Day 77

Okay, no official school today, but we did some craft stuff, and we plan to do more tomorrow including some thank you notes to family.  The main reason I'm posting today is that I was prompted by my husband who e-mailed me a list of the books we have out of the library:

Belles on their Toes / Frank B. Gilbreth, Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey

The Elements : A Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the Universe / Theodore Gray

Men of Salt: Crossing the Sahara on the Caravan of White Gold / Michael Benanav

Lost Empire / Clive Cussler with Grant Blackwood

Higher Education?  How colleges are Wasting our Money and Failing our Kids, and What We Can Do About It / Andrew Hacker and Claudia Dreifus

How to Become a Scandal: Adventures in Bad Behavior / Laura Kipnis

The Return of Meteor Boy? / William Boniface

Binky the Space Cat / Ashley Spires

Binky to the Rescue / Ashley Spires

Sticky Burr: The Prickly Peril / John Lechner

Road to Revolution / Stan Mack and Susan Champlin

The Chaos King / Laura Ruby

A Froggy Fable / John Lechner

Cool Stuff and How it Works / Chris Woodford

Folklore & Fairy Tale Funnies / Art Spiegelman and Francoise Mouly

The Last of the Mohicans / James Fenimore Cooper

Dreadful Acts: Book Two of the Eddie Dickens Trilogy / Philip Ardagh

Tales from the House of Bunnicula. Books 1-4 [sound recording] / James Howe

Dinosaur Hour! Volume 1 / Hitoshi Shioya [translation by Katherine Schilling]

Whales on Stilts / M.T. Anderson

Lost / Sarah Prineas

The Last Invisible Boy / Evan Kuhlman

Scat / Carl Hiaasen

The Underneath / Kathi Appelt

Life / Keith Richards

Tunnels / Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams

Rat / Matthew Rayner

There Was a Man Who loved a Rat and Other Vile Little Poems / Gerda Rovetch

The Haunted Monastery and The Chinese Maze Murders: Two Chinese Detective Novels / Robert Van Gulik

Gulliver's Travels / Jonathan Swift

The Art of the North American Indian / Shirley Glubok

David Balfour, Being Memoirs of the Further Adventures of David Balfour at Home and Abroad / Robert Louis Stevenson

USKids history. Book of the American Civil War / Howard Egger-Bovet and Marlene Smith-Baranzini

Welcome to Felicity's World, 1774 / Catherine Gourley

The Dreadful, Smelly Colonies: The Disgusting Details about Life During Colonial America / Elizabeth Raum

The Capture / Kathryn Lasky

Mystery at Meadowbrook / Laura Lee Hope

Inkheart / Cornelia Funke

Molly Moon Stops the World / Georgia Byng

Stanley in Space / Jeff Brown

The Lemming Condition/ Alan Arkin

Eric the Red: The Viking Adventurer / Neil Grant

Betrayal / Patricia Finney [writing as Grace Cavendish]

Conspiracy / Patricia Finney [writing as Grace Cavendish]

Lizards / David R. Moenich

Now, obviously not all the books are for the kids.  Not only that, not all the books are going to be read (or have been read would be more accurate.  Most of them will be going back tomorrow).  I think that the main point of the library books is that they are in the house.  It's sort of a Montessori approach, and it works fairly well.  There are some books that I read to them or with them that are not optional, but a lot are.  It always surprises me what gets read, and sometimes what doesn't.  I tried reading Gulliver's Travels out loud, and it was a spectacular failure.  Not for the kids; they said they were enjoying it!  I just couldn't do it.  It's Full of Random Capitallization and rather Archaic Language.  It makes it Hard to Read out loud.  Ugh. 

Anyway, I guess the point is that this may seem like a crazy number of books to have out of the library, but it's fairly typical for us.  We have a shelf specifically designated for library books.  With the number we have out, we need to!  Honestly, it surprises me that there has only been ONE book we couldn't find and had to pay for.  This in the 8 or so years of going to the library with the kids.  All I can say is I LOVE the LIBRARY!!

Day school's-out-for-Christmas-and-sickness

While we haven't made any progress as far as the kids' academic careers, we did have a nice Christmas with Emily on the mend, and Luke just getting it the day after Christmas.  As of now, he has a fever, but he was relatively ok during the day.  The poor kid doesn't react well to being sick.  Emily tries to be a trooper, but her cough is very bad at night.  Luke has been through 2 boxes of tissues today alone.  I can't complain about him in that way, though.  I was always miserable when I had colds as a kid.  I think they hit some kids worse than others.
Anyway, tomorrow will be a day of activity.  We're going to try making thank you cards, and maybe doing some of the crafts they got for Christmas.  I'm looking forward to a low key day.  Orchestra was cancelled due to the 14 inches of snow we got along with the blasing winds.  Today was spent shovelling while the kids stayed indoors.  Sigh...Looking forward to tomorrow!

Days 73, 74, 75, 76

After we had a fairly decent week last week, we started going downhill.  This is to be expected, of course, when we are approaching Christmas and all the trappings thereof.  We did go to Orchestra on Monday, but DH and I took off for a little time to ourselves for an overnight, which meant that Luke and Em went to Nana and Grandpa's for their own overnight. 

I'm sure it was good.  They decorated Nana and Grandpa's house for Christmas and went to a small party with Nana.  Nana is a breast cancer survivor and it was a party for her radiation group.  It's a small group, but one of the members has had a tracheotomy.  This was explained beforehand to them, so I'm reasonably sure they responded ok.  What more reason would they need to not smoke?  They also remember all too well the picture of a diseased lung they were shown in a Human Body class they took, and that was almost 5 years ago!  As far as Nana's radiation, they should remember that pretty well, also, as we took Nana 3 days out of 5 for 8 weeks three years ago.  Quite an experience.

