her somewhat up-to-speed with her group-schooled contemporaries. By law, we are required to homeschool 180 days and cover reading, writing, math, science, and social studies. Science and social studies are just so easy to cover by reading a book and then letting Suzi's interest take flight on its own. She asks questions, we find the answers, and she's happily learning. It's awesome!

For instance, we found this book about the Wright Brothers at Goodwill. We read it a couple of times (at Suzi's request). We got to talk about how airplanes have impacted travel and, therefore, society. Social studies! Then we made paper airplanes--two different kinds. Hey, why is mine diving instead of flying straight like Ivey's? Science! We probably spend a good bit more time on social studies and science than kids in school do, but we don't always "count" it.

John the Spider continues to spark Suzi's interest. She enjoys watching documentaries about different kinds of spiders. We watch videos of spiders spinning webs and catching insects. Suzi draws pictures of spiders. She has also taken a recent interest in bats, although I have no pictures of that at the moment. Both are quite interesting to me, as well. I am learning as much as she is!

She found the other day that she loves Spider-Man. A friend introduced us to the cartoons on Netflix. We added him to her word book so she can write about him later.

After talking about dinosaur fossils and archaeologists, Suzi took an interest in fossils. She thought it would be so cool to find a real one! The other day while we were browsing in a local antique shop, I found this collection of small fossils, complete with information cards and a little magnifying glass. The girls enjoyed holding them and looking at them. I'm sure we'll get them back out for another look soon.

We attend a homeschool co-op, All Things Bright and Beautiful, on Monday mornings. It's lovely to get out, spend time with friends, and learn some new things! This Monday was rainy, but we had a great time playing inside.

I already got our Halloween books out this year! Just couldn't wait any longer. That first one is my favorite from when I was little and my parents read to me. The girls and I read and read and read. Of course it counts for the reading requirement, but books also spark many of our science and social studies lessons. I am always on the lookout for math storybooks, too. I would like to read even more than we do, but Robert makes it hard to get through a book. While we try to read he'll be throwing a fit, or getting into mischief, or climbing on me and trying to rip pages out. In a year or two we'll be all set--Suzi will be reading some on her own, and Robert will be sitting and listening to stories!

Cuisenaire rods are fun! I found some for $3 at Goodwill and looked up an addition worksheet online to try with Suzi. It took her several days to finish this one. Obviously these rods are a handy manipulative, but I love how they add color to math. Color instantly puts me in a happier mood, and I think it does the same for Suzi!

Suzi is still getting some of her numbers backwards, but practicing them with pencil and paper is awfully dull. I found this salt in a pan idea somewhere on the internet--maybe Pinterest? I used a glass casserole dish and put a green piece of paper underneath so her numbers would show up in her favorite color.

That's all for now! Who knows when I'll get to post again--hopefully before the month is out. We are getting things done, though, and that's probably why I'm not posting. So don't worry.

Rolling coins for math

This was a late August homeschool lesson, but I've had so little time for blogging that I am just getting to post about it now! And only if the baby sleeps a few more minutes!

The pink dinosaur bank and a jar or two were getting pretty full, so I thought it'd be fun to roll coins and do a little math in the process. We got all our coins, a few colored bowls, and some wrappers out and got to work. I let the kids sort the coins. I really just grabbed some plastic bowls from the kitchen without thinking, but the different colors came in handy. I could tell Ivey, "that's a quarter; it goes in the pink bowl." The lengthy coin sorting process allowed for lots of hands-on discussion and practice identifying coins. Does it have ridges? Then it's worth more. If someone said they'd trade you their penny for your dime, would that be a good deal?

I did most of the counting and rolling, but while I did it I took the opportunity to show the girls skip counting--mostly by twos with the pennies and tens with the dimes. Skip counting is something I had a hard time grasping as a child, and I think I might continue to get the coin jar out whenever we work on it. Money serves as a manipulative to let you put your hands on skip counting and helps bring it into the real world.

Once all the coins were rolled, I let the girls feel how heavy they all were. It was hard to hold that bowl up, but Ivey is strong!

Then we visited the bank. Now, I realize you can take all your coins to a machine in the grocery store that will do everything I just talked about and spit the cash out into your hand within a couple of minutes. But then you would miss out on the money lesson. So we went to the bank with our heavy bowl of coins and turned it in for some paper money, which was much lighter! I think Jordan might have been a little embarrassed to have his picture taken in the bank!

