The Eductional Value of the Game "Risk"

I am very excited to have a guest poster today, my awesome Hubby!  We are definitely a game-playing family and I know he is excited that he can now start easing the kids into more advanced games like Risk, Settlers, and Ticket to Ride.  And I am excited that such games can be so educational!  Without further ado, here is Hubby's summary of the benefits of Risk:

Some time ago Primus asked me if I wanted to play a game with her. I had assumed she wanted to play SORRY or YATZEE for kids, but in fact she wanted to play RISK; she’s seen the adults play it and is eager to play with us some day. We had a fun game, even mommy joined in, and Primus had several educational experiences.

Geography:

Risk teaches geography basics. Primus was able to grasp the six main continents and their names. She was able to locate various places of the world to which her family has traveled: vacations, missions, etc.

Mathematics:

Risk actively teaches addition, subtraction, and exchange. Primus was able to count out her pieces individually, she learned that cannons and cavalry equaled a set amount of soldiers,  she learned to replace the former units in the event of a loss in battle, and she was able to discern number values with each roll of the dice.

Strategy:

RISK obviously teaches strategy. She was able to identify possibilities and make choices with her options: to attack, where to attack, attack from where.

Life:

RISK also teaches a valuable life lesson. Primus was able to experience that,  through no fault or virtue of her own, failure and success are still possible.

Fun with Food

Here's a couple fun treats we made recently:

First, gingerbread (graham cracker) houses.  I discovered that apparently the key to a good (stable) gingerbread house is the frosting.  This is the first year I've ever done it with my kids.  But I remember as a child making these at various church or school activities and usually we would take the easy way out and just use canned frosting.  But those darn things would always fall over.

So I decided to make some royal icing for the first time.  That stuff is magic!  Dries like cement!  The girls helped me pipe a square of icing on the plate to be a foundation for our walls.  And then obviously we piped a line of frosting at the corners to keep the walls together.  The roof was a little tricky to get it stuck together just right so it wouldn't fall off before drying, but we got it to work. 

While we waited for our houses to dry so we could put candy on, we read the story of "Hansel and Gretel" together. 

My mother-in-law sent me a link to this cute idea.  It was probably in Family Fun magazine, but I'm not sure now.  To make Rudolf you just need: 
*mini chocolate donuts
*red peanut M'n'M's for noses
*tiny white sprinkles for eyes
*broken mini pretzel twists for antlers

The antlers and eyes are easy to just poke right into the donut.  For the nose, just stick the candy in the center far enough so it stays, but not so far that you end up breaking the donut.

A friend and I decided that you could probably make cute snowman heads, too.  Just use white powdered sugar donuts, an orange candy for the carrot nose (M'n'M or maybe a candy corn?), and then black sprinkles for the coal eyes.  You could probably make some kind of top hat using a Rolo.  I'll have to try that soon.

Finally, we made the classic Ants-on-a-Log.  Celery, peanut butter, and raisins.  It's the perfect fun, healthy, easy snack.  It was also great because it led to a discussion of why ants always walk in a line.

Mind=Blown

Did you know that the United States dropped the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki almost 3 and half years after the bombing of Pearl Harbor?  Three-and-a-half years!  That's a long time! 

Am I the only who has never understood that until now?  I guess in my head, the two events are so strongly connected that they must have happened in quick succession.  I guess if I had to think about it, I would have admitted that it would have taken us a few months to organize our attack.  But 3 1/2 years?  Is this evidence of my crappy public school history education?  Or just me not paying attention in said boring classes?

I can't remember how exactly this came up, but when Hubby told me this I could do nothing more than just stare at him slack-jawed.  I finally replied, "Really??  You just blew my mind!"  I love having a history-fanatic husband!  I learn so much from him everyday.

When Does Our Holiday Start? Oops!

Since we are enrolled with a charter school to do our homeschooling, they give us a calendar dictating when we should take holidays.  (And I have to report our attendance.)  But I figure that one perk to homeschooling is taking vacation whenever you want. 

For example, back in November we were supposed to take Veteran's Day off, which was a Friday.  But Tuesday of that same week, I was gone all morning at the Principle for a Day thing.  So I made that Tuesday our holiday and we did school on Friday to make up for it.

Well, it looks like I've done it again, accidentally.  I was so sure that our Christmas break began after Friday the 16th, same as Secundus' preschool.  But yesterday I finally looked at my planner and it turns out we are supposed to have school Monday thru Wednesday this week and then take 10 school days off.  Oops!

So minor inconvenience, now I just have to pay attention and make sure we get all the right number of school days in.  Primus is excited to be on break right now so I'm not going tell her that she has to wake up early today and come do her journal and math just because South Sutter says so and Mommy screwed up.  But at the same time, I don't want to get too far off the schedule.  (And sticking to their plan of not starting school again until January 5th as opposed to the 2nd sounds really nice!)

It's a good thing that Kindergarten is easy and fun.  Because I was able to squeeze in a school day yesterday without Primus even noticing.  I got her to read 4 phonics books to me, we read and discussed several Aesop's Fables together, she watched an Eyewitness DVD about Skeletons, we made "ants on a log" for snack, and we made reindeer donuts for a treat.  (Pics and blog post to follow.)

So since I snuck in a day yesterday, that means we can now take vacation until January 3rd!  Sweet!  Although, now I'm conflicted because there is a chance I might get to go out of state without the kids at the end of January to help my sister-in-law with her new baby.  Which means Primus will have to take some vacation days at that time.  (Hubby can't be expected to do too much in my absence because he'll have his own homework to complete.  Though I will at least leave her with some handwriting practice pages and other easy independent workpages.)  So maybe I have just banked one day toward that. 

Thomas Jefferson vs Charlotte Mason

I am a homeschooler. 

I am not an unschooler, or TJed'er, or a follower of Charlotte Mason, or Whole-Heart learning.  I'm not even a Traditional or Classical homeschooler.  I'm just a homeschooler.

I've thought occasionally that maybe I should read up on these methodologies and see which one fits me best.  Maybe it would give me some direction.  But now I'm thinking that it might be more of a detriment than a benefit.  I may decide, for example, that I agree mostly with the Classical method.  But then I would feel pressured into including an in-depth study of Latin in our curriculum. 

