Moving right along...

Just a small curriculum update - this is for my records as well!

Becca has completed Handwriting Without Tears' Printing Power book and is working on learning cursive ("fancy writing") with the New American Cursive font. I bought it on Startwrite and have just been printing out individual letter sheets for practice. She's learned how to form the entire alphabet and now we're working on copywork in printing and cursive.

We finished the first grade portion of First Language Lessons just before Thanksgiving and we're on to the second grade part!

We have moved quickly through All About Spelling Level 1 and will complete the last lesson after returning from our holiday break in January. Then we'll move on to Level 2.

We also completed Level 1A in her Singapore Math curriculum and will begin Unit 3 of Level 1B after our break.

Most exciting of all, we're wrapping up our animal studies in science with a little horse fun (we couldn't skip Becca's favorite animal!) and we'll be starting our study of the human body in January! The basic outline we'll be following is in her Living Learning Life Science curriculum, but I'm starting to feel that it's very "light." I have a number of books and plan to supplement heavily, especially since human body studies are a favorite of mine too. Here are some books we'll be adding:

Easy Make & Learn Projects Human Body (Scholastic) - this is going to be SO fun! It says for grades 2-4, but I think Becca will be fine with it.
DK Eye Wonder Human Body
The Kingfisher First Human Body Encyclopedia
My Body by Teacher Created Resources - basically we're going to trace an outline of the girls' bodies and then we fill them in with organs as we learn about them. Not as complex as the Make & Learn projects, but great for fun visuals.
Head to Toe Science - full of experiments, on the slightly older side. We'll pick and choose.
Magic School Bus Journey Into the Human Body science kit - At first glance, I'm kind of disappointed by this, unfortunately. I plan to use it, but I'm glad I didn't pay the full $20 for it.
Usborne Science - Science and Your Body, What Makes You Ill, What Happens to Your Food, How Do Your Senses Work - a couple of these are on backorder with Amazon. I love Usborne books.


I'm already starting to scope out curriculum choices for next year. I'm highly reluctant to go with Living Learning for earth and space science for several reasons:
1. I feel that the Life Science is very light and wouldn't recommend it for any older than K.
2. LL does not have samples of the teacher pages on their website.
3. LL has not responded to several inquiries from me about the availability of samples from their teacher pages.

Sorry, Living Learning - you're losing my business.

I have, however, been happy with Pandia Press' History Odyssey. I think it's a great way to make Story of the World even more fun and activity-filled. I plan to go with their Level 1 Middle Ages plan, which also uses Story of the World vol. 2. I will still use the SOTW Activity Guide and pick and choose our activities. I look forward to learning about the Middle Ages! Pandia Press also publishes a science curriculum called REAL Science. They only have two levels right now, so I'm going to go with their Earth & Space science curriculum for Becca's next school year. Hopefully they'll get to publishing Chemistry and Physics soon so I can continue with them if I end up liking their science as much as their history. You can check out their website at www.pandiapress.com.

We'll also go on with First Language Lessons and All About Spelling. I'm going to get the teacher text for Susan Wise Bauer's Writing With Ease and see if Becca places into level 1 or 2. And hopefully we will move along in Singapore Math as well.

All I can say is, thank goodness for income tax returns! I've discovered that they come at a great time of year for curriculum buying.

Tentative curriculum list for Becca's 2nd grade (officially 1st grade) year:

Grammar: First Language Lessons 3
Spelling: All About Spelling 3(?)
Writing: Writing With Ease 1 or 2
Science: REAL Science Earth/Space
History: History Odyssey Middle Ages Level 1/SOTW 2
Math: Singapore 2A/continued Miquon supplements
Art: Harmony Fine Arts Grade 2
Latin: ???

Abra...ham

We're on the beginnings of Israelite history now, and Becca's learning about Abraham, Moses, and Joseph. I had her cutting out some clip art for her Who's Who pages and gluing them in the proper spots. She went to glue down Abraham and said, "I thought his name was Abram." I explained again how God changed his name to AbraHAM after he "called" him, and Becca replied, "So, he eats HAM?"

Gotta love those five year olds! LOL

This unschooling thing is pretty cool too!

While we're not really unschoolers, I love all the "sneaky" little ways you can get early learning in with young kids. Grandpa's here for a visit, so I've taken full advantage of our flexibility in homeschooling to ditch official classes for a few days.

However, when you're five, even if you're an accelerated five, you can get all sorts of learning in by doing the simplest everyday tasks. While I don't think we'll be getting in any history, here's a brief overview of what Becca's already covered this morning.