Anyway, when they returned home after their overnight, we had some of the usual attitude.  They always take a while to get back to normal.  This time, though, right in time for the holiday, Emily got sick.  At present she has a fever.  Earlier today it was about 104 degrees.  Thankfully she can take tylenol pretty well.  We'll medicate her so she can sleep, give her plenty of tea with honey and toast. and hope she feels better in 2 days...and hope the rest of us don't get it! 

We'll have orchestra on Monday, so that should set the tone for the few days between Christmas and New Year's.  We'll be going to DC for New Year's, so we won't be getting much done as far as book work then either.  Well, I've already made it clear that if we can't keep up with our work during the year, we'll have to keep working in the summer. 

On the other hand, when I mentioned that we will be covering Geology in January, I got "yay"s, so we'll go with that.

Days 70. 71, 72

Ok, I'm back again.  It's getting harder to post every day (obviously), but we can get the overview.

Day 70 was Tuesday.  That was to be our stay at home day, but turned into our go-bowling-with-our-friend day.  We did get schoolwork done, but bowling was more fun.

Day 71 was Wednesday.  Usually this is a dance-then-co-op day, but this Wednesday we had a special outing with our co-op to go to the Rhinebeck Center for Performing Arts to see A Christmas Carol.  I have wanted to see this show for a couple of years, but we could never work it out.  Either funding was tight, or we missed the deadline or they were already sold out.  I felt fortunate to not only make it in, but to make it on a day that was really quite light in attendance.  I know that's not what the performers want, but it makes it so much more pleasant for me!  It was a wonderful performance.  There was a lot more singing than I had thought there would be, but it added a lot to the story.  I really liked the way they added actual Christmas songs so that it felt like it was more than just a story about a man who decided he didn't want to die hated or see Tiny Tim pass away.  It was also about Christmas.  The woman who played the ghosts really made the play for me.  It was a good performance anyway, but she is such a character she really seemed to steal the show.  When, instead of flying as the first ghost, she started skipping and singing "Over the River and Through the Woods," well, it was really funny.
We also had the cousins over in the evening.  They are a good crew of 3, ranging in age from 10 to 5.  We had quite a time reading the second Sticky Burr book and eating cupcakes in honor of Stormy's birthday (Stormy is Emily's rat.  He's 2.  He's an old rat.) 

Day 72 was Thursday.  Today.  The I'm-so-busy-I-don't-know-what-to-do-first day.  How does this happen?  One minute I have history class in the morning.  That's all.  The next, I have to take the car in, go to the bank, go to the store for a coat, go to the library, go to the food store, and go to campus to register for the history class I'm taking in the spring, as well as get mail in.  Yikes!  We tried to have a go at school, but it just didn't take.  I understand it.  We're going to try having Saturday as a make-up day.  It seemed to work last week, so what the heck, we'll try it again. 
One good thing (other than all those errands getting accomplished) was that Luke made dinner.  He did quite well, too.  Tuesday, Emily made spaghetti for dinner, so I made some rolls to accompany them.  So, for today, Luke decided to make Dad's favorite, hamburgers.  He decided on the spices to add, set up the pan for the french fries, set the oven, put them in, cut the cukes for the salad and flipped the burgers.  He even got the fries out, which I didn't think he would.  He did draw the line at forming the patties, but I expected that.  Poor kid!  He hates getting his hands dirty, and burger meat is about the last thing he wants to touch.

All in all, it's hard for me to say how these past few days have been going.  Have they been good?  Have they been hard?  Are they learning?  Yes, yes, yes.

Days 67, 68, 69

Wow, what a week last week.  It's a good thing they don't happen all the time, or I'd be locked away somewhere singing some children's song and rocking.

Anyway, that's all behind us now, and hopefully we are moving on.  Homeschooling is so funny, because just when you think you are doing a bad job, and maybe this isn't what you should be doing, there is all sorts of evidence placed in front of you that there is nothing better, and that this is really best.  Of course, DH helps by posting Why We Homeschool. 

What happened was we were getting nowhere with Math lessons.  At the beginning of the school year, Emily was giving me grief over math.  Now she acts the angel I know she can be, and Luke has dug in his heels.  When we finally had to take his Legos away (and anyone with boys knows how well THAT went over) we had a short tornado on our hands.  After two days, however, we got more into the pattern, and now he knows that if he does his work, he can bring his Legos out into the living room in the evening while I read to the family.  I really like it better because now he shares a lot of his creations with us, where before he was pretty isolated in his room. 

The kicker was when I told him Friday evening at his cousin's house that, yes, he could wait to do part of his math lesson on Saturday morning if he promised to do it in the actual morning (He had already had to do the first part of it AT the cousin's house).  He stood up and offered his hand.  We shook on it, and the next day, he got to it right away and without complaint. 

Now, I knew better than to expect this sort of behavior to last, even for the rest of the day, but it was like seeing a light at the end of the tunnel.  Boy, it was nice to see that light.

Days 64, 65, 66

AAAUUGH!!!!  It shouldn't be this difficult, but there it is.  Everyone is digging their heels in when it comes to their schoolwork.  It's like trying to get a dog to the vets.  I'll post more soon, but right now I'm so frustrated that I need to not post for today.  Maybe later if things look up.

Days 62, 63

Yesterday was spent mostly at home.  We did spend some time doing some crafting, and history, and typing, and spelling, and music practice (which was great!) and then we got to math.  There's where we stalled out, but I'm thinking I must have used up their good graces or something, but Luke was having none of this math stuff.  He ended up by being told he would have to do it with Dad later in the evening.