When I decided to homeschool, it was partly because I didn't want the government dictating to me what and when my child should learn.  I don't want Charlotte Mason to be dictating that to me, either.

I didn't even know there were such things as "homeschool philosophies" until I started reading homeschool blogs.  And the more I read, the more I'm discovering that not only do all these philosophies exist, but that they are also at odds with each other.  Ok, so maybe the philosophies themselves aren't necessarily at odds.  But sometimes the mothers who implement them are. 

From what I can gather, there are some moms that are so devoted to their method or philosophy that they come to believe it is the right, and the best, method.  And moms who follow a certain philosophy tend to associate with other moms who also believe in that philosophy.  Too often, this can turn into cliques.

This new knowledge makes me sad.  Why can't we support each other?  Aren't we all just trying to do what we each feel is best for our children?  I thought we all chose homeschooling because we wanted the freedom to educate our children in the way that we saw fit.  Can't we allow our fellow moms that freedom without judgement?  (You could also add public-school moms into this mix-but perhaps that issue deserves it's own post.)

Thankfully I have never personally, in real life, encountered any of this animosity.  And I hope I never do.

Angel Ornament

This angel ornament that we made is made of coffee filters (the basket kind).  It felt really weird to buy coffee filters.  I also find it kind of funny that my coffee filters aren't going to be used in the kitchen, but rather they have been thrown in the craft box.  But I've also heard that they are good to hold snacks for little ones (better than a napkin because it's shaped like a bowl-but it's disposable.)  But I digress...

How to make a coffee filter angel: (taken from crafts.kaboose.com)

1. Place two cotton balls in the center of one of the coffee filters. (I used a balled-up Kleenex)
2. Hold the coffee filter with your fingers, gathering the cotton balls in the center to create the angel’s head.
3. Place a second coffee filter onto the open end, tucking the filter in a bit into the head area. This will produce the layered effect on the dress.
4. While still holding the filter together, tie a piece of gold or silver ribbon around the “neck” and tie a tight bow. Trim ends and set aside (I used a piece of a white pipe cleaner)
5. Take the third coffee filter and fold it in half, then fold the filter up length-wise accordion style. Wrap a white chenille stem around the center, and then fan out the wings.  Fold the excess chenille into a loop for your hanger and twist together at the end.
6. Make a halo from the gold chenille by wrapping it around something circular, such as the top of a paint bottle. Twist the ends to form the halo. Trim the long end of the chenille, leaving approximately 3”.
7. Have an adult hot glue the halo to the back of the angel so that it is positioned above the head.
8. Glue the wings in place behind the angel, hiding the gold chenille from the halo.
9. (Instead of using glue, I just fed my pipe cleaners for my wings and halo through the one on the angel's neck and twisted.)

Secundus put hers on our tree, and Primus gave hers to a dear friend who has an angel baby in heaven.

One Lesson, Two Different Levels

One thing that I have anxiety about is, "Four years from now, how in the world am I going to teach a kindergartner, 2nd grader, and 4th grader all at the same time?  And what if more babies come along by then, too?"  I mean, I know that big homeschooling families do the one-room-schoolhouse thing all the time.  But at this point, it's hard for me to fathom how I could possibly have enough hands, eyes, and time to make it all work.
As I've read blogs written by experienced mommies, I'm learning that one key is to combine lessons as much as possible.  So in order to help my fellow newbies, I'd like to share just one example that I discovered of how to apply this advice:

To help my kindergartner practice her sight words, I downloaded some free, simple board games from http://www.theschoolbell.com/Links/Dolch/Contents.html.  As we play, Primus has to read various sight word cards to move on or win a card.  When Secundus plays with us, instead of having her read the words, I have her tell me the beginning letter name and sound.  So simple!

Lots of Santas

This morning Santa came to our music class.  As we were getting ready to go, the girls were talking about how excited they were that they would see Santa.  Next thing I know, I heard Primus say that Santa drives a blue car.  Apparently she has a very good memory; last year we were a little late to music class and we arrived just barely before Santa did so she saw him drive up in a blue car.
I questioned her about why he was driving a car and so she realized that it wasn't the Real Santa.  Then she decided that none of the Santas at Christmas parties are the real ones.  We talked about it some more and decided that the Real Santa is just too busy right now helping his elves make and wrap the toys.  So these other Santas are just pretending to be Santa.  And then they can talk to the real Santa and tell him what the children asked for.

I'm really impressed that Primus figured all this out on her own.  I was wondering how long it would take for her to realize that all the different Santas that we see at parties don't look alike. 

Secundus was there when we were having our discussion and she seemed to understand.  But I made sure to swear the girls to secrecy so they wouldn't tell any of the little kids at class today.  I explained that the other kids probably wouldn't understand the truth and it would just make them sad.

New Title, New Address

As you can see, I have changed the title of my blog.  I hope you like it!

The new web address is:  homeschooltypo.blogspot.com

Educational Poster FAIL

I just opened up a "Landmarks and Symbols of America" poster pack that I ordered and I am disappointed. 

First, the picture they had for Abraham Lincoln was a poorly cropped photo of the statue from his memorial.  What???  Why not use one of the good, contemporary, and highly recognizable paintings of him?

Next, I was hoping the "Constitution of the United States" would be the text of the Preamble.  But instead it is a photo with the preamble in the background on old paper, and a pair of Ben Franklin-type glasses and a feather in the foreground.  Pretty, but useless.

The "Pledge of Allegiance" poster is also completely useless.  Again, I was hoping for the actual text.  But instead I got a picture of a girl with her hand over her heart with a fuzzy American Flag in the background.

But this one takes the cake.  The little information booklet that came with it had this gem of knowledge about the flag, "There are many nicknames for the American flag, including Old Glory, the Stars and Stripes, the Stars and Bars, and the Star-Spangled Banner."

Did you catch it?
I'll give you a second.  Go back and re-read that.

Ready?  THE AMERICAN FLAG IS NOT CALLED THE *STARS AND BARS*!  That was the name given to the flag of the Confederacy!

Good job, educational materials publisher.  FAIL.

So Much!

Practically daily I fluctuate between excitement and anxiety about what to teach my daughters in our homeschool.  That's because there is just so much to learn! 

