Torrential Rains

On Monday we had some serious rains. It kept everyone else away from swim and gym class. Mine were the only two in both classes. Since I had no one else to talk to I shot a few video clips.

Kids doing the back stroke. Such style, such grace, such good swimmers.

Just to brag for a moment, the swim instructor told me that she has never seen a kid Mister B's age nail the lifeguard jump the way he does. He will be a fine lifeguard.

In gym class, some warm up exercises.

Tennis, anyone?

All caught up on Science

Today we did the next science experiment-a Titration. We added ammonia to vinegar (mixed with some cabbage juice) to find out how many teaspoons of ammonia would be needed to turn the solution green (neutralize the solution). 18 is the answer. Which was approx. a 1/4 cup. This makes sense because we started with a 1/4 of vinegar. Afterwords they plotted the results on a graph. Side note: Important lesson learned-do this experiment where there is a lot of light. It is easier to note the change in bright light instead of the dim light we had. Now, that we have caught up on the experiments we will happily begin the next chapter next week.

We continued talking about the first emperor of China. Today's topic-book burning. It seems the great unifier was afraid of knowledge being accessed by the people. The people might get some ideas that were different from his. He burned the books in the Imperial Library.

The rest of the school day was the typical assortment of math, grammar, spelling, Latin, home economics, and phys ed utilizing the Wii Fit Plus.

In addition to our regularly scheduled science program we recently did an experiment with a baby tooth and a small jar of cola. Really, really gross looking tooth in that jar. Now we want to know what happens when you put it in a small jar of clear cola. B lost a tooth yesterday thus providing us with a tooth. It now resides in a small jar of lemon-lime soda.

It's Monday!

I still surrounded by grumpy children getting up earlier then usual so we can be dressed and ready for the contractor who keeps showing up late. Huge pet peeve of mine-but that is another story.

In spite of the grumpiness they got through their lessons.

Math-M continues with division and review of measurement facts. B is starting to add mixed number fractions that result in an improper fraction and how to fix that.

Grammar-M reviewed pronouns and B reviewed reflexive and interrogative pronouns.

History - we are taking a detour from the middle ages and doing a quick unit on the Terra Cotta Warriors because we are going to go see them in DC on Friday. We learned a bit about the first emperor of Unified China and why he would need this army. It is interesting how many cultures buried people alive with the dead. Wives, servants, slaves. It was so not good to be the servant of a prominent dead person.

Science-Finally we are catching up on those experiments. Today we used our home made litmus paper to determine which solutions were acidic or basic. Our control acid was a vinegar solution and our control base was an ammonia solution. Then they dipped the litmus paper in soda, orange juice, milk, water, and bleach. Dipping litmus paper is fun. Writing all our results, defining vocabulary words, and answering basic questions about the chapter is a form of torture.

Saturday Random Musing

When discussing my day with my spouse last night I had the following thought. The statement "I was boiling some red cabbage to make litmus paper when.." causes very different reactions depending on whom you are speaking with. My fellow homeschoolers didn't even bat an eye. One fellow homeschooler said "Isn't that great, we have a jar of cabbage juice in the fridge right now." Another said "I didn't know you could do that. Now I know what I am going to do with that cabbage." My friends who do not homeschool said "What?"

TGIF

I am so happy this week is over. It has been a busy week. Discussion group was a lot of fun. All the kids presented something they have been working on at home. B-chose his tooth is soda experiment and M talked about Muslims and their prayer practices. From the other kids we learned a bit about the Mayans, The Revolutionary War, and Ancient Egypt.

Thursday I made everyone get up early because the contractor was supposed to be arriving at 8. At 8:30 I called him only to find out he was not coming. Why do all contractors have such lousy communication skills? Lessons went well. The fun part was boiling red cabbage to make litmus paper and the discovery that my kids like boiled red cabbage. They each ate a big plate full. Now if they would just eat it raw.

Today we had our monthly social gathering. They had a lot of fun working on their interpersonal skills, negotiating skills, and critical thinking. After a couple of errands-had to pick up the forms to register them for track and field and pick up some groceries we finally arrived home. Now they are outside enjoying this somewhat warm afternoon.

A couple of Grumposauruses

I can't say this week has gotten off to a banner start. My in-laws were over on Sunday bringing with them all the Chanukkah presents from the celebrations we missed due to the weather. There visit was great. The kids had an awesome time. But, they were up way past their usual bedtime and up at their regular time. Grumpy. In spite of all the grumbling we managed to get through math and grammar before it was time to leave for swim and gym. I thought the physical activity may help them work out some of their bad attitudes but that was a pipe dream. Grumpy, grumpy. I made them go to bed somewhat early.

Tuesday: Plenty of sleep but the contractor was back and lets face it-watching him is way more exciting then what we were doing. Lots of distractions but we actually managed math, grammar, and history. Plus, they prepared what they were going to present at discussion group today. Each child will be talking about something they are learning.

This brings us to today. Wednesday. I made everyone go to bed on time since the contractor was coming at 8am today and we had to be up and ready before then. Which we were. I even got up at 5:30 to exercise (I have been doing really well with working out every morning and I wasn't about to mess that up). Contractor comes. I show him where the guy got paint all over B's blinds (so not happy) and inquired why they didn't ask me how to get the blinds down if they were having difficulty. No answer to that. Then the contractor starts bringing everything back out to his van. What the "expletive"? thought I. Is he quitting? No. Turns out he realized he needs to be here to supervise the work and he couldn't be here today so they will be back tomorrow at 8am. Long story longer, we did manage to get a little school work done before we have to leave for discussion group. However, the children are still really grumpy from the schedule change.