Reading: Reading several fun books to Grandpa
Logic: A couple of rounds of Guess Who?
Math: A game of cards, similar to War - which number is bigger?
Spelling/Handwriting: Writing out a shopping list for our lunch

Et voila! While I don't think we'll become unschoolers any time soon, it's gratifying to see how much learning goes on under the guise of simple play and daily activities.

I can't handle this question so early in the morning!

"Mommy, are we polytheists or monotheists?"

Yeah... Becca hit me with that this morning. We've studied Amenhotep IV (Akhenaten) recently, the pharaoh who brought monotheism to Egypt whether they liked it or not. They didn't, incidentally. So Becca learned about polytheism and monotheism, or at least their definitions. She just had a little trouble figuring out where we fit in!

Sylvia is beginning to read. I can hardly contain my excitement!!! She sounded out "box" last week, so I figured it was time to break out the BOB books. She read the first book in the first set to me today. She'll proceed as she wishes - right now I'm trying to find my Hooked on Phonics Learn to Read Kindergarten software so she can play with that. Like before, this is self-initiated. I am here to facilitate her and present her with the next "step," but there's obviously no rush for Sylvie. I'm just proud of my "weetle bear."

The girls surprise me every day. Some days (like yesterday) I want to just tear my hair out, I will not lie. But other days... most days, once I've unwound, I'm so glad to be able to teach Becca at home and I'm happy to see Sylvia so interested in participating.

Isn't this the cutest picture ever??

One little bumblebee, all tired out from trick or treating...

True stories of two girls and what comes out of those mouths!

I started a fun, light Latin curriculum with Becca called Song School Latin. It just teaches simple words and phrases with songs. I figured Sylvia would enjoy hearing the songs too, so I let the girls listen together. Yesterday's lesson was on asking someone's name and saying "My name is..." and sometime in the middle of the night when I wasn't sleeping, I thought the girls would get a kick out of their animal friends talking Latin to them. So Sylvia woke up early this morning and while I had her in the bedroom hanging out, I made Meow-Meow say, "Quid est tuum praenomen? Meum praenomen est Meow-Meow!" Sylvia giggled a little bit and then said, "Unfortunately, cats don't talk."

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Becca's electronic puppy from last Christmas was starting to run down and she wasn't wagging her tail or shaking her head anymore. Becca determined that she needed new batteries, so I told Becca that Pixie needed to see a veterinarian. Becca said, "Mommy, Pixie's not a real dog!"

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I got busted today by Becca... I've had this great Braves cartoon by Mike Luckovich on the fridge for the past couple of years.

I never really gave thought to Becca actually reading it. She wanted me to get down a bowl for her to have a "party" with peanuts and popcorn, and I told her not right now. She said, "Dammit!" Whaaa??? I asked her what she said, and she repeated it. So I asked where she heard that word, because I thought we'd been doing a really good job of self-censoring around the girls. Becca marched right over to my cartoon and pointed it out... dammit! So I calmly told her that we don't say that word, that even grownups shouldn't say it, and that it was my fault for having the cartoon up.

So, into the archives it goes... Kind of funny though.

I am so wrong for this...

DH was getting the girls ready for a weekend trip to Grandma's house. Becca was saying that she wanted to stay up there "for forever!" So I told her that would mean that I couldn't be her teacher and Grandma would have to drop her off at the public school kindergarten and she'd have to learn her letters all over again. She started making faces and saying, "Bo-ring!" I told her she wouldn't be able to learn about Crete or Egypt, or butterflies and elephants, or do "fancy writing" and learn Latin and while I was listing those things she said, "Fun! Exciting!"

Oh, I am just evil. I'm secretly tickled that she's enjoying her learning at home so much. Actually I have no idea what they're doing in public school K right now... I took a peek at what would have been her school's website and saw a list of suggestions for parents working with their kindergarteners. It involved saying the ABC's and counting up to 30 each night as well as practicing writing their name properly (not in all caps). Um.... Okay, it's early in the year, maybe they pick up the pace later. Have I mentioned that we're working on adding and subtracting numbers up to 20?

Hey, it's my blog and I'll brag if I want to!

More projects!

We did these simple step pyramids today. I followed the directions in the Story of the World activity guide, so we started with a 5x5 flat and built up with lots of (watery) glue. The sugar cubes we have aren't exact cubes, so that made things a little more complicated for Becca. Sylvia had lots of Mommy help in building her pyramid - she was more interested in painting lots of glue and adding some outbuildings!







Below are some sand clay pyramids. I got the instructions from a book called The Crafts and Culture of the Ancient Egyptians. This was really just for my entertainment - I mixed up the clay and made the pyramids with a little help from DH, not the girls! They think the pyramids are pretty neat looking though.