I go a little insane when I'm in the homeschool stores or the library.  I just want to buy (or check out) it all!  It all looks so fun! 

But then I think, "Holy Cow, how in the world will I have time to teach her all this stuff?  Where do I start??"

I'm still working on finding a good balance.

Pet Peeve

"Homeschool" is not a typo! 

This is my new pet peeve. 
Why must Microsoft Word and Blogger insist that I spelled it wrong? 
Come on, dictionaries, get with the program!
I'm starting to feel a little marginalized over here.  <pouts> 
Ok, so maybe that's an exaggeration, but it's still really annoying.

I thought I had a great idea...

We meet with our ES tomorrow and Ms. Szper told me that she definitely wanted to see some kind of documentation this time of the things Primus has been doing at gymnastics (Fliptastic-which the school is paying for.)

A few weeks ago I took a ton of pictures of Primus during her class.  And that same day, I sat her down and helped her write up a report about gymnastics (fill in the blank questions about her favorite thing to learn, the hardest thing, etc.)  But I have been procrastinating ever since and haven't gotten around to picking which pictures to print and include with her report for Ms. Szyper. 

Like I said, we meet with Ms. Szyper tomorrow so this morning I was working on our learning record and starting to stress that I still hadn't picked out the pictures.  I knew that it would take me forever to choose which pics were the best. 

But then I had a stroke of genius!  Primus can pick her own pictures!  She is almost 6; surely she is computer literate enough to do this on her own.  So I showed her how to scroll through them, and instructed her to write down the numbers of the pictures she liked.

It worked!  Kind of.  Out of 91 photos, she successfully narrowed it down to 11.  But then I was picky and got rid of 7 of them and added 14 of my own choosing.  So question is...did I really end up saving myself any time at all?  Oh well, at least Primus got some computer experience and she had fun doing it.

Craft Round-Up

I want to share some of the crafts we've done in the last month.  It is so easy to be crafty during the holidays!

1. Craft stick star ornaments.  The kids painted the sticks white, then I hot-glued them into the star shape.  The kids put on the finishing touches with Elmer's glue and glitter.

 2. Craft stick tree ornaments.  Again, the kids did the painting and glitter, and I did the hot-gluing.  I tried to get the kids to glue little beads as ornaments for their trees, but Primus wasn't interested.  She only used a single yellow bead in place of a star.

 3. Glass balls ornaments.  I got clear ornaments and poured a little bit of tempera paint inside after removing the hook part.  The kids then shook it up until all of the inside was coated with paint.  Then glitter-glue designs were done on the outside.

4. Stuffed Turkey.  This was made on Thanksgiving Day.  I cut 2 circles out of paper bag and punched holes all the way around.  The kids glued on the feathers and turkey head.  Then the circles were laced together (so the part where the feathers were glued were on the inside.)  A couple balls of newspaper in between the circles before they were finished being laced up made the turkey nice and fat.

5. No-mess painting with wax paper.  This is the same method I used when we made those fall leaves a couple weeks ago.  I love this method!  Fun, easy, looks cool, and no mess!

6. Handprint Santa.  Made for a cute, quick gift for Great Grandparents.

7. Pipe cleaner candy cane.  Nothing spectacular here.  I just handed the girls a couple pipe cleaners and they whipped up a few of these to put on the tree in only a couple minutes.  Not all crafts have to be complicated!



New Nativity Blocks

My children were given a nativity set to play with a couple years ago.  But, being that it was ceramic, it has several broken pieces.  I think the donkey's ears broke off only weeks after we acquired it.  And recently one of the wise men lost his head completely.  So, the search was on for a new set for them. 

When it comes to Nativity scenes, I am very picky.   This did not make my search easy.  Especially since there aren't many nativities for children on the market.  And I had a complaint of one form or another about all of them.  Plus, we're not in a position to be spending much money on extras right now, anyway.  So I decided quickly that I would need to get crafty and make my own.  I saw the idea for the following set on some blog.  But then I had to find a nativity clipart set that I liked.  That was even harder!

Anyway, I finally found some great, simple clipart on JennySmith.net.  The only thing it was missing was a donkey.  But I was able to whip one up on Windows Paint pretty easily. 

I cut out all the pictures and simply Mod Podged them onto my Melissa and Doug wooden blocks.

The stable, the star, Mary, Joseph, the manger, and the donkey.  As you can see, I cut the stable and the star into multiple pieces.

The wise men and even King Herod!  So cool that I was able to teach my kids about this antagonist and the important part he plays in the story of Christ's birth and infancy.

Shepherds, sheep, and angel.

Advent Calendar

I wanted to do an advent calendar with the kids this year so I searched Pinterest and found some great ideas to get my creative juices flowing.  And then I came up with this:

I painted a big Christmas tree on poster board and glued on 24 little pieces of the scratchy side of velcro.  Then I cut out 23 little ornaments from felt.  (As you can see, the 24th ornament is a star.)  Actually, every ornament consists of an ornament shape with a circle shape glued on top to create a pocket.  And then that puff fabric paint was perfect for writing on the numbers.   

Each ornament's pocket contains a scripture about the birth of Christ and then a coordinating song.  So every night we take the correct ornament out of the bag, read the scripture, sing the song, and then put the ornament on the tree.

I am really pleased with the way it turned out and the girls are loving taking turns putting the ornaments on the tree.

Preschool Discontent

Today Secundus had a field trip to a gymnastics place.  While the kids did their thing, the moms sat on the bleachers and talked.  There was a group of 4 or 5 of us that especially had a really great discussion.  I learned that I am not the only one who is incredibly dissatisfied with the preschool class. 
I won't go into all the reasons here, but suffice it to say that everyone thinks that sending their kids to this class is a waste of time.  I am pulling Secundus out at Christmas break time.  And it sounds like several others may do the same.  Several moms have gotten on the wait list to transfer to the morning class with a different teacher. 
Anyway, it was very eye-opening for me to hear that my criticisms of the class weren't unfounded.  I even found out about a couple reasons why the class is so bad that I wasn't even aware of previously.  Very interesting.  I wish I could find out how many kids are left in the class in January!

