Week 3 Day 3

Today we practiced our letter writing in the cornmeal. That was something different and unusual. Both kids ended up liking their fingers.

Also, today we started studying about the Ancient Greece. The curriculum devotes to this culture only one day and two short pages, but I decided to dwell on the Greeks a bit longer. It is such an important part of our history. In my opinion, it deserves more than just two pages.
So, today we talked about where Greece was located and Athens and Acropolis. Also the fact that apostle Paul wrote to people in Corinth and Thessaly and gave a speech in Athens. We talked about the birth of the theater and how people painted scenes from their everyday life on their vases. Later, Andrew drew himself as a soldier with a shield and a spear and a defeated enemy on a vase cutout. I am looking forward to our next lesson about the Aesop's fables and the Olympic Games.

Week 3 Day 2

I and my husband finally finished our sodas and had two bottles waiting for today's science experiment. I wish we had done stuff like this in my school. Such an easy thing to build. At the same time, we never have tornadoes in Estonia. We do get them in Texas, so I have taken a lot of time to teach Andrew about thunderstorms, lightening, hurricanes, and tornadoes. Even hailstorms.
For me the cutest thing today was to hear my children play school in the living room while I was getting their lunch ready.

Here's the video of our tornado.

Week 3 Day 1

The third week has began. The "Mm" week. The first day of a new week is full of letter activity. Andrew's favorite is making the 'letter sheet'. It is my favorite too. The day before, it gives me a good excuse to sit down with a heap of magazines and thumb through them looking for things that begin with 'M'. I bet, things will get really interesting when we get to the last three letters of the alphabet.

Week 2 Day 6

Another homeschooling week has passed. As a reward for a job well done, Dad took the kids to the corner store and let them choose a little treat.

Our schooling day was rather relaxed today. Nevertheless, we did some serious work. For me the biggest challenge was the science lesson about rising air. The science DVD clip was rather useless (a 'scientist' yelling over the noise that was caused by inflating a hot air balloon in the background) and majority of the experiments suggested in the book were not appropriate for Texas summer weather (we do not own a heater, I do not know anyone who does). But one experiment caught Andrew's attention and Mom made it happen. We carefully recorded the whole happening in Andrew's school scrapbook as you can see it in the photo above.

Now, I am all ready and looking forward to starting the next week.

Week 2 Day 5

I have two Egyptians running around my house! They have not taken their costumes off yet. Neither have I dissembled their 'palace'. One really does not need a lot to make history come alive. We used an old window sheer, bar stools, pillows, a quilt, and Mom's dragon tree for the palace. The children are still wearing a kitchen towel, T-shirt, fabric scraps from Mom's stash, and the Egyptian collars which was also our craft of the day. The best part of this dress-up was when the children got done with their snack, they began playing the story of Moses with Saara's doll and my basket.

I had to upload this video clip from today as well. It is a classic: my tree-year-old helping my five-year-old with his alphabet.

'11/12 Week 2 Day 4

Today was a perfect day for matching things. Seriously. The temperature has been over 100 F for over two months and it has not rained for almost as long. But, yesterday we started learning about weather. Now, to match our lesson with a real life situation, it thundered and rained yesterday evening. It rained and thundered this morning and the better part of the day - a miracle after all these dry and hot weeks. Coincidence? I do not believe in those. "Thank you, God, for helping me homeschool!" is what I have to say. We played another matching game today too: paring the upper case letters with the lower ones. Not as atmospheric, but important nevertheless.

'11/12 Week 2 Day 3

Andrew asked me the cutest question today: "Mom, did the first children play in the mud?" I started laughing and told him that I was pretty sure the first children played in the mud. At least that one thing has not changed over the millenniums.

Andrew and Saara started playing in the mud after they tried to carry water buckets on their heads just like the people in the early villages. It was a perfect activity on a hot summer day. I bet, Andrew felt pretty cool after dumping a whole bucket full on water on himself. Fun in the sun.

 

'11/12 Week 2 Day 2

I have always loved rainbows. I have noticed that Texas does not have as many of them as Estonia. It took me seven years to spot my first one here. It was a treat though - a double rainbow. I am thankful that my children were there to watch the pretty colors in the sky with me that day.
Today, however, we made a rainbow of our own. As part of our science lesson we played with the mirror in the water until it gave us a pretty spectrum.
The other fun thing we did today was the coracle - a sort of a boat early people used for traveling. Of course, we made a toy one to float around in the pool and used chenille sticks and plastic instead of a wood frame and tar smeared hides. Less mess, I'd say. 

