'12/13 Week 16 Day 1

We changed our venue for a day and did our school work by the Christmas tree. After an extremely busy weekend we took it slow but deep and got everything planned done in good time. This might be a pattern for tomorrow as well. 
I have heard a lot of homeschooling parents taking a long break from teaching in December to truly focus on the meaning of the holiday and/or reduce stress levels. I can start seeing their point, in a way. It has not been a peaceful season for us (adults, at least) at all, but it has not been stressful to the point I have to cancel lessons. If the going gets tougher up the hill, one just shifts the gear to a lower one. And that is how I feel when it comes to teaching over the holiday season: we will do what we can and we will do it well. So far, we have been able to accomplish all our daily tasks and have had plenty of time to play outside and socialize with friends.

A walk-about and Christmas concert in downtown.

Andrew and Saara in the church's Christmas play. They - together with other kids - did a great job.

Saara loves to sing, so she was part of a bigger children's choir at our church's Christmas service.

'12/13 Week 15 Day 4

As I had predicted, our day today was rather ordinary. Well, the breaks were not quite. As soon as we got done with yet another class, the kids brought out all sorts of board games and lost themselves playing. It was sweet to watch and I had hard time calling them back to their studies. 

I also had hard time not crying when I was reading to Andrew and Saara the last chapters of "The Year of Miss Agnes" by Kirkpatrick Hill. Miss Agnes was a teacher who poured her heart into her students, thought outside the box, and was essentially homeschooling a group of kids in Alaska. My children loved the book tremendously. Andrew could not stand the suspense of finding out why the light was back in the school house. He dropped his building blocks and crawled next to me on the couch and drilled the page with his eyes. And those eyes brightened up with joy when he heard that Miss Agnes was back. And with a cat. Andrew loves cats.

Saara, on the other hand, gave the best reply any kid could ever give. She loves mud and it is almost impossible to keep her away from puddles. Oh, the scrubbing that follows in the bath tub is tiresome. So, we have kind of discouraged her from getting too lost in playing with mud. 
Outside today, I found her almost elbow deep in mud again. I asked her what she was up to ready to send her inside to wash up when she replied to my inquiry - "Mom, this is a scientific experiment. I am mixing sand and water into mud." We do not want to discourage 'scientific experiments' of any sorts, do we now?

Yesterday, the favorite game was Hi-Ho Cheerio. Today, it was dominoes, Spot It!, and the Memory Game.

In the morning, while I was getting our breakfast ready, the children were looking through their new and old magazines and decorating a gingerbread house online (highlights.com). We have a real gingerbread house kit to put together as well.

So, over a cup of hot cocoa, the children listened to the High Five audio version online.

'12/13 Week 15 Day 3

Today was a quiet day. Now, that Andrew is doing so much better with his spelling, our Language Arts lesson goes by flying. We have been practicing recognizing the verb in a simple sentence for over a week and Andrew is able to point it out with ease now. 

In math Andrew took his sixth test and scored 42 points out of 44. Not bad at all. Just paying a bit better attention next time. 

In science, we finished looking at the fauna of different continents. Tomorrow we will go back to the beginning and review all the places we have visited and all the animals we have got to know. I am curious to see what Andrew remembers. It will also help me to draw up a list of test questions for him about the animals we have learned. 

Other than that, I foresee another quiet school day to finish off the week.

'12/13 Week 15 Day 2

Three things that stood out today. First, Andrew has been pretty much acing his spelling with the present set of words. He has been doing this without the stopwatch. 
Second, our studies of Egypt continue and today we made a sort of an Egyptian water clock. We marked the loss of water in one minute intervals and then tested how long it would take Andrew to complete his addition drill sheet. He loved both the test and the clock. 
Third, after our classes were over, we headed outdoors and completed a set of exercises suggested in the curriculum. The children thought it was a lot of fun, but it was not challenging enough to keep their attention for long. What did last for quite some time was a ballgame we started after the children got to jump and hide and play in the pile of leaves Andrew and I raked up. It was a wonderful afternoon! 

Measuring time with our Egyptian water clock.

Measuring speed with our Egyptian water clock.

The kids dug up a box of dominoes. And got busy.

Not bad for a four-year-old.

Can you reach and jump?

Jumping a distance with legs together.

Jumping over an object with legs together.

Jumping on one and then the other foot.

:o)

'12/13 Week 15 Day 1

Saara's Bible story today was about David and Goliath. After the lessons we went down to the creek bed, the kids chose five stones, and tried to see how accurate were their throws into a bucket. We did this for quite a while.
Another activity that Saara liked tremendously today was using a pair of tweezers. She was picking up small buttons and beads and counting them into a cup. She thought it a tremendous fun. 
In math, I brought out the addition and subtraction flip cards. We have not used them for a while. Both Andrew and Saara liked figuring out the sums and differences and asked for more cards. It is a good sign. 
More cards and other stuff tomorrow.

Good morning!

Christmas time in math.

Cards and money on the same table can be a very good thing. ;o)

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It's a bulls-eye.

'12/13 Week 14 Day 6

I kept the school day light and easy today. Our crazy holiday season has begun and the sixth day of the school week does not need to be an intense one. We got our letters, reading, spelling, etc. done and finished the day off  with an art lesson. We are still exploring the texture. Today, we looked and discussed different paintings and talked about the texture in them. Also, the kids did some crayon rubbings of different textures. They really liked experimenting and finding out what kind of a pattern one or the other object yields.

Saara's crayon rubbing. I like how the cardboard gave a wood plank wall effect.

Andrew's picture. The dog on the right has 'fluffy fur' - Andrew using short lines to render the texture of the fur.

'12/13 Week 14 Day 5

Andrew's voice is still husky and he is not able to even attempt singing along with the CD in the mornings. Saara is back to her normal self. Thank God.

In our LA class, I did not take out the stopwatch today and asked Andrew to write without the usual time pressure. He did well and was able to focus. The stopwatch has been a tremendous help in getting him concentrate on his task. I will keep using it, but it is good to see that Andrew is starting to get things done without it as well. 

Our studies of the ancient civilizations have been all over the map recently. I can see what the curriculum is doing and I do not think it is wrong, but it can get a bit confusing as to what was going on where and why are we jumping back and forth between the regions. We are using the Timeline book, but to make things clearer and more visible, I printed out maps of the first river civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, The Indus River, and some other places we have covered. I also printed out some pictures or legends to glue on the maps. This way we get a better overview of what was happening at the same time (more or less) in the world. 

And, of course, it was our choir practice day. Children loved it, as always.

It was an unusually quiet recess. Andrew was looking though his history book, Saara was putting together puzzles on the floor, I had my mouth wide open - it was quiet.

The parallel worlds.

Andrew watching and waiting for his note to play.

A fine group of young performers.

A wee Wii session for some exercise in addition to all the running they did outside plus some climbing today on the playground.

Christmas ...