These are our scarabs, instructions found in the same book as above. Becca and I made the molds and poured the plaster while Sylvia was at preschool, but Sylvia wanted to paint, so she added the gold "accent" to my scarab (on the left, Becca's on the right). You can also carve some hieroglyphics on the bottom of the scarabs, but we didn't do that part.


I am sad to report that our snails met a bad end.... When we ordered the kit, it came with water conditioner and we followed the directions perfectly, but the whole batch died within a day. We got a replacement shipment, and they died just as promptly. I found out from Carolina Supply that we probably had too high a copper content in our pipes, which caused the snails' demise. So unless you have brand new water pipes, if you want to raise pond snails, you might want to use some purified distilled water!

Hopefully our next science unit involving living things will work out better. At least Tommy and Rozy are still flippin'!

King Cluck

We started our chicken mummy on Wednesday (8/20), so this is day 3. He's looking pretty icky now, so be warned!

Put your gloves on, girls!
Sylvie adding salt to our "natron" mix
Becca adds the baking soda
The king in his temporary tomb (covered in the salt mixture)
Okay, we may never eat chicken again!

He's smelling a little funky now, but he's double bagged, so the smell is contained. We check on the salt and change it every day for about a week, then we'll just check it once a week for another 3 weeks or so. After that, we'll give him some royal oil and spices and wrap him up in cloth strips! Becca wants to give him a "whole nine yards" burial and kept asking me this morning, "Are we going to make him a burial mask?" "Are we going to make him three coffins that go inside each other?" "Can we make amulets too?" "We need to make a pyramid this high!"

Oh, I need more energy!

What really matters to a child...

We've been working on ancient Egypt with Becca (chicken mummy will begin tomorrow!). She just learned about King Narmer (Menes), who united Upper and Lower Egypt. We were talking about it with her in the car yesterday, and she described how Narmer took the red crown and wore it with the white crown. She said, "I bet the red crown king was sad because he lost his hat!"

Those crazy ancients - fighting over hats! LOL

By the way, I deserve a sticker or a blue ribbon, or a medal. Or something. Ladies and gentlemen... I finished Moby Dick. Yep. I read the whole darn thing! Now I can say I did it. *silence*

The Nile ISN'T just a river in Egypt...

It's also here on our front porch!

This is the model of the Nile river as suggested in Susan Wise Bauer's Story of the World Activity Guide for the ancients (vol. 1). Okay, I did the actual model by myself, but the girls enjoy flooding it. It was a pleasant sight to see the grass seeds all sprout up. The rock you see is supposed to represent the mountains in Northeast Egypt, so we're actually looking at it from the east in the top pic and from the north in the lower pic.

I had a nice little pyramid fashioned and painted shiny gold, but I failed to realize that natural (air-dried) clay will reconstitute when it sits in a puddle of water..... So my pyramid melted.

Wordless Wednesday

Why is it?

I am ranting. If I don't rant here, I'm going to rant somewhere else, and that could cause a huge argument where I don't really want one. Sometimes the "other" point of view just needs a little airing.

Why is it not acceptable to talk about your child's accomplishments if they surpass the "average"? It's okay to be concerned if they're behind, but oh my gosh let one WHIFF of intelligence be caught and next thing you know you're a braggart.

Why is it that you're looked upon as a pushy parent or guilty of not "letting your kids be kids" if your children are developing ahead of the curve? Holy crap - my girls only need so much time to play in the mud, guys! What about (for example) learning to identify numbers precludes fun?

There seems to be a whole attitude that "learning" isn't enjoyable or that you have to force it on kids. Most kids are born with a love of learning - grownups are the ones who screw it up and turn it into something to be dreaded or endured.

Yes, I do understand that at some point kids are going to have to get through unpleasant things that are difficult, boring, etc. But THAT will come with time, and with a better attitude toward learning and education, our kids will be better equipped to deal with that when it comes.

Becca-isms

I can't keep up with this kid... here are some recent Becca sayings:

(This one's a little gross)

While we were out enjoying a shared dessert after a restaurant meal, Becca announced, "Mom, poop's formed in the large intestines." Imagine the look on my face when presented with that statement halfway through enjoying a bite of cheesecake! At least (as my mom pointed out) the restaurant was noisy so nobody else got a science lesson during dinner! We hadn't even been talking about the subject at any point during the day... totally random. Davey said, "Did she just say what I thought she just said?" Oh yes... she did.