Sistine Chapel

This is an awesome self-directed virtual tour of the Sistine Chapel.  Trust me-it is amazing.  You definitely want to go check it out.

http://www.vatican.va/various/cappelle/sistina_vr/index.html

Nephi and the Brass Plates

Tristan over at Our Busy Homeschool did a review of Nephi and the Brass Plates DVD from Living Scriptures.  She also had a copy to giveaway...and I won!

I grew up on the Living Scriptures videos!  I am so excited that I get to share this great part of my childhood with my own children.  The animation is worse than I remember.  But the story and music are just as awesome as I remember.

Fall Crafts

Here's a couple fun crafts we've done lately:

Fall Leaf No-Mess Painting

Here's what you do: Put a large piece of wax paper on the table.  On top of that, put a small piece of poster board.  Then let the kids decide which colors they want placed where on their paper.  Just put little drops of paint at random places.  Then put another piece of wax paper on top. 

Then comes the fun part: the kids just use their fingers to spread the paint around and blend colors together as desired.  When you're done, peel off the top wax paper and let the poster board dry.  When it was all dry (the next day-we used a lot of paint!) we used a leaf we collected to cut a couple leaf shapes out of our poster board.  We even discussed the veins on the leaves and drew those in and then used the real leaves' stems as stems for our painted ones.

Bonus: after we peeled off the top wax paper, we placed a piece of regular paper on top of the paint that was left behind and rubbed to transfer it.  So here is what that looks like.  Isn't that neat?



These things are supposed to be Turkey Centerpieces.  The girls made these at Lakeshore.  Lakeshore does free crafts like this every Saturday.  This was the first time we had gone and it was fun. 

At the beginning of November, I made this construction-paper Thankful Tree.  Every morning during our calendar time, Primus has to think of one thing that she is thankful for and then I write that on a leaf.  My favorites so far that she has said she is thankful for: "the Earth because Jesus made it," "library books", "all the trees," and "My mommy is my teacher."

The next couple pictures aren't crafts, but rather a way that we display our crafts.  It was super cheap and easy.  I just put a couple big nails in the wall high up by the celing and tied a white shoelace to the nails.  Add some clothes-pins, and you're good-to-go. 



Big Book of History

The Homeschool Village wrote a review a little while ago abou the Big Book of History.  They also held a contest to give 3 away.  And guess what?  I won!  We were super excited when it arrived in the mail. 

The Big Book of History is just a fold-out 15 foot long timeline.  It is made by a Christian publisher so it starts with Adam and Eve and ends with today.  It has so much information about a ton of stuff.  World history, Biblical history, technological history, etc. 

We all had fun looking at it, reading a couple entries, and just marveling at how many years have passed since several different events.  While the information is mostly too advanced for Primus right now, it is very helpful to be able to give her a visual representation of how long ago things happened.  And I really like that it includes Biblical events because she can easily find the entry that says, "Jesus is born."  And then that gives her a good reference point for anything else that we are studying. 

Love it!



Super Easy and Yummy Cookies

My friend Cindy shared this recipe with me.  They are sooo yummy and soooo easy and quick to make.  And I like to assume that they are healthy.  My children may-or-may-not have had at least 2 of them each for breakfast.

1 (30oz) can of pumpkin
2 boxes of spice cake mix
1 bag chocolate chips

Mix it all together.  (Do not add anything to the cake mix.  Seriously, just dump the powder in the bowl with the pumpkin and chocolate.)  Drop by spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 15 minutes at 375 degrees.

To appease picky spouses or children, these don't even taste like pumpkin.  And they don't taste "healthy."  They're just really yummy, super soft chocolate-chip cookies!  I used my medium-sized Pampered Chef cookie scoop and it made 5 dozen cookies.  That's a lot of cookies but they went fast!  After we inhaled about half in a day or two, I had to throw the rest in the freezer so I would have some to share with my sister-in-law and family.

And since this recipe is so simple, it is perfect for getting children to help.  My little ones can totally handle dumping 3 ingredients into a bowl and then stirring.

Principal for the Day

Today I participated in the first annual "Principal for the Day" event for San Juan Unified School District.  Every school in the district was assigned a member of the community to be their Principal for the Day.  I am so glad that I got to be at my school of choice. 

So basically what I did was follow around the regular principal as she went about her business for 3 1/2 hours in the morning.  I was given a tour of the school and we observed almost all of the classrooms for a few minutes. 

Right at the beginning of the day, as we walked out to the playground to make sure everyone got to class, the principal asked me if I knew anything about the school already.  So I told her that my friend's son told me, and I had observed, their morning walk arounds.  She enthusiastically said, "Oh, yes!  Our Striders!"  So I told her that I thought it was awful and that it looked like a prison.  She said something about it being about promoting healthy exercise and that the kids love being able to walk around with their friends.  So I told her that playing and running and climbing are fun and good exercise for kids, too.  I also told her that when I talked to the school secretary about it on the phone, she didn't tell me that the reason for the walk arounds is about discipline and limited staffing, but that I am sure that is part of it.  I also recognized that schools have to do the best they can with what they have, but again, I think it is weird.  When I got done saying all of this, the principal was notably silent.  She didn't say anything until we arrived in a classroom to begin observations.

The rest of the day went well.  All of the staff was really nice.  I found out that this school has a large population of English-as-second-language learners.  Also, a lot of the families are poor.  This year they were declared a Title 1 school, which means they were granted lots of extra funding. 

After our observations were done, we headed to the Citrus Heights Community Center for a really nice lunch.  This included: principals, principals-for-day, select school board members, select community leaders, and the teachers/staff of the year.  The lunch was catered by the students of the culinary institute at the new San Juan High School.  Entertainment was provided by Rio Americano's Jazz Band. 

I was hoping that at the lunch I would be able to voice my concerns about our tax dollars being mismanaged and spent too much on junk (like this event) and administration, and not enough on actually educating our children.  But in actuality, it was nothing more or less than a PR campaign.  And I feel silly for hoping I would have the opportunity to turn it into anything else. 

The program for the lunch was on a strict agenda.  Most of the time was spent listening to a couple people (who each were very charismatic speakers, and liked to hear their own voice) go on about how wonderful this school district is.  The theme of the event was that schools are facing challenges and budget cuts, and the media is telling us that our public schools are failing, but San Juan is doing great!  Too bad their own statistics say that every grade has 30 students per classroom and only 30 out of 60 schools "meet the California goal of an 800 or higher score on the Academic Performance Index."