It's rare for us to have a whole day at home, so when it came time to go to Numeracy Club, no one complained.  That was fine, until we got there.  I signed them in, and Luke suddenly said, "But I'm not staying!"  I guess having let him not stay the time before had stuck in his mind, and he wanted french fries.  I told him, apologetically, that I had already signed him in, so, you see, there wasn't anything I could do, and whisked out of the room.  Poor boy.  But he had a reasonable time, so I don't feel too badly about it, and I got to spend some time with DH, which is always good.

I, luck person, got to spend an evening out, and Steve had the kids. 

The next day, today, Emily and I had dance, which she must really love, because she got dressed and ate breakfast in about 15 minutes so we could get there.  We then spent some time at Nana's helping make some cards.  We also ran around in the pouring rain getting the garbage cans back from the end of the driveway, so we were soaked and had hot chocolate when we got in.  I figured the stage was set for some schoolwork.  Luke thought otherwise, but I nearly sat on him and got him to finish yesterday's undone math and do the day's lesson as well.  Beyond that, there was no hope, but we have History tomorrow in the am, then nothing since there is no library anymore, so we'll have time to work on some new projects assuming we can finish the regular business. 

Sometimes, I surprise myself with my optimism.

Day 61

I haven't written for a while.  The cause would be Thanksgiving, which was nice but busy.  The only thing I can think of that I could have written about was yesterday.  We came home from church, and I announced that we were going to work outside.  I heard a chorus of "Nooo!"s, and I then told them that game-time was riding on them helping.  I went out to work alone. 
Pretty soon, Emily came out.  I told her where the work gloves were, and she got them.  She asked if she could do the job I was doing, which was raking muck out of our small pond.  I gladly let her so that I could start taking dead stalks out of the pond's surrounding garden. 
While I took the sopping muck and dead leaves to the edge of the woods for disposal, Emily asked if there was something else she could do ("What, you don't want to help move mucky bio-hazardous waste?  What's the matter with you?") so I sent her to Rabbit Hill.  Rabbit Hill was at one time a pile of dirt that we had delivered.  It was supposed to be screened top soil.  Instead, it contained little surprises like half of a brick, or broken glass.  Not cool.  So, instead of being used and spread and beautiful by now, we had Rabbit Hill, a collection of ragweed and other noxious weeds that could not be mown.  The dirt had been delivered in April.  It's now the end of November.  It was getting to the point that we couldn't open the car door on that side of the driveway because of the weeds. 
Anyway, all this time, Luke was whining at me from the doorway.  I told him go in or grab gloves and come out and help.  To my Utter Astonishment, he grabbed gloves and came out to help with Rabbit Hill.  We ripped out weeds and they climbed up and got the top weeds out, and we soon had an impressive pile of weeds to cart to the woods.  Emily took a well-deserved break, and Luke and I carted the stuff.  He helped until it was all gone.  I think somewhere along the line, it became less about a reward, and more about enjoying doing the job.  It was uber-cool.

Now, on to Monday:
I am constantly surprised by how up and down one day can be.  This morning, anticipating trouble from the ranks, I pulled out the big guns right away.  "No video games for a week if you give me trouble!"  As it turned out, though, I didn't really have to.  Luke gave me very little trouble on our way to orchestra, and even played well.  His only comment was to ask if we 'had to stay' after.  I said no, as we were going to Aikido, and that seemed to help.  It also helps that we have an audio book in the car, and the only time we listen to it is if we are in the car.  It's not the most cerebral stuff, but it is entertaining, and at least the vocabulary is ok, and the characters have moral questions to deal with.  But while Gregor the Overlander isn't exactly educational, it helps get us where we are going. 

After Aikido is when things started heading downhill.  School after Aikido in the afternoon seems to be a big issue.  I may have to reorganize our 'schedule' that we put together to take that into account.  Luke is also extremely tired which, while I understand it, doesn't excuse him from doing work or being civil to his sister.  Things deteriorated until Dad came home and saved the day.  He displayed the utmost patience when I couldn't, helping Luke through math and English.  After dinner, he even cooked with each kid, seperately.  Luke and Dad made chocolate chip cookies, then Emily and Dad made banana bread.  Dad also did all the dishes and made the coffee for the morning!!  He's the only reason I'm sane at the moment.  I need all the sane moments I can get.  I love that man!

Day 60

It was the worst of times...

If only I had showered at 8am this morning like I had planned, this whole day would have been different.  The idea of going out to the car, chucking the kids in, and depositing them at the nearest school would have been not just tempting, but a definite possibility.  It was one of those mornings.  We began well, but then we got off track, and I lost it somehow.  I was screaming, there were tears (mine and theirs), and it was bad.  I do think there is an element of competition between Luke and Emily within all this, but I find it very hard to take.  Have I mentioned that I've heard 4th grade is hard?  Have I?

Despite the tremors in our morning, we managed to get a lot done.  A math lesson plus a test, English, grammar, geography, a touch of chemistry (mneumonics), helping with household chores, typing, spelling games on the computer...Wow!  When I put it like that, it sounds like we had a great day!  We rounded it off with a movie and staying up late (as we can all sleep in tomorrow anyway), and me reading two chapters of Cheaper By the Dozen.  Relative happiness reigns.

Day 59

Orchestra.  The idea of orchestra is wonderful.  It's fun, it's lively, it's cool people, and it's academic in many ways without having to be academic in nature.  I love it for many things.  Yet I dread it. 