We found an old (er, ancient) gem at our library, a video tape of Bill Cosby as Aesop doing a retelling of The Tortoise and the Hare. I couldn't resist the blast from my own childhood, so we checked it out and the girls watched it last night. Becca was especially fascinated and recited the moral of the story this morning: "Slow and steady wins the race." So I tried to draw her out and asked, "Where did you learn that? What story is that from?" She said, "Out there (pointing to the living room). Bobby Cox and Aesop's Fables!" [If you're not a baseball fan, Bobby Cox is the Atlanta Braves' manager - we're a hardcore Braves house here!]

It took me several minutes to catch my breath and tell her that that was Bill Cosby on the tape!

The flower and the bee...

Becca got an idea one day to make a play for her and Sylvia called "The Flower and the Bee." She wrote her lines completely by herself! Of course Sylvia was the bee, and Becca was a little chagrined that Sylvia couldn't write her own lines. Then Becca decided that Sylvia's lines were simple enough that they didn't need to be written.





Above is Becca's drawing of the "Plan!" I love how Sylvia always has curly hair, even as a bee!

Good things come to homeschoolers who ask!

I have wanted to start a timeline for our history studies for some time now, but have struggled to find something that was just right. I didn't want something too big and cumbersome, or too cluttered. I didn't want something that had a very religious focus, and I wanted it to be attractive and oh yes, inexpensive. Really, that's not too much to ask, is it? I was beginning to think it was.

Patience is not my strongest virtue, but I am very glad I waited around. I asked about timelines on the WTM message boards and got several links to great free resources, including this one where I printed my pages: http://www.ourlosbanos.com/homeschool/history/timeline.html

Okay, so I had the pages... now how to lay them out? Well, I got the idea to put them in a 3 ring binder from www.simplycharlottemason.com. So I hole-punched away, but I still lacked figures. All of my searching online kept bringing up some that looked beautiful, but seemed rather expensive. I made my wish list and just kept hanging on until today, when I noticed someone else asking about timelines. And who should answer but the queen of free resources, with a handy link to her own blog? There she demonstrated how she made her own timeline and used the resources found here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Hannah_hs_helps/ .

Cue the angel choir!! My printer is busy as I type this, and I am excited to have found exactly what I need... without spending a lot of money! I don't mind some cutting, pasting, and laminating.

But frogs were so much fun!

Here's our final frog project - paper bag puppets. Sylvia's just beginning to figure out scissor usage, so I helped her out with the cutting after a frog tongue disaster. She ended up slicing her frog's tongue into about 3 different pieces, causing her to complain, "Oh, I broke my froggy's tongue!" Becca responded, "Did you rip it?" (Say that out loud... ripit... get it?)

Sylvia was very enamored of her finished object and named her frog (sorry Allison...) Bella. Bella is quite an animated frog despite her truncated tongue. She even ate the glue stick cap.

Bad froggy!

Leaps and bounds

Becca is learning so fast, it's hard to keep up with her! Even compared with a few months ago, she's showing more attention to detail in her work. When she colors pictures, she strives for accuracy or makes a color pattern if it's strictly decorative. I think she's over using crayons and much prefers colored pencils for all of her work, even over a larger area. In reading her a simple fable and asking narrative questions afterward, I discovered that she remembered several key points verbatim. She actually remembered them and wasn't reading directly from the page because I had the book out of her view!

We had a brief struggle with the concept of "number bonds" in her Singapore math curriculum, but addition of smaller numbers is coming easily to her right now. I bought an extra practice book to go with it, and we've gone back and done several pages of extra work on number bonds. I think it's sinking in.

We're wrapping up our frog unit in science this week. We slowed down some because we got a Grandpa visit last week! Our frog finale will be cupcakes and paper bag puppets.

In history, we're learning about Mesopotamian life. We'll be building a ziggurat this week as well. Today Becca colored in a beautifully detailed picture of a Mesopotamian sailboat and showed us how they sailed up and down the Tigris river to trade with mountain people for various needs. She also copied down some vocabulary words and definitions. She is determined to write them out herself, no matter what, so I dictate and help her spell everything correctly. One of the main crops in Mesopotamia was barley, so I found some pearled barley and made a simple breakfast porridge with it. It's not really chronologically correct though, so I've been on an extended hunt for barley flour!

She finished her first Handwriting Without Tears book today, the first grade level My Printing Book. We enjoyed some ice cream as a treat for that and for filling up her reading log for the library's summer reading program (45 books!). To make sure she gets a good amount of printing practice, I've bought her the next book in the HWOT series, Printing Power. The lines are closer together in this book and the words get more complex - just what I want for keeping Becca challenged!