Finally, we went shopping. We bought movies to watch together and other fun stuff, and let the girls "pay the lady." When I was little, my parents helped me roll coins so I'd have money to spend when we went on vacation. I remember rolling coins for Disney World! But we are not going to Disney World until Robert is old enough to enjoy himself, so we figured for this roll-up, we might as well have a little fun right now!

Now the dinosaur bank is hungry, but he'll be full again before too long. Maybe next time we will be rolling coins for Disney World. I hope so!

John the Spider

I included a picture of our spider friend at the end of the last post, but since then Suzi has named him John. It makes me wonder if John is male or female. Either way, I am going to be sad when John is gone! I check on him every night, and usually he's there, seeing what he can catch in his web. Whenever I think about it, I turn the porch light on for him so he can get a few extra snacks. Here he is catching a moth while our family watches.

I'd recommend turning the sound off. All you'll hear is my kids marveling at how he "catch-ted" something, and me fussing at them to quit bumping into me because I'm making a video. My voice sounds so annoying in recordings. I really hope I do not sound like that in real life!

Highlights of our first 15 days

We're still homeschooling, even though I've had trouble finding time to update the blog! There's just so much to do, my computer is slow, and three active little kids don't allow for much computer time. I have been keeping a plan book. It isn't pretty or particularly neat, but it serves as a record of how many days we've done (15 out of 180) and what we're doing in each subject. I also have a notebook full of page protectors to keep samples of Suzi's work. Here's a little of what we've been doing these first few days.

Even though she's still not reading, Suzi likes to practice writing words. Sometimes she asks us to spell them for her. To help her with this, I made a word book out of a small notebook. I write words in it that she might like to use, and then draw or glue in a picture to go with it. I keep adding to it when she asks me how to spell something. Sometimes she draws the pictures herself. The important thing is that she can tell what the word is.

Here's one of her word book drawings. In case you are wondering what the fairy is doing, she is putting "lost things" on that table. Fairies occasionally visit our house through our little fairy door and leave fairy dust and lost things on the nature table for the girls.

I love Suzi's drawings. This Rainbow Snail is one of many colorful creations Suzi has made so far this school year. Her ability to spend most of her time pursuing her interests might be my favorite thing about homeschooling.

The girls took an interest in dinosaurs after I brought some books and toys home from the homeschool conference. One of the books suggested making your own fossil out of clay with your hand, so we did! While we were at it, we decided to make a time capsule. We put these handprints and a few other things into a bucket and buried it in the backyard. We'll probably dig it up when Suzi graduates homeschool.

Then we made a stepping stone to put on top of it so we can remember where it's buried.

Another picture Suzi drew recently--she copied the name. This one is really special to me because it's a portrait of my dog Shorty who died a couple of weeks ago.

Suzi has been having trouble getting her numbers to face the right way, so I've been trying to think of some fun, different ways for her to experience forming them. Here she is using finger paint to trace the numbers I had already drawn in pencil. Then I let her paint them herself on the next row. As you can see, Ivey really wanted to get in on this! Don't worry, I let both of them paint for about an hour after Suzi finished her numbers.

Another day we made the numbers together with play doh. This went over much better than asking her to write them out with a pencil, and she could pick them up and feel them rather than just see them. We picked up the 7 and flipped it over the way it was supposed to be.

As for actually doing math, we have been working on adding using our abacus. Suzi currently prefers it to the counting bears.

We have been talking about life cycles lately--birds, frogs, flies, spiders, whatever Suzi is interested in exploring. I helped Suzi with this little project depicting the life cycle of a fruit fly. There was an unfortunate incident here recently during which we came upon some fruit fly larvae in a surprise fashion. I was horrified, but just couldn't pass up the teachable moment before I disposed of them. I bet the fly life cycle lesson is one the girls won't be forgetting anytime soon!

I will close with this photo of the little guy who has been living on our front porch. He spins huge, beautiful webs and because he is so big, it's easy to see what he's doing. If we turn the porch light on, flies come and we get to watch him catch them. I didn't see him out there in his favorite spot tonight, so I hope he's okay!