We were told there would be time for participant comments.  But actually what happened is that they told us to discuss with our table the positive things, the successes, that we saw in our observations today.  And then four volunteers were given the chance to share with the big group.  The four people who spoke were also charismatic men who liked to hear themselves speak.  And they had nothing but wonderful things to say.  They were all big cheerleaders.

One good thing that I learned is that the whole event was actually sponsored by ACSA (Association of California School Administrators.)  But my next question is, where does ACSA get their funding?

I'm glad that I participated because I saw a lot of great things that the school was doing, or at least trying.  I collected some great ideas that I will hopefully be able to implement in my own classroom. 

How to Eat a Lollipop

We were unable to watch General Conference on Conference weekend so instead have downloaded it.  We are picking our way slowly through it, watching a talk or two at a time.  (Should I emphasize *embarrassingly slowly*?  We just finished the Saturday afternoon session finally.)

Tonight the kids were told to each pick a sucker and then sit down to listen.  The plan was that the suckers would keep their mouths busy and keep them quiet.  We had only watched a couple minutes, though, before Secundus had already chewed up her sucker completely and Primus had thrown hers away because it was "too hard to bite" (it was a very thick one.)  My plan didn't work!

So we paused the video, we each picked new lollipops, and Hubby proceeded to give them a thorough lesson on how to enjoy it.  The lesson was complete with demonstration and practice of licking, sucking, and saying, "Mmmm...tasty."  The number one rule was, "No biting!"  The kids thoroughly enjoyed it.

We learn very important lessons in our house!

Phonics vs Sight Words

I feel very strongly that too many kindergarten and first grade classrooms focus too much on Sight Words and not enough on Phonics.  My nephew's school does sight words.  We chose to do Distar with Primus.  (Distar is very heavy phonics-based.)  Primus, as a kindergartner, is reading better than my nephew, as a first grader. 

Now, of course this could be because Primus is a girl, or that she is naturally talented at reading, or any other number of reasons.  But for the sake of this argument, I am going to assume it is because of this Sight Words vs Phonics issue.

I was looking at nephew's sight word list and one word that jumped out at me was, "like."  Seriously?  This is a sight-word?  How about instead of teaching him to memorize this word, you teach him the "silent-e" rule?  So then that way he can apply that rule to many, many different words he will encounter?  "Like" is definitely a word a child should be able to sound-out. 

Or how about this word, "it."  Really??  How hard is it to teach a kid what "i" says and then teach them what "t" says?  And then with that knowledge they can sound-out "it" or "tip" or "tin," etc.  Why do they need to emphasize memorizing this little word, "it?"

Am I way off base?  Do I need to observe one of these classrooms in action?  Admittedly, I have only ever had personal experience with Distar.  Am I missing something?  Also, I do admit that the American-English language is kind of ridiculous and that there are plenty of words that don't follow any of the phonics rules.

Anyway, now that Primus has finished her 100 lessons in Distar, I am kind of at a loss of what to do.  One of the things our ES (the teacher at the charter school that checks up on us) suggested is now working on high-frequency words (sight words).  So, given that Primus has a really good background in phonics, I've decided to give it a go.  I've downloaded all the Dolch lists.  It will be fun to see how fast she can zoom through and pass off words that she already knows how to read.

I also found this good website that has printable record sheets and games for using with Dolch.  The games sound really fun.  So maybe we'll get a chance to play some of them.  I'll let you know how it goes!

Why am I sending my 3 year old to State-run Preschool???

For the past couple months, I have been doubting my decision to send Secundus to preschool.  I'm debating whether or not I should pull her out.

Why I enrolled her in the first place:
1. I wanted my poor middle child to have something fun to do that was all her own.
2. I thought it would be nice to have some time every afternoon with Secundus at school and Tertius napping to focus on Primus' kindergarten work.
3. Primus' preschool teachers, Ms. Lyn and Miss Lisa, last year were just awesome.  They had so many resources and ideas and ran a really great program.  I hoped Secundus could be in their class, or at least be in an equally awesome class.
4. She desperately needs speech therapy.  I thought it would be easier/faster to get her set up with therapy if she was already enrolled as a student in the district. 
5. Ms. Lyn had interacted with Secundus and gave a strong recommendation to enroll her.  She was sure that simply being in the preschool setting with the other children and the teachers, that it would improve her speech.

Well, she has been enrolled now for over 2 months and I am extremely disappointed. Secundus has FINALLY been evaluated for speech.  I am meeting with the therapist on Friday morning and then therapy is to officially begin. 

Besides that delay, I am also disappointed with the preschool class.  It is not what I had hoped.  First of all, Secundus is not in the same class as Primus was last year.  (That is a long story of budget cuts and poor management and poor planning on the part of the public school district.)  But I was still hopeful that the class would be good.  Wrong!  This teacher has a completely different personality than Lyn and Lisa.  And her assistant teacher has changed a couple times.  Last year Lyn and Lisa were a well-oiled machine that had worked together for a decade and were both sort of take-charge people.  This year, not so much.  It kind of feels chaotic in the classroom. 

Plus, and this takes the cake: her teacher has a lisp!  And it seems like half the kids in the class speak  Spanish (and both teachers will speak in Spanish to those children on occasion).  I'm not being discriminatory to people with speech impediments or to people who speak something other than English.  But the question is, "How is MY daughter going to benefit and improve her articulation when she is surrounded by that?"

Then there is another big reason I want to pull her out:  I absolutely LOATHE getting all the kids in and out of the car a million times everyday.  This is actually one big reason that I chose to homeschool in the first place; I don't like being a slave to the daily pick-ups and drop-offs.  When you add up our morning activity, plus pick-up and drop-off, I buckle or un-buckle the kids at least 10 times every weekday.

I could go on.  But long-story-short: the benefits are not outweighing the frustrations.  I think I will talk to the speech therapist about it when I see her on Friday and then decide.  I should be able to bring her in for an hour at a time a couple times a week or something like that.  If I do take her out, I may let her be until Christmas break.  She loves going to school so I don't want to just yank her out suddenly.  It seems like Christmas break would be a good opportunity to make changes.