 

'11/12 Week 2 Day 1

We keep on going. Our fun project today was the 'cave' painting. We shut the door of our 'cave' (the children's bathroom), switched off the light, lit a candle (pretend prehistoric lamp), brought out the cardinal feathers we found outside yesterday, filled the cups with kids' paint and started the artwork. In the photos, the flash of the camera takes away the cool 'cave' effect of the experience. The children stopped only when they ran out of space on the banner paper. I am looking forward to Dad's reaction when he sees the bathroom this afternoon. 

'11/12 Week 1 Day 4

Our first week of school is over and I am floored by how much Andrew has learned. Seriously, his little brain has processed a lot of new information these past four days. How much will he remember come Monday? I do not know. I believe, there will be a lot of reviewing happening, but the sheer fact that he has been exposed to new vocabulary and the world that used to be rather little has become much, much bigger is worth celebrating.
For me, the highlight of today was to hear my son tell me all the names of the months by heart. I am not much into 'dry' repetition when it comes to memorizing new things. So, I wrote the first letters of every month onto his fingers and palms. It worked. Something unexpected and out of the ordinary, but it worked.
For Andrew, the best part of the school day was the balloon race. We were learning about air all around us. We made it move things. Such a simple experiment made him think that school is the coolest thing ever. I can not believe, he said the same thing about practicing writing number 2s over and over and over. Mystery.

 

'11/12 Week 1 Day 3

We are still riding the wave of the prehistoric times and learning how people lived back then. Today we read about how the prehistoric people made their clothes and what jewelry they wore. This became our project of the day. Andrew and Saara worked diligently on their seashell necklaces and bracelets. They are really pleased with their handiwork. Andrew tore off his shirt and ran outside like a true caveman. He ignored his sister who kept calling him Tarzan. We had a lot of seashells and beads left over, so Mama had to make one pretty bracelet for herself too, of course.

Also, while teaching Andrew about the changing of the seasons, I used a very good YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuiQvPLWziQ&NR=1

'11/12 Week 1 Day 2

We did a number of fun activities today. First, we were out the door by 7:30 trying to get the hard sun-parched ground to co-operate and let us stick two sticks in the ground. Our goal was to measure the length of the shadow. We did it again at 12:30. Both children recorded their observations in their journals.

Second, one of the books we were reading today mentioned milking goats. Now, that is an activity that does not make much sense to the new generation unless you own a goat farm. Thankfully, there still are goat farms. On The Green Farms has posted a series of goat care videos on the YouTube. Part 3 in the series shows how the milking is done. Fun to watch. http://www.onthegreenfarms.com/natural-animal-care/goats/

Third, we read about the first people, what they ate, where they lived, etc. That was the best part of today: marching into the woods to cut down some branches and haul them over to our play ground and build a sort of a hut. Mom's garden burlap and trash bag ties came handy as animal skins and plant ropes. I stopped there, but Andrew and his imagination were hard at work. He was looking for a good straight stick and stones to make a spear. So out came Mom's gardening ties and we ended up with a spear and an axe that did remind me of the prehistoric tools we looked at in a library book. Before the hot weather chased us back into our 21st century pool, I had time to teach Andrew how to throw a spear. Boy, it brought back memories of my years on the track-and-field team!

'11/12 Week 1 Day 1

We are done with our first day of homeschooling. I am slightly surprised that it did not feel much different from what I have been doing for the past three years. I may have a few more books now, but in general, it's the same. Learning at home.
Andrew has been very excited about his schooling. I could tell by how bubbly he was telling Dad everything he did today. He loves all of his new school stuff.
The best part of the day was learning about the Earth spinning around its axis and orbiting around the Sun. We closed ourselves in the kids' bathroom (the darkest room with an electric outlet in the house), switched on a lamp without the shade (the Sun), and used an inflated globe beach ball (the Earth). We will do it again tomorrow when we learn about the day and the night. It truly does not feel like learning at all. Just having fun.
And it is not only me coming up with creative expressions. After reading about dinosaurs and watching a recorded TV documentary on those long dead creatures, Andrew got on his bucket hat, grabbed his old Halloween pail, toy hammer, and paint brush and headed to the sandbox to play a paleontologist. He has found a number of animal bones in the forest (including a wild hog jaw bone), I would not be surprised if he truly is a scientist in the making. 