She's also nearly done with Spelling Workout A. This has kind of felt like busywork to me - I'm not sure how much spelling she's truly learning from this, so I'm leaning towards changing her spelling curriculum. I haven't decided whether to go with All About Spelling or take a suggestion from some online HS friends and work from The ABCs and All Their Tricks. The latter is a comprehensive reference book for phonics and spelling. I found a copy at the library, so I'll look through it and see how I'd do teaching directly from that book.

Probably our biggest news isn't directly homeschool related - Becca has been invited to join the Hot Shots class in gymnastics!! The youngest age is 5, and I have to say I felt like she might be invited right away. I'm incredibly proud of her. I know she struggled when she first started, but she has learned how to concentrate and pay excellent attention to her coaches. She's brave and fearless and willing to try any new skill asked of her. I'm so glad she's going to continue to be challenged there. We're going to increase her to 2 classes a week, and this will be her main activity. It'll be especially nice since we won't be able to do Fine Arts Fridays.

Meanwhile... Sylvia's not going to be attending preschool. As of right now she's not going to be doing any special activities, and anyone who knows us well knows exactly why....

I also finally got my Latin books and I'm working on some self-teaching now.

The frog probably never knew what hit him...

Here is Becca's rendition of a snake about to eat a red-eyed tree frog. The black thing on the left is a "tree stump filled with water." What kills me is the expression on that frog's face!!

Meet Tommy and Rosie

Here are our frog friends Tommy and Rosie. Tommy is the big guy in the top pic. We got him as a "froglet friend" when we sent off for the larger Stage 2 habitat. Rosie is smaller and more delicate (second pic). We raised her from a tadpole. We actually don't know if Tommy is a boy or Rosie is a girl - it's hard to tell in Grow-A-Frogs. I wanted to name our tadpole Tommy, but Becca won out and named her Rosie (short for Rosella, from Barbie Island Princess). So as a compromise, I got to name our next one Tommy.



We got our friends from http://www.growafrog.com/. They're definitely worth checking out - Becca and Sylvia both love Tommy and Rosie, and they're suitably low-maintenance for a lazy - er, busy - mom like me!



Rosie went through her metamorphosis a lot faster than we expected, so we may end up getting another tadpole later on so the girls can get a closer look at the true transformation. I'm not ready for it right now though - Becca's already begging for caterpillars and an ant farm!

Becca's first day of school

And doesn't she look pleased?

It's all fun and games 'til somebody loses a tooth.

Look, Mom, homeschooling's FUN!

This is the culmination of our first sort of official science unit. The general ocean life theme was strictly for fun; the whale unit was for real. We read encyclopedia entries, picture-filled books, created a whale mobile, and baked some cookies. Science is a blast when you're five, isn't it?

Our next unit is on frogs. I was going to cover seals and penguins next, but Becca got so excited about having a frog that I went ahead and ordered our tadpole. Unfortunately, she morphed really quickly, and the girls missed it completely since they were visiting Grandma. But they still get the fun of feeding our two little grow-a-frogs, Tommy and Rosie. I'll have to get some pictures soon. Tommy is about three times bigger than Rosie - he was the free froglet friend that came with our stage two set. Rosie looks so tiny and delicate next to him! They're getting along well though.

Updates, changes, etc.... Sylvia is still stubbornly resisting the potty, so it's looking very unlikely that she'll be going to preschool in the fall. As much as one can ask a three year old a question and get an answer, I asked if she wanted to go to preschool and she said no. I was shocked!! I guess I wasn't thinking - just because Becca had a blast at preschool doesn't mean that Sylvia would want to go. The girls' best friend and Becca's 3 yr. teacher are leaving too, which doesn't give Sylvie any motivation at all. She says she wants me to be her teacher too... I didn't bargain for that much!

And thank Bush... or the oil companies, or whomever you'd like to personally flog for the outrageous gas prices - we're not going to be able to do the aforementioned Fine Arts Fridays. I'm upset, but I saw it coming. Between the tuition and the 50 mile (one way) drive, it would cost us way more per month than we could possibly pay. So now I get to make full use of the fine arts center in our town and whatever else I can find in the area. I'm nervous about being out on my own. I know there are other homeschoolers locally; maybe we'll come out of the closet and band together for a little fun.

Finally, there's nothing like the prospect of teaching your own child to get you to want to polish up your own learnin'! So I'm reading some classic literature and an ancient history overview. I also want to take Latin and logic courses (self-taught at home). This whole classical approach is the education I wanted and envisioned when I was about 15. I just wish I'd learned about it years ago. I would have been able to do so much extra learning if I'd even realized these things were available!

