The Magic School House

This plus math and a story makes a school day

Published on 2010-08-24 14:50:00

We are still in our summer mode of doing school lightly.  We don't traditionally start until after BB goes back to college, but we are trying to catch a couple of days a week.  Today, the girls hit it out of the park.Art, Science, Spelling and Technology for a KinderLB loves animals.  She has been working on a series of animal pictures on the IPad in SketchBook Pro which I find hard to use.  She is amazing.Art, Technology and Practical Skills for a Fourth GraderCC made a

Building Strong Bodies or Playing in the Mud

Published on 2010-08-24 12:03:00

Strong Minds and Strong Bodies.The WarriorsThe Support CrewWe had a terrific time last weekend supporting our warriors in Warrior Dash.  All part of the new emphasis on building strong bodies and leading by example.  I think I just might want to start running too so I can join in the fun next year.

Sometimes I really love Homeschool

Published on 2010-08-20 12:23:00

Reading Green Eggs and Ham for the second time this week and Feeding ants to carnivorous plants.I think one of my favorite things about homeschooling is the chance for my kids to learn together and really know each other. It is such a precious thing.Earlier this week, CC helped LB read 6 pages of Green Eggs and Ham. This morning, LB wanted to read it to her brother. She is reading the copy of Green Eggs and Ham that I had bought for him when he was just learning to read 16 years ago. They re

Crawling into the new year

Published on 2010-08-17 15:50:00

humph. That is how I feel about the start of school. I have the plans that I've labored over all summer. I have the books. I even have pencils, paint, paper and protractors. I'm still missing something important. We've done three weeks of school stretched out over the last month or so. We've even gotten back to long division and phonics. Maybe it will feel more like school after we put BB on his plane to Japan which is our traditional start of school. Maybe once it quits feeling so much

Summer School? No way....

Published on 2010-07-28 23:45:00

The first math problem of the school year just might be "If the alpine slide is 2600 feet long and it took you 15 minutes to get to the bottom, how many feet per second were you traveling?" And how much fun is that?

Getting ready for next year

Published on 2010-07-21 12:13:00

We made our 172 days this year, but it was a stretch for us. We had taken off lots of time during the year and by summer we were all tired of school. I had planned to continue math through the summer, but plans change. Our house doubled in occupants for the past month and made just too many opportunities to not get around to the math. We've been learning some good social skills instead like tolerance and getting to know people that are differnt and working past jealous feelings and talking t

Scooby-Doo days

Published on 2010-07-07 16:49:00

Today was a Scooby-Doo day. My Very Important Document had to be published today and presented to a bunch of Important People. All of that is done. Now I'm sitting on the kitchen stool finishing my day and waiting for someone to get back to me about Something That Can't Wait. The girls and I just finished watching Scooby Doo; the loaf of homemade bread is almost done and is filling the house with warm smells; the girls are building with blocks in the floor by me.I like Scooby-Doo days.Earlie

Weekly review - Summer Week 1

Published on 2010-06-25 18:00:00

Since it was summer I didn't keep track of what we did. I know that the kids have settled into their "No-Math / No-Electronics" routine because this morning LB was looking for her math book when I came downstairs to make coffee. She finished her math and watched a movie while she ate breakfast in the office /school room.We've been playing "Go Fish" with a set of dinosaur cards that I got for school next year for LB. We all have fun trying to sound out the names. LB has also been working thro

Prereading books

Published on 2010-06-25 11:40:00

Do you preread all of the books you give your kids? I try. This week I was caught off-guard by two instances of books I should have preread. One turned into a great opportunity and the other was a missed opportunity.Let's start with Cinderella. There are hundreds of versions of this tale available. I have several of varying quality. LB asked me to read her one that I hadn't read before. It had cute pictures so we read it. It was terrible. It was just a summary of the plot with no depth

The last weekly report for 2009-2010 school year

Published on 2010-06-18 11:54:00

I'll have to follow-up with a year-in-review once we do our anual testing, but this was the last week of the school year.It has been a very mixed bag this week. BB is in Cali at an electronics convention; I've been super busy at work; hubby had to actually go to the office; the girls have done amazingly well.For school, we took sample standarized tests which reminded us that we have a very non-standard way of schoolin' here. CC did math three times, and I must say that any child that can finis

Four O'Clock On a Wednesday Afternoon

Published on 2010-06-09 16:42:00

Three days until the end of school.Right now, LB is sitting at the other end of my work desk with glitter, glue, scissors, and watercolor paint. She is working on a big project.CC is sitting on the couch in my office reading Oh Rats by Albert Marrin. She has Diogenes sitting next to her to read next. So far today, this is the only schooling they have done. BB took them shopping to get them out of the house for a few hours. Each had a little money to spend. CC wanted a purse and perfume. S

Right now in my homeschool

Published on 2010-06-08 12:21:00

The girls are sitting at the kitchen table with a rock identification kit for each girl. The oldest is indentifying 15 rocks based on their properties. The youngest is comparing the rocks to see which ones leave what color streaks, which ones are magnetic or reactive to acid, and washing them all with a paint brush etc. Science, thinking, education. All happening right up there where I can see them while I am supposed to be in the family room/office working. Instead, I am distracted by how

