'12/13 Week 3 Day 1

Wow! It is already week # 3. Two weeks have gone past so incredibly fast. 

In Saara's science book we continued reading about the seasons. Today, the Bernstein Bears were flying kites. When I looked outside and saw the treetops swaying in the wind, I promised the children we would go and try to fly kites as well after all the school work was done. Oh, we were all excited until we heard the rain hitting our windows. Down the drains trickled our kite flying. We needed the rain though. 

Andrew's science lesson was about magnets again. Today, we learned about the magnetic force. The suggested butterfly experiment was hard to master, but Andrew did not give up until he figured out when the force started working and for a little while the butterfly was hovering over the table as if by magic.

We have another thing, or rather things, hovering around behind the windows as well. A family of five humming birds have been sucking their feeder bone dry. It is fun to watch them and the children are ever so excited when they show up, but it is also somewhat distracting when we are trying to read. It is the cute kind of interruption that I do not mind (it could be a plumbing problem, could it not?) 

The other funny animal kingdom thing happening around our house is the 'EEK!' frogs. I have not had time to identify what frogs exactly they are, they jump off the bank into the water with a loud "EEK!" yell before we can even spot them. It is truly hard to sneak up on them. I tried. Watch the right hand side of the screen in this clip. You will hear the squeak and see the ripples. For the kids it is just so funny to come to the pond and see the frogs squealing into the water. Hilarious!

Andrew inching closer to the paper clip to find out how powerful his magnet is. We compared three different magnets and my fridge magnet was the weakest, of course.

The battle between the magnetic force and gravity.

It took a while, but Andrew got his butterfly on the string 'flying'.

'12/13 Week 2 Day 6

We did not get to playing with, i.e. learning more, about magnets today. Oh, well. They will not disappear and facts about them will not change, so we are quite safe to catch up with our science lesson about magnets next week.

We did try to paint batik style in our geography class, though. That consisted of drawing a design on a paper with a sharpened candle stick and then brushing paint over the design that revealed the white candle wax lines. We used white crayons instead and it worked. The outcome might have been more dramatic with the candle wax, but crayon lines were visible enough and the children had a hands-on experience of how some people in the world work with fabric. We also read about basket weaving, wood carving, carpet knotting, and other crafts people still do all over the world. 

Later this afternoon, we involved the kids in our church's preparations for tomorrow's back to school luncheon. Both children were scrubbing tables and chairs, sweeping floors, washing windows, etc. alongside with us. They had a great time doing this and will have even greater time celebrating the new school year with other kids in church tomorrow.

Today, I also sent off the registration form for Starlight Singers choir for Saara and Precious Notes bell choir for both kids. Andrew and Saara are looking forward to their 'choir practices' very much. 

Saara and her craft sticks she uses to solve math problems. Today, I noticed she has been busy drawing smiley faces onto some of them. :o)

Painting over crayon designs - almost like dying fabric using batik technique.

The crayon designs are pretty visible.

Andrew's reading is improving.

Instilling good work ethic. Both kids hard at work preparing for tomorrow's luncheon.

Back to school! BTW, these flower pencils were a lot of fun to make.

'12/13 Week 2 Day 5

Strangely, for the past few days I have stumbled over a few articles written by homeschooling moms who have been discouraged at one point or the other. They have learned from this time of trials and the articles were meant as encouragement for homeschoolers in case they are going through some low period in their teaching. 

As I read the articles, I felt so thankful to God that my experience so far has been FAR from discouraging. I love teaching! Yes, there are days that are more challenging than others. Any teacher, whether at home or at school, encounters difficulties, runs into problems, faces attitudes, gets frustrated, etc. I have taught in high school, tutored adults, and now I am teaching my kids at home, and I have seen it and still see hiccups that come in all sizes and shapes and last as long as they do. 

Although I did not quite relate to the articles, the one thing they did for me was they reminded me again why I am homeschooling: I love it! I feel called to teach (if I was not homeschooling and teaching Sunday School at church, I'd be organizing classes for knitters or crocheters or crafters, etc.). I enjoy every minute I get to spend with my kids. I am not just teaching them letters or spelling or the names of the planets in our Solar System, I am making memories and creating a legacy I am leaving with them. There's absolutely nothing like setting out on an adventure with your kids: things they discover, things I discover, things we learn together, things they learn on their own. All this and so much more - it is simply priceless. Again, I thank God for keeping me strong and patient, for giving me wisdom and joy for every school day.