Every Monday, Luke gives me trouble about going to orchestra.  For all of the last two years (this is our third year), I think I can count on one hand the number of times Luke has been happy to go.  When I dwell on this, it makes me sad.  How awful to have our musical outlet be the source of so much sadness and upset for him!  Today, on the verge of deciding to quit after the next concert, I was fairly decided.  I was done forcing my son to do this 'dreaded' thing every week.  I also decided against forcing him to come in.  When we arrived at 9:58am, I took our stuff out, and Emily got hers, and I headed in.  I fully expected Luke to stay in the car. 
Wishing I had parked right in front of the building even though we weren't far, I started towards the door, only to hear Luke's car door open and close.  I didn't look.  Emily turned her head, and I quickly told her not to look.  It was like having a large bird behind us.  If we didn't look at it, we wouldn't spook it.
Sure enough, Luke came in.  He huffed.  He got a chair and set himself up.  Got his trumpet, his stand, and demanded his music.  Sure, kid, sure. 
To my surprise, he played.  He didn't look thrilled, but he got those notes, and he got them pretty good! 
I was shocked, and saddened to think I wouldn't be bringing him past January because he doesn't like coming.  He could be good! 
Afterwards, he came up to me, and I told him how proud I was that he had played, and how good he sounded.  Then I heard the words come out of his mouth.

"I like Orchestra."

Then he ran off to play with the other kids.

Day 58

The 58th day of school, and what did we do?  Math Mixed Practice didn't get done until the evening, because the day was spent cleaning the two rat cages, looking up redness on rat feet, trimming rat nails, doing a dance recital for a senior group with Emily, and going to Aikido.  Toss in some laundry and dishes, and that was my day in a nutshell. 
Sigh.

Day 57

We had History class today.  While Luke gave me the typical trouble with putting on his shoes, we got off without too much trouble and actually made it on time.  This was my week to lead the class, and we shared our projects, did our maps of Columbus' route, and played an Explorer game. 

(We did learn what sort of man Columbus was, so I think I'll be hearing about it every Columbus Day from now on, which I'm glad for.  One should know the truth about one's country and not necessarily stand on tradition if tradition is wrong.)

The first thing we did was share our projects.  Luke and Em had worked on their dioramas last week, and had not added to them, but they were admired by all.  Several of the other kids brought their projects, and they were all enjoyed and admired.




Cortez on a bridge to Tenochtitlan fighting with the Aztecs (Luke's) The horse was attached so he could be pulled from one side to the other and 'walk' across the bridge.  The bars you see taped to the 'water' are gold bars, like the ones Cortez lost off the bridges, then could never regain.




Cortez attacks the Aztecs.  There is a ziggurat in the background, as well as information scrolls.  Emily drew the natives, and behind them you can see Cortez' horses (he being the first to bring them to the Americas).

 We then moved on to the maps.




Top: Luke's Bottom: Emily's Middle: Sample

 I had prepared for the craft by procuring brown paper bags, playing pyromaniac by ripping the edges to map-size and burning them slightly.  Then I crumpled them all up, smoothed them out, and finally ironed them out flat again.  A lot of work to prepare for 15 students, but they all seemed to like it.  We used markers to outline and write, and watercolor paints to color in the water and the land (and sea serpents, if they had them).  The project went over fairly well.

The other thing we did was play an Explorer game similar to Concentration.  We had read the chapter on Explorers, but there were so many and they all sort of ran together, so I printed out facts about each in different colors and attached them to cards.  They could then match the explorer to the card, and that made it go much more smoothly, and they all took turns just matching the fact to the explorer. 

Somehow, we seemed to arrive home in a decent mood, and got our work done according to the schedule we had made up as closely as we could, and made it to the last Library program for the Fall.  A busy day!

Days 55, 56

Day 56 was much better than Day 55.  Day 56 was full of Dance for Emily and myself, and Trevor Zoo, which we really like.  We had friends with us, and even company in the car, so we did well and enjoyed it.  We even read some history when we got back!  Much better than Day 55.

Day 55 was a mess.  Day 55 was yelling and crying, and that was just me!  Later, Emily went to Numeracy Club, so that was a good thing, and Luke went with me to the store.  After that, things were somewhat improved.  That's as far as I want to go with Day 55.

Tomorrow we'll have History class, and I'm not sure how it will go, but I have high hopes as we are doing a craft and a game, and showing off our dioramas.   Later we have library story time, and after that their cousin's birthday.  Should be good!

Days 53, 54

Saturday

I feel a little guilty.  I had the kids do a math test on a Saturday!  They both did well, and we then went to Nana's house where we went crazy making candles of all sorts.



Candles we made at Nana's


We fluffed up the wax and made 'snow' that we coated onto existing candles, we filled molds with different colors and scents, we made tealight candles...It was a lot of fun to do with their Nana, cousins, and Aunt Kris.  And now we have a bunch of candles to burn!  Yay!

Sunday

So the next day, Sunday, we went for a walk in the afternoon.  It was such a beautiful day!  We went on the rail trail, enticing the kids with walkie talkies.  Notice in the picture, Dad is surrounded by kids with the walkie talkies, and also notice the dog's "I'm Not A Deer" bandana.  All in all, a nice weekend. 



Dad surrounded!



Monday

That's when we hit Monday.  Monday was pretty bad.  First, Luke didn't want to go to orchestra.  I'm starting to feel like I'm losing this battle.  He'll have to come anyway, but I'm tired of fighting him.  If he'd enjoy playing the keyboard with simple lessons, I'd do that, but I don't get a good response from him about that either.  Oh, well.  May be a moot point by next year anyway.  So, we did that, then went to Aikido, which was fine, but afterwards, I couldn't get them to participate without having a tantrum myself, and I feel stupid for it.  But in the end, people rallied, and we managed to play with measurements in a reasonably good mood.  We figured out how many cups in a pint, pints in a quart, quarts in a half gallon, and half gallons in a gallon.  That last was pretty easy, really. 

