Here we go

Summer time is here!

What a wonderful school year it's been! Avery found his groove, I managed to keep us all alive and well, the baby is now on the prowl and we have a couple of months to relax and refresh our minds and spirits for next school year. Here is a very abbreviated summary of this past school year.

Greatest challenges:

• Keeping the three year old from climbing onto the school table while teaching Avery his lessons.

• Nursing a baby while teaching Avery lessons while keeping Emile from climbing onto the table.
• Having Avery maintain focus if I leave the room (even for a second)

Greatest rewards:

• Avery loving to write letters, notes and stories especially with elaborate illustrations of monsters and battle droids.
• Emile asking me what each part of the body's real scientific name is (i.e. clavicle, sternum, humerus). Seriously!
• Watching the boys study together the wonders in nature, that makes it worth it all right there!

This past year I went through a slew of material to see what would work and would wouldn't work. Here are a few of our favorites:

• A little journal writing idea book purchased from our local educational store.
• Writing Strands
• First language lessons by Susan Weiss Bauer
• History of the world by Susan Weiss Bauer
• R.E.A.L. Science
• School Zone Big first grade workbook
• Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings
• Sketch books and Field guides
• Movable alphabet
• Homemade toddler activities-oatmeal, beans, cotton balls, scissors glue & construction paper, playdough!

Bayou Boat Tour

We took a guided boat tour of the Vermilion River today. The kids had a wonderful time spotting all of the interesting wildlife there like the turtles, water snakes, and best of all the alligators that swam only a few feet away from us. Afterwards we had a picnic in the park then went to the Ice Cream parlor for a very special treat to finish off a wonderful day!

Poem Memorization

Elves Song
by J.R.R. Tolkien

Sing all ye joyful, now sing all together!
The winds in the tree-top, the wind's in the heather;
The stars are in blossom, the moon is in flower, And bright are the windows of Night in her tower.

Dance all ye joyful, now dance all together!
Soft is the grass, and let foot be like feather!
The river is silver, the shadows are fleeting;
Merry is May time, and Merry our meeting.

This week in science the boys were learning about Mollusks. We were able to find tons of snails in our strawberry patch to study and also befriend. Emile particularly became quite fond of the little creatures, wanting to keep them as his pets!

Trip to the Aquarium

spring breaks

We have been taking many little breaks over the last couple of weeks. With this beautiful spring weather to enjoy and so many birthday's to celebrate, we decided to continue our schooling into the summer. We are about to finish the First grade portion of our grammar book, and have covered all of the basic concepts in first grade math. So we will take a break from those subjects over the summer. History and science are his favorite subjects and will give his hungry little mind something to chew on this summer when it is too hot and mosquito invested to play in the back yard. We plan on returning to the UL literacy program this summer to help with reading fluency and also creative writing. It's such a great program and I hope that this year something will click and he will begin to LOVE reading for himself! As much as I love to read aloud to him I want him to have the tools to find information for himself, and not struggle.

I am so proud of all of the hard work he has done this year! With very little complaints and way too many distractions from his little brothers to overlook, he has exceeded my expectations and has been a wonderful example for his younger brother. Hopefully next year Emile will be ready to do the same and he can show little bit how it's done.

Highlights from our trip

We spent the early part of this week in the woods where we sat by a warm fire reading the Hobbit by night and canoeing in the beautiful spring sunshine by day. It was a quick trip, it almost feels like we never left, or like the whole thing may have been a crazy dream. Only I am tired and sore so I know I was there. The kids had a blast with their best buddies exploring the forests trails and hills. Life is so good!

My sweets

The other day I was able to spend some special time with my big three year old guy. He is quite a different person without his big brother. He'a so grown up when he is on his own. I guess he plays the baby card when Avery's around; he is still my baby after all.

We layed a beautiful quilt down on the grass that a dear friend made for us, and enjoyed the wonderful spring time weather all afternoon long. I listened to him tell tall tales like the one where his great grandfather fought a tiger and had a very long sword that could bring down the sun and the giant ate the tiger, and so on. He's got quite an imagination!

It's so good to slow it down. I vow to lay out our quilts more often and sit in the grass with bare feet and read slowly in the middle of the day.