A first look at Kindergarten

Published on 2010-06-06 09:34:00

This is my second time teaching Kindergarten, and I'm a bit sad that I can't do it the same way for LB that I did for CC. I think, that given the limits of our time and schedule, I have still made a terrific Kindergarten plan for her.My main focus for her is going to be reading. She has a problem with visual processing that she is supposed to outgrow sometime before she is 7 so I'm very nervously doing watchful waiting. In the meantime, we are doing Phonics Pathways. Right now we just do it

A first look at fourth frade

Published on 2010-06-05 23:07:00

For 4th grade CC wants to study like a Roman girl would have. We've made some compromises and detailed the material. I just need to get my hands on all of it and map the lessons.Roman children need to be able to write-She's going to keep two journals, one for her modern self and one for her Roman girl self.We're going to do CW Homer A. Once she saw the samples, she loved it.We're doing Spelling Workout E because she needs a spelling program, and I need something easy.Well-educated Romans spok

Homework and Work at Home

Published on 2010-06-04 15:25:00

Something very strange is happening in my home. Let me explain.For my job, I have to write Very Important Documents. These documents have time lines, summaries, suggestions, and proposed corrective actions. Since I work at home and home school, my kids get to see a lot of my work. This morning, I needed to compute the elapsed time of a particular happening so I had CC help me with it. Before I send out my Very Important Documents, I have her proofread them for me, and I usually read them to

Slowing down for summer

Published on 2010-06-01 17:06:00

We have 8 days of school left plus testing. Right now, I have a bowl of freshly picked white roses on my desk with a Middle Ages activity book and a bar chart of survey results so I know the kids had school today. The girls caught the dog earlier. I think they are planning to have her star in a movie. BB just brought home groceries; blackerries are on sale. We are slowing down. The days are long, warm and sunny. We've decided that it is best to do schoolwork in the afternoon when its to

Golly do I feel grown up

Published on 2010-05-23 19:43:00

Right now, I am sitting in a sunny window drinking a glass of white wine, waiting for my salmon to finish cooking and reading Nicomachean Ethics. These are amazing, grown up things that you never get to do when you have small kids. Who can follow Aristotle with kids playing in the same room?The kids and daddy are on their way home. The house fan is on because the marinade I put on the salmon caught fire which means I'm having smoked salmon, again. My feet are dirty because I've been in the g

Week 32 - What counts as school?

Published on 2010-05-21 19:05:00

This week the kids are off on an adventure without me, but this is the weekly report for school so here is our school report.Monday, CC took a French test, went to a bounce house, did her math, and then we met friends at the park. That's an okay day of school especially since I know that she also read for a couple of hours. "Just say no to pillaging," has got to be one of my favorite lines from a kid's book.Tuesday, she did her math, packed her bag and a box of books and left with LB and daddy

Wordless Wednesday

Published on 2010-05-19 12:00:00

Week 31 - I think we have a working plan, again

Published on 2010-05-14 15:46:00

This counts as science right - maybe nature studies? We found and released a spider from my office which inspired a morning of reading about bugs and an art project. This is made with tape and string.I've been a little lost since I changed from working weekends to working at home during the week. I needed to refocus. I talked last weekend with CC about what was important in school and reread sections from The Latin Centered Curriculum and The Well Trained Mind, and browsed through several ho

Quiet Days and Important Things

Published on 2010-05-13 14:18:00

This has been a tough week so far for me. I had a nasty migraine Monday night that lasted all day and into the night on Tuesday. The medicine took the edge off the pain and left me feeling slow and confused with the light sensitivuty and super hearing. I should have been more like myself Tuesday then Wednesday wouldn't have been so hard.Today, I am just spent. The kids have done less than half their work, and I haven't done nearly enough of mine. Everything is quiet which suits me today. We'll m

Week 30 -

Published on 2010-05-08 10:04:00

This week, the kids played mini-golf and went swimming with their brother and went bowling with daddy. Math and Japanese were accomplished daily. Writing is still the struggle it has been all year, but I added a new type of assignment that was terrific. Grammar, science, history,art and engineering somehow were completed. Reading and literature are the easy subjects. I delegated less this week, but felt the strain more and seriously questioned how this can work, but it is important to us al

Week 29 Delegation

Published on 2010-04-30 11:46:00

It is official. Making a schedule doesn't get the work done. Can you believe it? The act of writing down a task doesn't make it happen automatically. There are only a certain number of hours in a day. When I finish work, I'd rather take a nap than do math or mop the floor, and the girls would rather that I cuddle or play.This week, the ducklings grew too fast.The kids worked on some engineering. CC and BB made a motor, and LB made gears that can turn corners. CC also started learning about struc

The best all around homeschool gadget.

Published on 2010-04-26 12:59:00

Thanks to my new homeschool-helper I am having a very good day. Picture this - eating fruit-filled crepes for breakfast and listening to your children learn Japanese from a patient and enthusiastic teacher. It isn't a dream; it was my morning. It is amazing. BB made breakfast and played "Mother May I" with the girls then supervised math and taught Japanese. He also listened to Shakespeare recitations and made lunch. I think he's just what every homeschool parent needs. BB is a young man full of

Week 28 - A long way to go

Published on 2010-04-23 12:22:00

We survived our first week as a homeschooling family with two parents that work full-time at home.Monday - up early all ready to start 10 minutes until first big thing for work and crash - CC fell. School canceled, but I couldn't miss the call. Hubby helped out tremendously. Everything is harder - lunch, laundry, dinner, comforting a kid that needs more attention than medicine ....Tuesday - Started out with math and then my first conference of the day. Hubby helped again with the juggling.