So, between my weekend and today, I'd say this more than counts for two days!

Days 51,52

Yesterday we had company and it was nice to let the kids play.  I don't think they've had a free day to play with company for a long time.  It wasn't all free play, though.  We did some serious work on our history dioramas for next week.  I think they were both getting pretty into it by the end!  I often have to step back and ask myself what it is that I think they should know, and I have to say that they retain a lot of what we read about history.  I'm not sure it's very real for them, but I think that only comes with time.  I'll be posting pictures of our dioramas next week when they are done, I hope!

Today we stayed out too late.  After a slow morning getting everyone going, we finally reapproached math, and I think we're going to try a new pattern.  We've made the decision to stick with Saxon, and we're going to do 2 lessons a day without the Mixed Practice.  We'll do that 3 days a week, and the fourth day we'll only do Mixed Practice.  We'll do timed math every day.  I think this is a decent compromise, as we will be moving at a faster pace, and the Mixed Practices we do will show me if there are any problems we need to work on.
So, two math lessons were accomplished today with a minimum of complaint.  We'll see how long that lasts.  My bet is not long, but I'll take what I can get.

What Luke did like was a new (to us) typing program for kids.  I'm very glad that he's learning to type properly as I'm sure he'll type more than he writes for whatever career he chooses.  At the same time, Emily was practicing her violin, which was nice to see, and I finally found a way to encourage her that doesn't make her scowl and leave me wondering what I said to offend. 

Meantime, we had a library program tonight that the kids really seemed to enjoy.  It was all about solving mysteries, and it looked like a lot of fun!  Our library has great programs, and a great staff. 

Afterwards, we drove the 40 minutes to another library's book sale.  We ended up getting some books for the kids, of course, including one historical fiction book that I think Emily might like. Then we needed a snack and after all was said and done, we didn't get home until after 9pm.  Late for us!  But a pretty good day all in all.

Day 50

Such a full day!  Poor Emily must be exhausted.  We started with Dance, and Luke went to Nana's house.  Then we went to the Esopus Bend Preserve with our group, COKAH.  We have been slowly evolving into something we weren't when we started, but I'm good with it.  It was great when the kids were younger, and it's great now.  Just different.  But then, so is life, so it's all good. 

After our walk, we dropped off the dopey dog at home, and played Flip4, a math game that they seem to like.  It's all about adding, subtracting and multiplying the dice rolls.  After that, I took them to Aikido.

Full day, right?  Well, not done!  Dad decided to do chemistry tonight.  It was the perfect lesson for tonight, because it was basically a refresher, and building an atom.  They then did the Crazy Electron Dance, which I unfortunately missed a picture of.  You haven't lived until you've seen two 9-year-olds and a grown adult doing the Crazy Electron Dance around the nucleus of black and yellow balloons.  It was really cool.

Not sure if you can see the plus signs on the yellow balloons showing that they are the protons, and they have grapes in their hands for the electrons.  They were very enthusiastic about this, which is saying something considering how busy we were all day!

Days 48, 49

Wow, mamma never said there'd be days like this!  What a roller coaster ride!  I have to say, by the end of the day, I've been ready to knock a few back.

Anyway,  the big news for us right now is we are thinking of switching math curricula.  More than thinking, actually.  Emily has complained from the beginning that Saxon moves too slowly, is boring, is not challenging.  I have talked to MANY homeschoolers who use Singapore, and all really like it.  Understandably, DH is worried that it won't be comprehensive enough.  I understand his concern.  After all, one of the main complaints against homeschoolers at the college where he teaches is lack of preparedness in math (right after science lab work).  Not that they can't catch up, but if we can actually give them an edge, why shouldn't we?  So, we go looking at Singapore with some trepidation.  We are still in the placement test phase, and I'm really quite surprised at where they seem to be placing.  In Saxon, we are doing 5/4, and they are both pretty bored.  Not that they get everything right, but it doesn't seem like the lessons are teaching anything new, and what they get wrong will come with practice. 
So, what it boils down to is that we need something that is challenging, that we can suppliment with additional rote math as we will.  I think Singapore may be the answer, so we'll see!

Since I'm covering two days, I'll add another topic here.  I had been getting complaints about certain activities that we do (via the wondertwins).  I haven't heard so many lately, and I decided to ask how we felt about these activities. 
"So how do you guys like Orchestra?"  Last year: 1. OK  2.  Hate it!
This year: 1.  Good!  2.  Yeah!

"So how do you feel about Numeracy Club?"  3 weeks ago:  1 and 2.  BORING!
This week:  1 and 2.  Better!

"So what do you think of history?"  1.  I hate history!  2.  I hate history class!
This week:  1.  It's ok  2.  Not too bad.

Maybe we're settling into the routine, but I think it's a little more than that.  I think it's me learning two things:

1.  How to teach a little more effectively, and
2.  How to release my grip on them a bit and let them choose to go or not.

I'm learning all the time with this process called Homeschooling.  I'm learning academically (my addition has never been so good!) and otherwise.  In some ways, it drives me crazy, but sometimes I think this is the best job ever.

Day 47

In Which... We have a Slow Day, and Still Manage to do Little Academic Work

Actually, we got our math and English done.  We also practiced instruments, made caramel apples, and read about Bonfire Night, which is celebrated in England.  It's basically a celebration of the foiling of a plot to kill the king in the 1600's.  We made effigies of monsters, and talked about it being a celebration of burning the 'boogey man', and then we burned them outside in the very damp fire pit.  Luke was hesitant about the dark, but he braved up when the dog came out, too. 