And here's another picture that requires minimal explanation...

Curriculum updates...

Here is the latest on our curriculum - I made some changes and adjustments after working with Becca a little more.

Language Arts: For right now, I'm skipping Explode the Code workbooks. Rebecca seemed bored with them, and I don't want to be redundant because I wanted to be sure of her skill level. So we're just reading books of all sorts for her reading instruction. She's helping me read longer chapter books, and for her independent reads I try to make sure she's challenged.

Science: We have a bit more structure in it now, for which I'm extremely grateful! Thanks to some online help, I found Living Learning's Life Science teacher guide and student pages. It uses the same basic principles, but gives me more structure and direction. I am going to try and branch out and assemble a unit on horses - the girls are little horse nuts! I've also added a couple more spines - the Usborne Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Natural World and the Usborne Complete First Book of Nature. And Becca has decided that she does want an ant farm, so stay tuned for pics! First we'll be raising a frog, though. She's incredibly excited about her tadpole arriving. She's also anxious to raise real butterflies - they did a little project in preschool, but she was disappointed when she only found a paper butterfly inside her paper bag cocoon.

Math: Saxon was a total bust. I kept looking at it and trying to figure out how to make it work, but there was just no way to turn that into a mastery program. So again, thanks to some online guidance, I'm going with Singapore Math and Miquon. I'm planning to use them together. Miquon has a very unique approach that really intrigues me and makes logical sense, and Singapore is also highly regarded, yet a completely different program than Saxon.

At the very least, I plan to use the heck out of the manipulatives I bought for the Saxon program! Maybe spiral math will work for Sylvia.

Washable paint ROCKS!

Do I really need to say anything else?

Not just about homeschooling and the girls...

I've got to put some baseball in here.

Sorry guys... Roger Clemens' recent vague admission of "mistakes in his personal life" rings an awful lot like Jason Giambi's meandering confession of "doing stuff."

As in, what exactly is that supposed to mean? Does it mean what we think they mean, which is saying something without actually saying it? Like Sheffield saying he used the cream and the clear but didn't use steroids. Was it flaxseed oil? Do you WANT us to think you're mindless sheep who just bumble around doing what people tell you?

Whatever, guys. I get sick of people dancing around words to stay within legal loopholes, or to keep public opinion from reaching an actual conclusion instead of a continuing debate. And I am completely over Roger Clemens' desperate attempt to remain a painfully wronged "good guy."

What we have been up to...

We did a nice long study on ocean life, which we actually are still working on. We just do a little here and there, and the girls are having tons of fun. My main resource has been a book called In the Ocean from Teacher Created Resources. Those teachers sure know what they're doing! LOL I got every single penny's worth out of this book. Remind me of that the next time I'm wandering the toy aisle with the girls.

So here are two of our habitat posters - I'm sure you can tell which one the girls glued together and which one I did. Looking at it now, my tide pool looks a little forlorn.

One of the girls' favorite activities from this ocean study is Ocean Bingo. The cards only have nine squares, so I make the girls fill their whole card before they get to call Bingo. They added a silly little twist to it - when they fill their cards, they then stuff all the fish crackers into their mouths. Davey calls it a toddler version of a drinking game.

We haven't done all the projects with this study yet, but we did make some barnacles and bumpy sea stars - you can tell they're proud of their work!

We're also starting the very basics in history. We'll be having a lot of fun with ancient history this year, but first Becca needs a little idea of what history is. So we did a little timeline of her life.

And I received my Living Learning science curriculum today - I've decided to capitalize on our ocean focus and kick it off with a study on whales. I'll keep it around the ocean and we'll do seals and penguins next. Then I'm thinking we'll do frogs - so I'm going to send off for a Grow-a-Frog kit!

At least I'm not getting an ant farm.

Mystery gloop!

This was just too cool not to share it!

1/4 cup cornstarch
2 tablespoons water
ziploc bag
measuring cup
plastic spoon

Pour the cornstarch into the bag and add the water. Have your kid mush it around in the bag. Then pour it into the measuring cup and play! This is really neat - it pours like a thick liquid but then solidifies in the cup or on your hands. We had a lot of fun being gross with it. It's messy, but if you homeschool your kids, you're probably expecting a mess! Very easy to clean up.

We just made it for fun, but it can also be valuable when teaching about matter. We're not quite there yet. Example:

Me: "Water is an example of a liquid. It runs, like this goop runs off my fingers."
Becca: "Like I run! I'm a liquid!"

Er, not quite... we'll get there soon enough! LOL

(Becca is reading over my shoulder right now!)