Read to Rover

Today after picking up Secundus from preschool, we headed over to the library to check out a program they have for school-age kids.  It's called Read to Rover.  Basically the idea is that children may be nervous to read to adults and other kids.  But dogs are less intimidating.  So your kid gets to get some practice reading out loud to a dog who is trained to just sit and listen.

When we arrived, I didn't know what to expect.  But apparently it is a very popular program since there were a ton of kids there.  We got Primus' name put on the list and then went into the children's section of the library.  We picked out a couple books and the little ones got to play on the computer as we waited for almost 10 minutes for Primus' turn.  When her name was called, she strolled in and sat down with one of 5 dogs (I can't remember what her dog's name was) and started reading.  She really enjoyed it! 
When she was done reading, they punched a hole on a special bookmark for her.  Once she gets 10 punches, then she gets to take home a free book.  We will definitely be going back again next week! 

I think this program is perfect for Primus for several reasons:
1. More practice reading is always a good thing.

2. She is having FUN reading.

3. It will help her get more comfortable with dogs.

4. We have been going to the library for toddler and preschool story time since she was a year old.  It is nice for her to now have a library program for big kids.

5. We love free books!

I'm one of the cool kids!

It's kind of ridiculous how many homeschooling blogs I've been reading lately.  My favorites are the Carnivals.  That's where a list is compiled of great posts from blogs all over the net.  And this week one of my posts was included in the Carnival of Homeschooling! 

Go here to reread my post that was included: http://misadventurehomeschoolclan.blogspot.com/2011/10/apple-hill.html

Go here to see the rest of the carnival over at Dewey's Treehouse: http://deweystreehouse.blogspot.com/2011/10/carnival-of-homeschooling-304.html

The theme this week is Rollerskating in a Buffalo Herd!

Gas

Hubby posted this on Facebook last night:

"My oldest daughter has been learning about solids, liquids, and gasses of late. She's so excited to tell us about it. As Shirley laid some food on her plate she saw the steam rising from the food, and promptly shouted 'Mommy! I've got gas!'"

My comment:
"It was so funny because Hubby had forgotten/didn't know about her recent studies so he was like, "What? Why is she announcing that she's farting at the dinner table?"
So then Daddy took the time to teach her that farts and burps are gas, too. We learn really important things in our house! lol"

Why are we un-boying our boys?

A friend of mine posted this article, "Why are we un-boying our boys?"  And I love it! 
As a mother of a very much all-boy boy, I think about this kind of thing daily.  He doesn't sit and listen to book after book in the afternoon.  He doesn't sit quietly and color during Sacrament Meeting (Sac. Mtg. is the longest hour of my week!!)  And I fear what this means for when he starts kindergarten.  I will have to come up with a whole new plan and curriculum and method.

A Day in the Life: Wednesday

We've been "in school" now for about 2 months.  We've definitely gotten into our groove.  And while we don't follow a strict schedule, and not every day is the same, I wanted to share what a "typical" day is like for us.

Wednesday, Oct 11th
6:45- My alarm goes off and I roll out of bed.

7:30- Wow, Primus is still asleep!  Here I sit, wasting time on facebook and reading news articles.  If I had known she was going to sleep in so long, I would have used this time to take a shower!  (Who am I kidding?  I still would have been lazy on the computer.)

8:00- Primus is finally awake.  Time for prayer, singing/memorizing an Article of Faith, calendar, journal, weather wheel, and practice counting by 5's using our number line.  (I love stealing great ideas from public schools.  Every school day we add another number to our number line that is circling the classroom up near the ceiling.  The days/numbers for August were written on sun shapes.  September was apple shaped, and now October is pumpkin shaped.  When we get to 100 days of school, we will have a party!) 

8:10- Tertius and Secundus wake up.  While Primus is "at school" in the office, Secundus and Tertius are splitting their time between participating with us and watching a video in the living room.

8:20- The kids get dressed and eat breakfast. They eat while I grab a couple bites and then do a load of dishes.

9:00- While I shower, Primus does handwriting practice at the kitchen table and the other kids destroy the living room.  Then it's time to brush hair and teeth and play a little with Barbies.

9:50- Shoes on, leave for Cherubs.

10:05- We arrive at Cherubs.  Cherubs is a free mommy-and-me music class that my friend Emily and I put on at the church building.  I'm so sorry I'm late, again, Emily!  (I'm usually a little late and she has to do most of the set-up herself.)

11:00- Cherubs is over so we help clean up while chatting with some of the other moms and let the kids run around.  (Today we went to a friend's house directly after cherubs to eat lunch and play.  But that never happens.  So for the sake of this post, I am going to write about what we usually do on Wednesday afternoons...)

11:15- Drive to Secundus' preschool and play on the playground until class starts at noon.

12:00- I sign Secundus in while Primus continues to play on the swings and then we drive home.

12:15- Lunch at home with Primus and Tertius.

12:45- Tertius gets put down for a nap.  Then Primus and I get done as much school work as we can or have the desire to do.  That usually means a lesson of Distar (our reading curriculum), a page or 2 of math, and maybe a little social studies or science.  We may do this in the office (classroom), at the kitchen table, on the couch, or in my bed.

3:10- We leave to pick up Secundus.  Primus plays on the swings while I sign her sister out.

3:45- We're home.  The rest of the day is a blur of playing, cleaning, errands, dinner, DVD's, computer games (Reading Eggs and Nick Jr.), etc. 

7:50- The girls get ready for bed.  Bedtime stories are followed by family scripture study and prayer.

10:00- I rock Tertius to sleep and go to bed myself.  Good night!

School Prison-Walk Update

This morning I talked to the school's secretary (the principle was in a meeting.)  She told me that they (parents and staff) instituted the morning walk-around as part of their push for nutrition and exercise.  It was packaged as a very positive thing to encourage exercise in the morning. 

She said that parents commonly go out and walk around with the kids.  And if the kids prefer to sit down and talk with their friends, then that is fine; they are not forced to walk around.  She also assured me that the kids have normal recess and lunch-recess time later in the day.

I expressed to her my concerns and made sure she understood that I homeschool and that weird stuff like this is one of the reasons.  She was very nice and very helpful.  She admitted that her kids have been homeschooled at times so she definitely understands where I was coming from.

When I was done talking to the school, I called the district office to give them an update of what was going on.  So I let her know what the school's explanation was and told her that I understood the reasoning, but that I still disagreed with it. 