Well, I'm off to finish making dinner.  I'm a hard worker, and I'm whipping together a dish I call "Fries with Dogs".  Can you guess?  At least dessert will be good... (Can you believe I asked the kids if "dessert' has one 's' or two?)

Day 46

Here I am again.  And I did indeed get my quarterly done.  Not mailed, mind you, but done at any rate.  My quarterly is very simple, and here's most of it:

Subject                 Materials/Covered                                                        Grade (P/F)

Math	Saxon Math Grade 4 lessons 1-35, Flip4 math game, Numeracy Club	Pass
Reading	Library program, independent reading e.g. Howl’s Moving Castle, the Harry Potter series, the Warriors series	Pass
Writing	Daily Grams, “The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe” lapbook project, Postcrossing: postcard writing	Pass
English	Library story time, English Fourth Grade Workbook, Daily Grams Spelling Connections	Pass
Geography	Geographic terms, maps, map reading skills	Pass
History	A Little History of the World by E.H. Gombrich, Brainpop US History class, Usborne World History, Timeline started	Pass
Science	Chemistry: elements, compounds, mixtures, atoms, periodic table Family Mole Night at SUNY NP Rocket Day Zoo program, Numeracy Club	Pass
Health	Hygene, diet, nutrition	Pass
Music	Singing, participation in MUSET orchestra weekly with practice in between on trumpet, exposure to various types of music, note reading	Pass
Art	Various crafts, card-making, drawing, painting Picturing America program Museums	Pass
Physical Education	Swimming Lessons, Hiking, Walking, Tennis, Aikido lessons, Outdoor recreation, Independent play	Pass

I always do grading pass/fail for my reports.  The fact is that *I* know how they are doing, and they are never failing, since as soon as something is not understood, we slow down and make sure that it is.  The school district will get the end-of-year test scores anyway, so pass/fail is fine.  It makes this process much more bearable.  I'm not sure if I can continue this into high school, but as long as it works, this is what I'll use! 

Day 45

Day 45.  So did I do my quarterly report?  No, no.  Don't be silly.  I spent all day searching for a library book and playing pyromaniac. 

Actually, we did go to Dance today and got math and English done.  Other than that, the kids played outside, visited with Nana, and generally were happy to amuse themselves while I dashed about looking for a book that does not seem to be in the house.  Then I realized tonight that our crayons are missing too.  They were in the same bag for History class a couple of weeks ago, so I have a suspicion they will all turn up together.

Anyway, on to the pyromaniac issue.  We are going to do a map for the Explorers section of history, and one of the people in the class kindly donated the paper bags.  I unfolded and ripped each one up, then burned all the edges (outside at the advice of my kids) then crumpled them and then ironed them.  I questioned my self about the crumple-then-iron technique.  It seemed counterintuitive.  Why am I wrinkling something just to smooth it out?  I go to great pains not to wrinkle anything that would have to be ironed.  But I have to say, it came out pretty good, and I'll hopefully be posting pictures of maps tomorrow on 'scrolls'. 

Ok, other than that, I'm pooped, so the quarterly will go out tomorrow, but won't be written until tomorrow in the am.  Sigh...

Day 44

One more day before my first quarterly is due in.  Thankfully my school district is fairly easy going.  I'm not worried about it, and I may even do it during the day tomorrow.  I basically take last year's first quarterly report and keep the format, changing the info as needed.

According to the HSLDA web site:

"Required Days of Instruction: The substantial equivalent of 180 days. 900 hours per year for grades 1-6; 990 hours per year for grades 7-12. Required Subjects: (grades K through 12): patriotism and citizenship, about substance abuse, traffic safety, fire safety; (grades 1 through 6): arithmetic, reading, spelling, writing, English, geography, United States history, science, health, music, visual arts, and physical education; (grades 7 and 8): English, history and geography, science, mathematics, physical education, health, art, music, practical arts, and library skills; (at least once in first 8 grades): United States and New York history and constitutions; (grades 9 through 12): 4 credits English, 4 credits of social studies—including American history, participation in government, and economics—2 credits of math, 2 credits of science, 1 credit of art or music, .5 credit of health, 2 credits of physical education, and 3 credits of electives. N.Y. Educ. Law §§ 801, 804, 806, 808, 3204. "

This seems very loose, and it is.  This is NY State law, and it's what we follow.  Hence the fact that I'm sending my quarterly after 45 days.  I can't count the hours, because I wouldn't know what to count.  Do I count listening to an audio CD in the car?  Probably.  Do I count discussing nutrition and labelling in a food store?  Sure, but how long does that count for?  Who can say?  What are they learning by observing when I don't know?  Are they really learning when I think they are?  I also frequently make the mistake of not counting the preparation time.  This is supposed to be counted in the total number of hours as well.  I tried counting the hours when the kids were in kindergarten, and stopped half-way through because we were already close to 900.  So, I'll count the days and go with that. 

Today was light, and it was really quite nice.  We had the morning off, and played tennis in the surprisingly nice sun, then had Numeracy Club.  Even with the morning at home, lessons didn't get finished until the evening because everyone had projects they wanted to work on, and we also watched Assignment: the World.  I like the way they always draw them back in with a story they know kids will enjoy.  Today they talked about Wallabys.  We'll work on the three clues they give for next week, and maybe we'll actually be able to guess what the stories will be if we get to it, but for now, it's enough to work out the clues and see that we got them right.  One thing at a time!

All in all, a decent day!