Oh, for pete's sake...

Why can't I ever make a cheap mistake? I feel like I should slog it through a little longer, but I think that Saxon Math is just wrong for us. It employs a spiral, or incremental approach - so a new concept is introduced, then reviewed - kind of one step forward, two steps back. Somehow it didn't connect in my mind that this might be a bit boring for Rebecca. To be honest, it's kind of boring for me. I get something; I don't want to keep going over and over and over it.

A mastery approach would be better - learn a concept, understand it, move along.

My only consolation is that I can try out a math program with this mastery approach for a LOT less money than I spent on Saxon. I think I'm going to order a Singapore Math workbook and see how it works for us. I'm also very intrigued with Miquon Math and their approach of regrouping numbers for mental math. I'm understandably reluctant to buy another set of manipulatives though.

On the bright side, I found a more structured science program that works with the classical approach. It just basically organizes it for me, so I'm not adrift on my own trying to figure out which 20 animals to pick out of the encyclopedia for further study. I bought it from another homeschooling mom online and I can't wait to get it! It's Living Learning books Life Science curriculum.

Re-writing the book

Oh, goodness... Becca, Becca, Becca. I have painstakingly evaluated texts and planned out a nice little first grade curriculum, and she's already throwing boomerangs at me. How fast does this child's mind work? How much review does a five year old of Becca's intelligence need? I'm teetering between expecting too much and underestimating her. Underestimating Becca = bad thing to do. Okay, maybe not underestimating so much, but just assuming that a quick review of things would be painless.

I chose the Saxon math course for her because it was widely regarded as solid, thorough, and easy for parents to use. I'd hate for her to have any "gaps." I looked at the kindergarten text and decided that would be way too easy, so I checked out the first grade materials. They begin at a level where I feel comfortable starting with Becca - she's familiar with the start of it, but there are things deeper in that will challenge her. They use what is called an incremental approach, so there is a lot of review and new concepts are introduced slowly.

Did I just make an expensive curriculum blunder????

Time for me to re-think things. I have a nice little script but I have to go off the beaten path! I have to color outside the lines!!! Oh, the HORROR!!!!

Stop laughing, dad!

I'm going to keep reading the Saxon teacher's manual and try to figure out how to condense some lessons or just skip them altogether until we get to a part that will hold Rebecca's interest. Don't bore the child!

On a side note, we found a quick little reading level test online - it doesn't measure comprehension or anything, just word decoding. Becca is at a fourth grade level. Wow.

The will of a 3 year old

I'm seriously in crunch time here with Sylvia. Yes, she is 37 months old and still not potty trained. I know I shouldn't, but I feel like it's a personal failure of mine. Becca was 100% trained at a little over 2.5, and the standard approach worked with her. We let her watch Potty Power, bribed her with suckers and stickers, and she worked it out.

Sylvia is Sylvia, and it is just not working with her. She has no developmental delays and is a very bright little girl, but she is stubborn and willful as they come. She sat happily on the potty at around 16 months, but never got into it. I've had a few go-rounds really trying to PT her and all have failed. She's oblivious to bribes. I tried just putting her in big girl undies and she blithely peed (and pooped) in them. I can think of better things to do than chase her around, mopping up pee.

She can go potty. She is perfectly capable. She has stopped herself and realized she had to pee, and we've made it there in time. But she doesn't always care to do it. And the poop - somehow she's gotten herself crossed up and thinks that it's pooping in the potty if we dump it in there from her diaper. Let's be honest - I can lead her to the potty, but I can't make her go. And until she wants to train, there's not a lot I can do - give her a diaper or clean up a lot of pee and poop.But she's over 3 now, and she could start gymnastics this summer - if she potty trained. I have already signed her up for preschool in August - but she can only go if she potty trains. I'm starting to get worried that I'm going to have to ask for my registration fee to be refunded because the child will not go potty!

Here's the plan

I thought it might be nice for everyone to see this - my (tentative) plan and curriculum list for Becca this year. I'm planning out first grade work, figuring that it's easier to scale back than amp it up. And it's always a good idea to keep Becca busy! For a closer look at any of these titles, just look them up on Amazon.

Our overall approach is derived from The Well-Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise. This is called a "classical education," emphasizes reading, and advocates teaching history in chronological order, cycling from ancient to modern times 3 times from grades 1-12. I really like the chronological approach - it's just more... logical!

I'm also getting a lot of guidance from Home Learning Year by Year by Rebecca Rupp. It's got clear and helpful guidelines for learning goals at each grade level.