And we had another good one today again. Steady and quiet. Because spelling tasks are most challenging to Andrew, I started taking more breaks in our Language Arts lessons. I let Andrew work out some of that 'canned in' energy and hopefully, once it is out, he will focus better on his tasks. 

We tried it today, and it seemed to work. Time-wise, it did not take us any longer to accomplish all the tasks in the LA lesson even with a couple of small breaks in between. 

In our geography lesson we read about the ways people in the world wear their hair or jewelry or paint their bodies. At the end of the lesson I brought out my face paints. Saara was convinced her face painting was that of a fierce Indian. To me she looked more like a 'pesky butterfly' :o) Andrew wanted to have cheetah spots. 

Their face paintings did not last very long. Both kids wanted to go in the pool when the school day was over and the butterfly and the cheetah got washed off. It was fun while it lasted, though.

Tomorrow is our science movie day. We will continue our experiments (read: we will play again) with magnets. 

Saara is still practicing coloring within the lines.

This was a cute interruption in our school day. I saw an animal across the road and it did not look like our neighbor's horse nor any of his cows. Come to find out it was a deer who cleared our fence and disappeared into our woods. The kids had not seen one since last summer, I believe, when we spotted them in the meadow almost every day. There - another mammal a herbivore, a pray - a live example out of our science book.

While Andrew was wrestling with his spelling, Saara decided to audit her book case.

My 'pesky butterfly'. :o)

Have you ever tried to paint a child's face? They are constantly giggling (because it tickles) and talking and turning their head to see themselves in the mirror. My black nose cheetah.

A Good Article

I simply have to share this article. It is good.

http://www.hiphomeschoolmoms.com/2012/07/3-things-that-will-sink-your-homeschool/

'12/13 Week 2 Day 4

Both children just wanted to play and play today! Which was all right, but we did get a lot of school work done today as well. 

In math, Andrew got to know the 'lesser than' and 'greater than' symbols. We had not done any addition problems for a long time and Andrew was not thrilled to encounter them in his workbook today. At the same time, he really enjoys place values and ordinal numbers. Go figure! :o)

In our geography lesson we read about clothes people wear in different parts of the world. I had a piece of sari fabric, but it was not enough to make one for even a pint-sized girl. So, out came a bed sheet that barely made it work. One really needs at least 4-5 yards of fabric to wrap a sari.

Today, we also tasted couscous and made a bunch of pumpkin cookies. The latter was accompanied by the reading of "Peter, Peter, pumpkin eater" from Saara's nursery rhymes book. While only I and Saara found the couscous delicious, the cookies were loved by all of us, including Dad who stole two (or three) as soon as he walked in from work. Here's the link to the recipe: http://www.verybestbaking.com/recipes/32364/old-fashioned-soft-pumpkin-cookies/detail.aspx

Tomorrow, now, should bring some messy faces, if I can locate my face paints.

Andrew and math.

Just imagine a beautiful sari fabric in stead of the bed sheet ... how pretty!

Saara enjoying her pumpkin cookies.

Peter, Peter, pumpkin eater!

'12/13 Week 2 Day 3

It was a truly good school day today. Andrew did his best reading and writing and Saara was giggling along with every lesson. She was positively silly today. Oh, one has to have those days too! The only time she got truly serious was when we read our 'missionary book'. After only two stories, both children are looking forward to the next story. We will read more tomorrow. Also, we will dress Saara up in a 'sari', or at least will attempt to wrap her up the Indian style. We'll see how that goes ...

Saara being silly. While writing her numbers, she was wiggling her whole body and making faces. :o)

'12/13 Week 2 Day 2

It was a rather quiet, sweet day. Andrew was 'up and running' again with his reading. His writing, however, ... we are still working on it.
In our Language Arts, we took a closer look at what suffixes are, and I had Andrew try out a number of root word and suffix combinations. He liked the activity.

In our geography lesson we read about different foods in the world. I did not have time today, but I promised to fix a couscous dish for dinner this week - something the book mentioned and a new food we have never tried. We also watched a video on Youtube about how cheese is made. The Little Miss Muffet nursery rhyme made more sense to the children after we learned about 'curds' and 'whey'.

Our week-long library reading program led us to two books about Texas. This was the first time Andrew and Saara heard about Alamo, Sam Houston, or Stephen Austin. Will they be in for a treat when we get started with Texas history one day! I know, we will drive Daddy crazy with our requests to visit ALL the places we will learn about. 

Andrew completing his math lesson.

Learning about suffixes.

Saara refining her fine motor skills: coloring WITHIN the lines.