Day 43

Another Monday.  As usual, we were late to MUSET.  Not only that, but we managed to leave Emily's violin behind.  This is the third year we are in MUSET, and I don't recall ever leaving anything behind before.  That said, we did stay afterward and play, chat, eat lunch, and generally decompress after a long weekend of driving and wedded bliss for my brother and his new wife.

When we got home, my attention turned to books, at which Luke balked.  I decided to turn my attention elsewhere, and that's when I noticed how wilted the morning glory had gotten in the cold.  With that, I got the clippers and a bunch of gloves out, and got the kids outside.  They helped all the way through as we tore down all the vines.  We pulled them out of lattice, off railings, out of drainage, out of the floor.  It was crazy, and the kids loved it.  They got to use the clippers, and they got to yank and pull and have vines fall on their heads.  Then they rolled in them and hauled them away.  There are many, many days where if you told me they would do all this work, I would probably just laugh or cry.  Emily took some pictures to prove it really did happen.  Well, that may not be why she took them, but it's why I'll save them.



In summer, it was beautiful and provided shade and privacy!



Earlier today, eek!



My hard-working boy, taken by
my hard-working girl!



Day 42

The usual suspects today, though all did not go according to plan.  I'm trying to relax my grip a bit as the knuckles get a bit white after a while.  I have been trying to start with reading to the kids in the morning, and easing into the other things we have to do.  The book we are reading now is the sequel to Howl's Moving Castle, and it's titled The House of Many Ways.  They are rather entertaining in a Harry Potter-meets-the-princess sort of way.
After a chapter and a half, I break out the history book.  They are not thrilled, but we survive, and may have actually learn a little in the process.  I very nearly have them on board for doing dioramas of explorers, so I'm trying not to push it too much.  It's like dealing with caged tigers.  Poke 'em a little to get them to do what you want, but not TOO much, or it totally backfires.
Anyway, what I really wanted to post about today was a web site called Postcrossing.  This is a totally awesome idea where you can send postcards to people all over the world and recieve them from all over as well.  How it works is you sign up (for free) and you get addresses for people, and sometimes they have a bit about themselves and what kinds of postcards they like, and you send them a postcard.  Then you get postcards from other people who have recieved your name and address when they logged on to get an address to send to.  We've gotten postcards from Finland, Poland, and Lithuania.  The web site shows you on a map where they are, tells you how far the postcards have travelled, and keeps track of the postcards you have sent and recieved.  You do have to register the cards you get, or the person who sent it won't be able to send more!  We've sent postcards to Singapore, Russia, and more.
While *I* find this very exciting, I haven't been able to generate much enthusiasm on the part of the kids until I signed up for my own account, and left them out of it.  Suddenly I was the one sending the postcards, and then I heard a different tune.  "Can I send one?" said a voice next to me as I sat at the computer.  Huh.  I guess TJEd has a point about educating yourself first.  :)  So, while I was sure that the Postcrossing era in our household was over, I'm starting to think that it may have just begun...

Day 41

Today we got ready for our Observational Astronomy that happened tonight.  Or didn't happen, as the case may be.  All day the sky was beautifully clear, and as of 5 pm, still good.  But around 6:30, someone called to ask if it was still on.  Of course, I said, why do you ask?  I went outside, and saw the astronomer's nightmare of clouds.  I tried to play it cool and suggested that there was a clearing to the west, and after all, the west weather would be coming here, right? 
Well, that hole got sealed, because when we arrived, we all got to see Jupiter in a hurry, and that was it.  The good thing was that the kids did all play outside in the semi-dark.  Since some of our party don't like to be in the dark, it seemed like a good experience for them to have.  Of course, it's now almost 10:30, and they are both still up, but everything has a price!

Day 40

We did something a little different today, inspired by Lego.  The objective is to build a representation of a renewable energy.  We did a little research and, partly because Dad is a geologist I suspect, we decided on Geothermal.  I was kind of surprised that there weren't more visual aids for this technology, but we did find a really good (short) video at this site, where we went to the movie titled How Geothermal Energy Works.  We then build our own geothermal stations based on what we learned during the movie.  We even reviewed the movie as we built to try to get it as accurate as we could. 


Emily's Geothermal Station


Here you can see Emily's model which has the yarn 'pipe' coming up from the ground and going to the distribution center, where the water and steam then goes to a series of tanks where the steam is syphoned off, and the steam powers the turbines (the red) which powers the generator (next to the turbines), which power the transformers, and the water is sent back down to get reheated. 







Luke's contraption

 Luke's got a bit more complicated, as he has solar at the top for the house, and geothermal leading to the (green) underground.  The blue is the water which heads up the pipe, and the turbines and generator are down under the house, and the return pipe is yellow.  I have to give him creative credit, the lava monster seems to be near the cool water return, and he's not happy.






This was a fun project where the kids felt like they were playing, and I felt like they were learning, and everyone got something out of it.  Even if it was just a cool lego contraption.

Day 39

What did we do today?  We got our lessons done.  With no fighting, no arguing.  I can't say I know why, other than I threatened them with no Halloween get-together with their friend for the afternoon.  That seems to work wonders. 

We did indeed make it to our good friend Connor's house where we feasted on mummy dogs and empanadas, and tons of yummy junk food.  I personally made caramel popcorn, which I haven't done before.  It was pretty easy, and tasty too.  We also managed to do a craft or two, and it seemed like the kids had a lot of fun.



Making Bat Pins!  See the example on the table.


The projects we worked on were a pumpkin sticker project, wherein the kids stuck the faces on their jackolantern foamies, and bat pins, which they made by cutting out the bat bodies and gluing them to clothes pins, and adding heads, googlie eyes, and fangs.  The neat thing is that if you glue on the clothes pin one way, you can clip it to the top of something, and if you glue it the other way, you can clip it up onto something (like curtains).  Fun project, fun day.