I was told by the district that if I wanted to see a change discussed, then I would have to meet with the principle and PTA because this was a school-site decision.  I told her that I homeschool and asked her honest opinion as to whether my concerns would hold any weight with the principle. 
She said that because I don't have a child attending there, that my opinion would not be considered very important.  But, as a member of the community, I should probably still express my concerns if I really feel that strongly about it.

In conclusion, I understand the school's reason for the morning walks.  But I still think it is really odd and it still makes me a little sick in my heart and in my stomach.  I will just chalk this up to the school's good intentions.  They are doing the best they can with the resources they have.  I happen to think they are doing it wrong, or at the least imperfectly.  But at least they are trying something that they think is positive. 

And ultimately, it is for the school's parents to decide how they feel about this program.  If they feel it is a positive, healthy thing for their children, then great.  But if they think it is bad, then I think it is up to them to take the steps to change it.  They as parents are responsible for their own children.  I am responsible for my children.  Each of us need to take the steps to ensure the best education and enrichment for our own kids.

Can anyone explain this to me?

While I was on the way to drop off my neighbor's boy at school today, I realized that we were a bit earlier than usual.  So I turned to him and said, "Oh, we're kind of early!  That's ok, because you'll just have more time to play on the playground before school starts."
him: "We don't play on the playground. I'm not in kindergarten.  Only the kindergarten plays on the playground."
me: "What do you mean?? The big kids don't get to play?  Why not?"
him: "Only the kindergartners are allowed on the playground.  We just have to walk around in a circle."
me: "Seriously?  Don't you want to play?"
him: "It's ok.  I don't really like the playground."
me: "We go to the park all the time!  I know you like to play on playgrounds!  Seriously?  That's just weird."

By this time we had arrived in the front of the school and I could see with my own eyes what he was talking about.  In the foreground were the kindergartners playing and having fun.  In the background were all the other students, carrying their backpacks and walking in line in a huge circle around the playground while a couple adults stood sentry. 

I was shocked!  I wanted to jump out of the car and go shake the kids and say, "What are you doing?? Don't you know that you're kids??  Don't you know that you should be playing??"  And then I want to march to the principles office and demand an explanation.

Is this normal?  I remember when I was in elementary school that the time before the bell rang for the day was considered first recess.  And I wished sometimes that Mom would drop me off earlier so I could have more time to play with my friends before class started.

So, is this normal for elementary schools now?  Has this always been the norm?  (Was my old school weird?)  Is this just another sign of public schools going down the toilet?

Update:  I talked to the school today.  Read the update here.

Sausage and Apples

Most of the Golden Delicious apples that we picked at Apple Hill had some kind of scab/fungus on them. They didn't look very pretty.  So I decided to peel and cook them.  I made an apple pie and an apple cake yesterday. 
Then tonight for dinner we had one of our favorite dishes.  It's super easy so I decided to share it!  In fact, it's so easy and no-fuss that I don't even measure anymore.  I just use as much sausage, apple, and brown sugar as we have and looks good.  But here is the original recipe for you:



Sausage and Apples

*Put your oven rack 6-7 inches below the heating element. 
*Place 1/2 pound of sausage links on a broiler pan.  (Sometimes I just put the links on the pan, sometimes I cut them up like in the picture.  The original recipe calls for "fresh country sausage links."  We also commonly use Polish kielbasa.) 
*Broil 2-3 minutes or until sausage is lightly browned.
*Reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake additional 10 minutes.
*Arrange thinly cut apple slices (4 medium-size cooking apples) around sausage on broiler rack.  (I usually don't peel the apples.)
*Sprinkle with 1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar.
*Bake 15 minutes or until apples are tender.

Apple Hill

(This post has been featured in the Carnival of Homeschooling for Oct 25th, 2011.  I am very excited to be included!  Go check out the rest of the Carnival over at http://deweystreehouse.blogspot.com/2011/10/carnival-of-homeschooling-304.html)

I love field trips!  We took one as a family to Apple Hill and it was very, very fun!

On the car ride there, Hubby asked me if this would actually "count" as a field trip.  As in, would it actually be educational enough.  Of course it would!  Here are all the ways that I can think of that learning happened: 

1. On the drive there, Primus spontaneously started pointing out hills and valleys.  That led to a discussion of mountains vs. hills.  As we got closer, we could even see the mountains way out in the distance.  We also had a discussion of what a foothill is.

2. We picked apples.  This is real-world experience.  Plus, she got to see where the food we eat at the grocery store comes from. 

3. The kids got to run around the little hay-bale maze.  That uses problem solving and critical thinking skills, right?

4. She took a $5 bill with her and the maze cost $3.  So she learned about getting change.  She also learned very quickly that $2 won't buy very much at the Craft fair.

5. We got to see chickens, goats, and a couple calves.

6. When we got home, she helped make apple pie.  Real-world experience, plus counting and measuring skills.

7. We are starting a unit on animals.  So we began a couple days ago with a discussion of living vs. non living things.  On the drive home, she had to draw pictures of living and non-living things that she saw during the trip. 

8. Then after we got home, I had her try and label her pictures all by herself, so she had to practice sounding them out and figuring out the spelling.

Can you think of anything to add to our list?

They Think I'm Crazy to Homeschool

Great Article found on Heart of the Matter:

http://heartofthematteronline.com/edited-104they-think-im-crazy-to-homeschool/

Mrs. Adams Letter

I taught Primus about Abigail Adams today.  And here is the craft I came up with:

I had her write "Dearest Friend" using a feather and black tempura paint.  Then she cut and pasted this picture:

And then she signed the bottom, "Yours, Abigail."

Wiggle Worm

Something I am learning about Primus is that she cannot sit still.  I have never noticed this before.  But when I sit with her to do her reading lesson, she can't seem to sit in one place.  (We usually sit on the couch so I'm wondering if it would be better to have her sit at a table instead.)  She slouches, lays down, sits on her feet, sits on my lap, crosses her legs, etc. 

I guess it probably isn't a problem, and it doesn't seem to be an indication that she is bored.  But it is driving me crazy!  Today we did her lesson while sitting on a bench outside Secundus' preschool class.  After only a couple seconds, she had wiggled so much that I couldn't keep up or see what she was reading.  So I made her stop, stand up, and go through a series of physical actions to shake out the ants in her pants.  Then she sat down and did a little more reading. 