 

Last Saturday Before

Today is the last Saturday before school starts. The children and I spent the whole morning talking about studying and learning, about homeschool. We made an "Andrew poster" and sorted out Andrew's new cool calendar, we looked at some of his school books and went over some school rules. Before we blew up a whole lot of balloons and dug into a delicious Fist Day of School cake, we gathered around Andrew and prayed for him. On Monday then, the fun begins. I can see myself recording every step of the way. More than educating it feels like we will be making a lot of memories.

MCA

My husband and I had a good laugh this morning playing with the idea of our home 'school'. We both liked the name Millscreek (our pet name for our home and property) Christian Academy or MCA. The 'school' mascot would be an owl as we have plenty of them flying around our house and it is considered a wise bird and in Estonia in stead of the apple we have the owl as the symbol of knowledge and learning. As to the 'school' colors, my husband suggested blue-black-white, the colors of the Estonian flag, but I am leaning more towards blue and white, because these are the two colors found in the flags of Estonia, USA, and Texas.
Part of me is thinking, what a silly idea. But there is a little side of me that is thinking, why not. So, when you see me or my kids in a T-shirt with MCA on it, you would know what it stands for.

The Smell of Chlorine

We are all reeking of chlorine. It is good because it says we had been soaking in the pool for two solid hours which means we had lots of fun tonight.

I can hardly believe the time is already here. It was just a few months ago, I could not wait to step into the circle of local homeschoolers. And now I have. We joined the county's Christian home educators association and took part in their annual pool party. Hence the smell of chlorine.

It is good because it says the school year is about to start.

All Signed Up

All right, I am going to be 'the soccer mom' officially now. We signed both of our children up for the Pee Wee Soccer team. They will start in October. Hopefully, it will be much cooler then. It is like 108 F every day right now. We all got hot just standing at the window at the Aquatic Center filling out the papers for Andrew and Saara. So, right now, instead of kicking the soccer ball we are hitting the pool all day long.

My First Day of School

We have only a couple of weeks left till the first day of Kindergarten. I have been thinking how to make it special for Andrew. Also, I have been thinking back what my first day of school was like. Sadly, I can hardly remember anything sweet or fun ...

Back in 1982, I was seven (the legal school age then in Estonia). I had graduated from the day-care in May and as soon as September 1 (the official first day of school even now) rolled around, I was SO ready to go to school. I remember feeling BIG. I was a school girl now, no more day-care. Of, course, it did not take me long to realize that first grade had nothing to do with BIG. I was a 'baby' again, for everyone else beside my classmates were older and bigger than us.

But back to the not-so-fun first day of school. I and my Mom arrived on time, but in my class room all the desks were already taken and there was only one 'vacancy' - one desk at the far right end of the room right under the window. You could have sent me to Siberia, it would have felt the same. I felt let down and disappointed.

I was not the last child to walk in to the room. Every desk was meant for two students, so everyone had a 'desk mate'. Mine arrived a few minutes after I had sat down. And it was a BOY! I remember being mad. He obviously, did not like sitting next to a girl either, so we started fighting from day one. In weeks to come, our bickering got so bad that the teacher had to separate us and I was given a new desk mate, a girl this time. I did not think it was much of an improvement because her hands were always dirty and it was rumored that she had head lice.

First day. I remember sitting in the big hall upstairs where the traditional first day speeches were given. I remember feeling deserted. Not alone, but facing this sea of new faces was a mountain of a challenge. Thankfully, I made friends fast and by the time my Mom had to bring me home from the emergency room at the end of the first week at school (I was fooling around on the safety barrier bar in front of the school, when someone pushed me and I dived head first onto the road), I had well adjusted and really did not remember the not-so-fun feelings of the first day until now.

So, Andrew, I hope, in 29 years if I am still around and I ask you what you remember of your first day of Kindergarten, you will tell me none of the stuff, I just jotted down. May you have another milestone in your life to look back to with fondness. I wish it with all of my heart.

I felt such a BIG girl that day.
Feeling kind of deserted here.
Receiving my student ID.
On our way back home. On the foreground the same safety barrier that cost my head a few stitches.