Here's to slow days!

worm hunt

We are moving on the the lesson on worms in our science book. Today we spent the morning digging in one of our compost piles for worms to put in the newly constructed worm motel. The boys had a great time digging for the poor critters, some unfortunately are now two, if you know what I mean. Let's just say it's a good thing they know how to regenerate. Avery learned the parts of a worm by diagraming and sketching pictures using a real worm as his model. The boys together collected all of the necessary items to make a temporary home for the worm and then went out on their search. The rest of the week will be spent doing more experiments involving worms, and luckily all to our gardens benefit.

science art

In science Avery is studying Cnidarians- the phylum that includes jelly fish, coral and other primitive animals. Avery did research on the Internet learning all he could then he found pictures to add to his Animal Kingdom book along with the different facts he found interesting. As luck would have it he just so happened to have been working on a sculpture and a painting of a jelly fish in art class.

busy boys

My day was mostly spent in this kitchen. Baking, cooking, cleaning, crafting then cleaning again.

The boys made blueberry muffins this morning and this afternoon Emile helped make cheese straws. Tonight Avery snapped snap beans and entertained the baby while I made dinner. It feels so good to be productive as a family. Today, so I wouldn't feel like the little red hen, I made it a point to constantly direct the kids energy by giving them chores and other productive activities instead of letting them just play all day. They were so much more present, I felt like we were on the same wave length.

Just a few of our lessons today:

For science we finished his animal kingdom folder/book that he decorated and will fill with his lab sheets. In math we're counting money and learning the ones, tens and hundreds place. Grammar we reviewed parts of speech and diagramed sentences.

I found this great web site for spelling that Avery loves.

http://www.spellingcity.com/

Check out this great idea. I'm loving her idea of workboxes.
http://homegrownmom.com/workboxes/workboxes/512

The baby

He's growing so fast! I find myself constantly trying to breath him in, trying to permanently imprint that baby smell into my memory. I can't conjure up for the life of me the feeling of holding Avery or Emile at that age. I want to always remember that softness, that baby smell and how there is absolutely no resistance to my thousands of kisses!

***NEWS UPDATE***
Avery is reading his first chapter book all by himself- Frog and Toad together. We are all so excited!!!




If you are interested in seeing what "level" your child reads check this out.
If you are in Louisiana and want to see what kids around the state are learning at your childs grade level look here.

I only look at these things twice a year. Once at the begining to see what direction we should take, then later in the year to see how far we've come and what we have accomplished. If there are things we missed or maybe are slacking on I save that for the spring/summer season to focus on those areas alone. So far so good!

growing up

Grab a box of tissues and watch this. A reminder that each moment is precious and so temporary! Soon they will be grown and living their own life away from the home we spend so much time making just right for them. Story times, snuggles, monsters under the bed and muddy footprints on the carpet are only here for a short while. I miss them already!

Swampy Excursions

Today we went for an outing to Lake Martin for our science lesson. Learning about habitats, and being from south Louisiana, the wetlands are near and dear to us. So that is where we started. It was an amazingly beautiful day, and lucky for us the alligators weren't looking to eat any children today (a genuine fear that my boys have). We'll have to come back this spring when they are nesting!!!

We did manage to see a turtle sunning himself on a log, beautiful white egrets, few black capped chikadees and what I think was an osprey (our variety of an eagle!).

On our long drive home, I looked back to discover all three children sound asleep! I think it was a very worthwhile adventure indeed.

Loving...

I've taking a little break from the computer, but here are a few great sites I have enjoyed reading lately. I'll be back next week!

http://earlybirdhomeschool.com/2010/02/sight-word-games/

http://www.dana-made-it.com/

http://www.steadymom.com/2010/02/6-things-to-do.html

Fresh Air

February always brings a sense of anticipation of the warmer months. You can feel it creeping around the corner...so close! Despite the chilly air we take to the woods anyway, trying to discover what animals brave the colder weather, making a game of who can identify what plant even without it's leaves. And most of all learning what it is to be silent and still, hearing the sounds around us that doesn't involve a T.V. or ringing cell phone.

It was such a nice treat to see a pair of Robins right as we were about to leave. They say when you see robins that spring is right around the corner! We're ready for you Spring!!!

Wordless Wednesday

Tuesday

Today we completed our final lab in our Human body Unit. It was our favorite so far. We made fingerprints by using a pencil and rubbing it on a piece of paper and rubbing each finger into the pencil led. Then we took clear tape and pressed each finger to the tape and put the tape with the prints onto his lab sheet. It was really neat to see each print so clearly with this method. Avery compared prints from each family member and even tried to figure out a "mystery print" by comparing it to the other prints he collected from the rest of us.