Day 38

Another day, another day.  After a rough start, both kids managed to play their instruments during MUSET, though I squeaked through it.  I mean I literally squeaked, so it's not a good thing.  Clarinets aren't made to squeak on purpose.  They only squeak to annoy the player and the listeners.  Ah, well.  Practice, practice, practice! 

Then it was on to Aikido, the activity they both seem to love.  We go to Kingston Aikido, and if it were anywhere else, we might not be going by now, but the woman who runs the kids program, Marilyn, is so nice, and so accommodating, I can only speak highly of her.  The kids both seem to benefit from it.

The other thing we did was Assignment: The World.  I think we finally got into it a bit, and the kids seemed to get excited when the first piece came on and it was about the Chilean miners, who I got them out of bed to see come up from the mine.  I don't remember being much exposed to current events as a kid, and I'm so glad that they thought this program up.  It really is engaging and fun.

That's it until tomorrow when we will have a Halloween get-together with food and crafts!  Should be fun!

Day 37

Family Mole Night!

The American Chemical Society sponsors Family Mole Night at SUNY New Paltz every year.  It's to celebrate National Chemistry Week, and the kids love it.  Last year they used centrifigal force to extract the iron from breakfast cereal, watched a rose shatter after being frozen in liquid nitrogen, and changed a penny to gold (which we still have!)  This year was no less cool.



Luke inspects his candy glass



We started off with making candy glass, a fact that will now never be lost on my kids when we watch a movie with a window that gets broken.  The kids got to measure the temperature as they stirred to get to the right temp and pick out colors for their 'glass'.  In the same room, they got to make 'snow' and look at it under a microscope.  It's what they use for artificial snow as it's light and fluffy, and what they use for diapers since it absorbs and absorbs and absorbs...



Luke's art made a mark!



The next room was inks.  They made ink with tea and ferrous sulfide.  They called that Magic Ink, which prompted Luke to write 'Magic Ink', which impressed the people there so much we got called back so they could take a picture of it!  How cool is that!?  They also tested various liquids on cabbage-water soaked paper to see what reactions they got, since it reacts with acids and bases.  They used windex, lemon juice, and a few other things.





Something cool is going on



The last activity was Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream.  I, unfortunately, missed the demonstration, but Emily got her cup of milk with liquid nitrogen poured in and she stirred it until she had about the thickness of a milkshake.  They even had toppings!

After a day of fitful school and various issues, it was so nice to have an evening of activities that the kids enjoyed, and that I felt encouraged them in a positive way towards science and education!



Day 34, 35, 36

Wow!

How can so many days have gone by?  What have we been doing?  A lot of getting work done, actually.  We managed English and Math days 34 and 35, despite heavy running on day 35.  We had dance, went to the Saugerties lighthouse, went to Aikido since we won't be going Friday, and went shopping in the evening for Emily's dress for her Uncle Ben's wedding.  Long day.

The lighthouse was pretty neat, though.  The walk was very pleasant and wound around so we were walking along the edge of the Hudson, then through the (very) tidal marsh and finally to a walkway to the lighthouse itself.  One walks up to it, then around it, and when you get to the other side, there is an open area with picnic tables and you feel like you are on a boat.  One of our number unfortunately took that too far, and ended up falling in.  If it had been a hot day, and the girl could swim, it would have been fine, however neither of these were the case and the poor thing called it a day.  The others went to the edge to sit, and I told them that if they fell in, they should swim to the stairs, because I wasn't hauling them out if there were stairs they could climb out on.  :)  Next time we go there, we'll check the tides a bit more carefully, as we did get a tad wet on our way out to the lighthouse.

Today we learned about Marco Polo, who I found very boring when I was in school, but now he seems like such an interesting person!  I'm going to try to find The Travels of Marco Polo for my kindle so I can read some of it to the kids.  Not that they find it very interesting...On the other hand, I found a site with instructions for dioramas that was really pretty cool, so we may try that.  I sometimes wish it was just me learning these things as I seem to be the one interested.  Oh well.

At least music went well tonight.  Especially for Luke.  He sounded a bit harsh at first, but after a little while, he was able to match the sounds of his teacher.  I'm impressed!  I think this was the last evening session, which may be good as we are approaching winter, the I-don't-want-to-be-out-in-the-dark season.  Ugh.  I was glad to hear the kids become enthused about playing their instruments.  The one site I keep going back to is 8notes where I found finger charts for the clarinet, several free sheet music pieces for each instrument in our house, and midi files so you can hear how the piece should sound.  I have been using this site for a while, and I'm still finding it useful.

Now, I'm truly pooped.  Tomorrow we're going to Family Mole Night at SUNY New Paltz, so that will be fun!

Day 33

Busy day today.  MUSET led to Eilah and I discovering that our kids play the same instruments, and so do we.  If we get together, we have two clarinets, two trumpets and two violins!  Kind of funny.  I think the kids played some, but it's hard to tell. 
After MUSET, we were off and running to Aikido, which it seems they have fallen into strong like with.  It's good to go to something they WANT to do for a change. 
After that, the day went sort of hooey on us, and we shopped for halloween costumes.  We went to four stores!
 After that, home, math, English. 
One other thing we did was use the Reading Logs Spelling.  I think it's a valuable tool, and the kids seemed to get the hang of it.  It doesn't have the zip and game-iness of Spelling Connections, but the fact that you can put your own word list in makes it quite useful.
And now this post is starting to seem like my day.  Disjointed, a bit crazy,...wait.  Maybe it's a bit like me.  :)