Language Arts texts:

Spelling - Spelling Workout level A
Grammar - First Language Lessons For the Well-Trained Mind
Writing - My Printing Book (Handwriting Without Tears), Draw Write Now book 1
Phonics/reading - Explode the Code book 2, plus assorted books


Math:

Saxon Math 1 with manipulatives - this is a thorough and comprehensive self-contained math curriculum. Becca may advance quickly through it if she chooses; it starts out with some things she's already doing.


History:

Story of the World, vol. 1 - ancient history; with corresponding activity guide
History Odyssey - ancients
History Pockets - ancient civilizations
Reference books: Kingfisher History Encyclopedia, The Usborne Internet-Linked Encyclopedia of History, assorted individual texts fitting with the time period


Science:

The Well-Trained Mind also suggests a life science focus for the first grade, so that's what I'm planning.

Reference books: The Kingfisher First Animal Encyclopedia, The Kingfisher First Human Body Encyclopedia

We will also cover basic plant learning - the girls will be involved with my (valiant attempt at) gardening. I haven't yet decided on any text or written reference material for this.


Where's the fun? Well, I also plan to enroll Becca in a program called Fine Arts Friday, which is a full day of Spanish, art/pottery, literature, music/cooking, and praise dance/cheerleading. This is offered by her umbrella school.

What's an umbrella school? My basic beginner understanding is that it provides legal covering for home educators, hence the term. They will keep all records for me - I report twice a year with grades, attendance, and curriculum. There are 3 options in my state for parents who want to educate their children at home, and I am taking the third option. In a nutshell, this allows me the most freedom and the least amount of state intrusion.

The school we are registering with offers on-campus classes for homeschooled students, which is what the Fine Arts Friday is a part of. They also offer regular (non-arts) classes twice a week, but I don't plan to take advantage of that quite yet.

What is poor Sylvie going to do? She will be going to the preschool Becca attended for the last 2 years. And when she's home, she'll be helping out with projects and activities or doing her own little workbooks.

We're under no pressure to finish all of the first grade work (and I say this partly for my benefit too!). She can take two years to do this, or complete parts of it and move at a more leisurely pace on others. This is a learning process for me maybe even more than it is for Becca.

And if you're wondering how Becca feels about this, she's loved her preschool time and is now excited about "mommy being her teacher."

I figured I should do this

As long as I've been on computers, I still don't have a blog. Aside from my dad, I'm probably the last person on earth to finally get one. Okay, my husband too - he's not the most tech-savvy person around.

Anyway, as I am beginning a huge journey, I thought some friends and family might appreciate a peek into things now and then. This can also serve as a place for me to think things through. Sometimes I just have to type it out.

What journey am I undertaking, you ask? Well... I'll just say it. Homeschooling. Get that picture out of your head! You know you have your own little ideas of what homeschoolers look like, but I can pretty much guarantee I don't look like it. If I ever do fit into that mold, you may shoot me.

This came about because my older daughter Becca just turned 5 last month. Here in our state and most states, that means it's kindergarten time! But we've had doubts for a couple of years about her going into kindy. She'd be 5.5 by the time the school year started, and without a trace of mommy pride, I can say that she's past that learning stage now. (Er, okay - a little mommy pride!) Who knows where she'll be in 4 more months? If we had been able to "test" her into kindergarten last fall, we could have sent her then without too many reservations. But she's had another year of preschool and another year of being a little voracious sponge of a learner! As much as she loves preschool, she's showing signs of boredom right now and even the teacher would have concerns about sending her right into a regular public school kindergarten.

And I also started to truly think about this. Your kid turns five, you send him off to kindergarten. That's what people do, right? Are we doing it because that's what you do when your kid turns five, or because it's the right and best thing for our child?

I admit to some parental anxiety about scooting my little Becca off to the "big bad world" as well. She's not sheltered; no I'm not a "helicopter parent," but it just seems like a huge thing to do; sending your five year old into a big school with kids more than twice her age. Times have changed, people - it's not the same as when you were a kid. I pictured it like this: We have nurtured a beautiful, radiant, perfect yet delicate flower. Putting her into a public school is like putting that bit of perfection into a towering thunderstorm. Would she survive? I mean she, the Becca we know and love, that awesome little personality. We want her to be Becca and nobody else. We never want her to sacrifice that for the sake of fitting in.

And I have to thank some online friends, who opened my eyes to the fact that - YES! - you can love dressing your kids in Gymboree and the like and still be a homeschooler. Some things, you never even think about!

So after a LOT of research, reading, asking, thinking, discussing... we came to the conclusion... and we are homeschooling Miss Becca.