She had to do this I think 3 times during 1 lesson.  I'm not sure if it actually helped, but she thought it was great fun.  And I guess that is important, too.

Abigail Adams

To go along with our recent study of the American Revolution, I found this book at the library:  "Daring Women of the American Revolution" by Francis Walsh.  It's a good quick overview of several important women.  Primus and I looked at the pictures while I gave her a synopsis of each page.  Then I asked her to pick 1 woman she would like to learn more about.  She chose Abigail Adams. 

As I have been doing a little bit more research on her, I'm becoming more and more interested in her.
She did not receive a formal education, but she was a very smart and well-educated woman.  She thought education was extremely important, even for girls, and even insisted that her daughter learn Latin. 
The thing she is most known for is her written correspondence with her husband, John Adams.  She was instrumental in keeping him (and, naturally, the other men in Philadelphia) aware of the politics and military events going on in Boston.  She was extremely opinionated on political matters and her husband greatly respected and depended on her opinions.
One of the things that impressed and inspired me the most about her is that she always addressed her letters to her husband, "Dearest Friend."  By all accounts, they had a wonderfully strong marriage, even though they were often separated.  What a wonderful example Abigail and John are!  As the kids grows older, I think Abigail and John will be figures often spoken of in our house as we seek for good role models for our children!

Now I need to think of a fun craft or something to accompany Primus' upcoming lesson on Mrs. Adams.  I'm drawing a total blank!  I couldn't even find any coloring pages of her!  The most obvious idea would be to have her learn to write a letter to someone.  But every morning she writes in her journal her first and last name and the day's date.  And just getting her to write so little takes her a ridiculous amount of time!  I'm not sure having her write a letter would be enjoyable for either of us.

Powder Horn Craft

Hubby is somewhat of a history freak. Primus is definitely going to get more instruction on history than the average Kindergartner.

Starting with Constitution Day earlier this month, we have been teaching Primus about George Washington and the Revolutionary War. In a book I got from the library, I found a fun idea for a craft: a paper mache powder horn. So as I was on my way out the door to pick up Secundus from preschool, I said, "Hey, honey? I want to do this craft. Can you give her a lesson on weapons of the Revolutionary War?"

I was expecting him to plan something for the next day or even the next week.

He was so excited about the idea! So before I even closed the door behind me, he had already grabbed his toy gun and several DVD's that had good clips of period weaponry, and was teaching her.

Several days later, I finally sat down with her to do the craft. We took a 12 inch square of poster board, rolled it up into the proper shape, and taped it. Then we covered it with newspaper strips dipped in a flour and water paste. We added extra strips to the pointed end and twisted them around and curved them up. After it dried over night, we painted it all white with a little black on the tip. The finishing touches were a string to carry it and a poster board cover for the big open part.

She is so proud of her powder horn. When she showed it off to daddy, he gave us a demonstration on how to load his toy gun. This powder horn is a great new toy and the girls have been fighting over it all night!

Oh, a fun note on that replica gun: Several years ago I got it on a whim from the dollar store for Hubby for Christmas. Hubby thought it was so awesome! Seriously, it was his favorite gift that year. One time he took it to cub scouts. Big mistake! It's broken and permanently in the cocked position so it no longer fires those rubber darts. He is totally bummed. So I've gotta keep my eyes open for another one.

Welcome!

Welcome to my new blog!  Take a look around, show it to your friends, and then come back again.  It's still at this point a work-in-progress.  Within the next couple days my goal is to put some pictures and links on the side bar and generally make it more interesting.

To my friends and family who are faithful readers of my private family blog, you will notice that a lot of the content is going to be shared in both places.  But I promise that this will not be a strictly copy-and-paste project. 

Thanks for taking some time to check this out.  I hope you enjoy!

Public School Drop-Off

I've been reminded of another reason I am so glad I homeschool:  Pick-up and Drop-off!

My neighbor needs me to drop off her son at the public school once or twice a week.  It is such a nightmare.  Every time I fear for my life and for the lives of the children I see running around traffic.  This school seems to be particularly bad. 
I've included a (maybe) helpful drawing of the drive way in front of the school.  As you can see, the first 2 car widths directly in front of the building are blocked off to be used for buses only.  Then the rest of the driveway (to the left of the buses) is about 3 car widths.  But it has no lanes painted.
So what most people do is drive up one of those "lanes" and then just stop the car whenever they feel like it and let their kid out of the car to walk across (albeit slow-moving) traffic to get to the safety of the sidewalk.  Or, even weirder, though possibly safer, is people will just stop and then turn off their engine and walk their kids up.  People will be gone for several minutes while their car just sits parked in the middle of the driveway. 
So you have lots of cars maneuvering around each other, trying to avoid parked cars and pedestrians.  It gives me an anxiety attack just thinking about it! 
What I always do is pull all the way to the right, against the sidewalk and go right in front of the bus area.  I probably shouldn't be there, considering then I would be in the way of any buses coming through.  But it feels the safest for my neighbor's kid.  But then after he gets out, I have to drive over 3 or more lanes to get out!

Insecure?

I am VERY confident in our decision to homeschool. That said, I'm still at heart an insecure person. Primus has started attending a gymnastics class and I am very pleased that it is a large class of 8 kids her age. I think it will be really good for her.

And the first week, I was also excited about getting to know the other moms. But today I realized that all but 1 of the moms are older than me and all their kids go to the same kindergarten.

So in my head I'm imagining all the things they probably think of me. I've always been a little self conscious about being such a young mother. I have always kind of felt like I needed to make sure everyone knows that I was not an unwed teen mom.

On top of that, I'm imagining what they'll say when they find out that I homeschool. I am very aware of the fact that homeschoolers are seen as "weird" at best.

So I'm playing the potential conversations in my head, trying to come up with great, confident, responses to the things I'm "sure" they'll say.

But here's the most likely reality: they don't notice that I'm young. They won't care that I homeschool. They won't ever engage me in conversation.

Man, sometimes I am such a nut-case. Why am I so worried? I need to hook up with a group of homeschooling moms that I can commiserate with.