Now he is very eager to start the Animal Kingdom, making Science his favorite subject without a doubt!



For language today after completing his spelling lesson we did a new journal activity from a little journal idea book I picked up from the education store last week. The first entry asked Avery what would happen if in the story Jack and the Bean Stalk the Giant caught Jack. What would they say to each other?

What he ended up writing was simple, maybe two full sentences, but at least he was excited to write something. I told him there are no rules, you can write outside the lines, you can use capitol letters where ever you like and I won't even correct your spelling! He was very pleased with all of that. When I gave him freedom to make mistakes I saw him relax and enjoy the process more. That is what a journal is for. Free thoughts, no limitations, just a place to be oneself with out scrutiny. Amen!

Lego Blog

Avery would like anyone who has not yet visited his new Lego blog to come on over and check it out. He spends most of his waking hours thinking how he can arrange his Lego "bases". This is serious business, and with his little brother so determined to wreak havoc, our house has officially been declared a war zone.

http://averyslegocollection.blogspot.com/

Weeks end

We have had a great week full of exciting activities and fun lessons. Emile has taken a great interest in learning his letters and numbers. I have these neat sandpaper letters that he traces with his finger while we talk about the sound the letter makes, also I have these dry erase number cards that he has been tracing ever so carefully and really learning his numbers, I don't think Avery did that until he was four! Homeschooling with siblings is so rewarding!

Avery this week learned all about the central nervous system. We conducted an experiment where I would drop a ruler into his hand and see if he could improve his reaction time. Then documented his findings in his Human Body Journal. Today we will do an experiment with the five senses- it will involve blind folds and paper bags filled with different items like cotton balls, jingle bells, coins, and a jar of vinegar just to name a few.

I finally threw out our math book (Singapore), and pulled out some good old fashion first grade workbooks that I picked up from the toy store. It's been fun, challenging in a good way and most of all easy to understand. This week it's been all about word problems and bar graphs.

Spelling- I'm now using Spectrum Dolch sight word workbook that Avery and I both like a whole lot. There are reading exercises included that I think have helped him a lot in his fluency. There are 6 sentences with a box next to it and each day we practice reading those sentences that use our sight words, if he gets it right with no error we put a check in the box, if he misses a word or two we save it for the next day. He feels like it is a good challenge, and feels so accomplished when he gets those checks!

Our Reading Corners

I have set up a few areas in our house where the boys can go for some quiet reading time, and sometimes not so quiet reading time. In our living room I set up a shelf that has our library books in it and also a nice stack of begining readers for Avery. Everyday he spends 15-30 minute reading aloud from the books from this shelf.

In the babies room I have a refrence center where we have our learning books. Feild guides, National Geographic Magazines, and the Eyewitness books sit neatly on these shelves. We also have a few treasure boxes on this book case for our nature findings and also a box with foreign coins and other rare treasures the boys acquire.

So on days when our school work becomes mundane, we go to our reading corners and always learn something new!

back to work

It was a wonderful holiday for all of us here. Staying in jammies for most of the days, bundling up inside away from the cold. Loading up on sugary goodness, and playing for hours with all of our new toys! It's been heavenly having Adam home from work for so many days, you could call me spoiled at this point. So now it is back to reality, back to routine and the rhythm of a new and productive year.

Over the weekend in preparation for this new start I cleaned out the pantry and the fridge (major accomplishment!). I must have thrown out 5 lbs of candy/cookies/sugar. And in turn stocked both places full of nutritious goodness ready to start this year on a healthy note. Of course that means more preparation and planning to do on my part, but we'll all be healthier this way. My resolution this year is to get back to a more holistic lifestyle. Prepare more whole foods, start up a family yoga practice including the boys, and have more FUN with the kids in general. I want to laugh more and fuss less!

We started back at our school work today. We did the usual handwriting, and phonics lesson, then a writing exercise where he pretends to be a reporter and reports what he witnesses as me and his little brother play. He learns to record events chronologically and has fun role playing as well.
For science we completed a lab where we took yarn and measured and labeled the parts of the digestive system. We were both quite shocked to find out that a child's digestive system measures out to be about 22 feet long. I later discovered that when I asked him to label the large and small intestine I didn't check his spelling right away and found that he was calling those parts the large and small "innards" which I found quite hilarious!
I'm already laughing more, what a great start to a new year!