I will be very happy when he is done with all the work and things can go back to normal.

The completion of another week

We have wrapped up another week in our little homeschool.

Math - M is learning how to find the area of a triangle and reinforcing her division facts. B is learning how to add and subtract mixed number fractions.
Grammar-M completed her chapter review on the different kinds of nouns. Common, proper, plural, possessive, plural possessive, and so on. She started pronouns today. B- has been working on the proper form for business and friendly letters.
History- M completed her unit on Islam in the Middle Ages and is ready to move on to Vikings. B- completed his report on St. Francis of Assisi and learned the importance of checking ones spelling. He lost a fair share of points there. It was a solid report. Next week he starts on Charlemagne and will have another chance at report writing.
Spelling- they are both progressing well. They had a ball playing a spelling game today. They swapped lists and had to spell words correctly to connect the dots on their game board. M won. On a technicality B was quick to point it. But it is still a win.
For Literature we are reading Because of Winn Dixie. They made predictions on what they think will happen in the book and we will compare them when we get to the end. At the end of each chapter each of them has to come up with a name for the chapter that will help them remember what it was about. It should be fun to see what they remember when we get to the end of the story.
Science fell off the radar again because of the excitement of construction in the house. They were following the contractor through the bedrooms asking "Why? Why? Why?" "Why so much Spackle? What is Spackle? How does it stick? Why doesn't it fall off the thingy in your hand (the palette)? Why do you need so much paint to paint my room?" This all falls under the education umbrella, right?

Socialization

The big myth I have told to me on occasion when people find out we homeschool is usually "But what about socialization?" This usually happens when we are out and about and said person has engaged in conversation with my children. So today I offer this article as inspiration to those who face this very question.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/dec/13/home-schooling-socialization-not-problem/

A Good Week

This week ended on a good note. Lessons went off without a hitch on Thursday and Friday. Well, maybe a small hitch or two but overall they went well. Science had fallen off the radar last week so we caught up on our chapter on titration. This coming week - science experiment. Yay!
B continues to work on his Biography of St. Francis of Assisi. He will finish that up this week. Mean mom that I am he has to write the entire thing in cursive. In the upcoming week M will be wrapping up her unit on the Rise of Islam during the Middle Ages and move into Vikings. I am actually very excited for this because I know next to nothing about them. I love learning with my kids.

On Friday the kids tried their hands at soap carving. Mr. B has expressed an interest in whittling and I thought soap was a good way to start. No sharp knives needed. They both loved it. I had them each make a heart. Simple and easy way to get a feel for the tools (Popsicle sticks cut into a knife, chisel, and gouge). We are using this book: http://www.amazon.com/Soap-Carving-Children-Schiffer-Woodcarvers/dp/0764308599/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1263087595&sr=8-1 Now all I need to do is invest in some more ivory soap.

Discussion Group

Today we had our bi-monthly discussion group and the kids had a great time. This weeks topic was Diary of a Wimpy Kid. They all really embraced this topic and had a great discussion about various things in the book, such as:

1. It was really funny! An example of something they all found extremely funny: Rowley's mom making his Halloween costume safe. She took away all the cool.

2. The illustrations are a big part of why the book is funny.

3. Greg's friendship with Rowley. Unanimous that Greg is really not a good friend. Adjectives used to describe Greg included lazy, stupid, and user.

4. Is Greg a Wimpy Kid? Yes he is. Why? Because of the things he does and the way he looks. (This led to a brief discussion on judging a book by its cover).

5. Greg's relationship with his siblings. I must say Mister B and Little Miss M did an admirable job of demonstrating the sibling relationship in all its glory.

6. What about their parents? Dad seems kind of immature (dumping water on teenagers during Halloween. Perhaps this is where Greg gets some of his ideas. Mom seems to be the rational one, but even she has her moments.

7. Who would they pick to be their friend. Majority said Greg even though he was a user. They felt that they would know when he was trying to use them and would be able to put a stop to it. The girls in the group picked the girls in the book. They wanted nothing to do with the boys.

8. They all agreed the book was funny but what I found humorous is when we started delving deeper into what Greg was doing that was so funny his antics were not so funny. The discussion ground to a halt when that realization hit. With a little prodding on the moms part they managed to talk through this delicate area.

Tomorrow we go back to our regularly scheduled lessons.

Back To School

After a nice break we have started up with lessons again. Yesterday we started our week off with Math, Grammar, and History. M continues working on basic division and reviewing addition/subtraction/times tables. B is working on ruler measurements and fractions. Grammar-M plural nouns and B indefinite pronouns. History-M is learning about the Rise of Islam during the Middle Ages and how the people of Arabic descent are not so different. They had astronomers, teachers, universities, artists, and markets-just like us. B is working on his Biography of St. Francis of Assisi. He was not pleased that he had to do his reading for the Biography over our break. That is what happens when you don't complete it prior to the break. 5 days to read 30 pages did not seem that unreasonable to me.

We finished the day with swim and gym classes. I shot a few short video clips of the kids swimming. I meant to take a couple during gym class but I was busy chatting away with my friends. Adult interaction is so important.

Free Style. Which was called The Crawl when I was growing up.

Breast Stroke

Butterfly. They usually do this much better but they were getting tired.

Happy New Year!

My sister surprised us by coming into town this past week. It was a great surprise. Since she lives in DC we don't get to see each other as often as we would like so this was a real treat. We headed into the city to meet up with them.

Hanging at Starbucks while dad had to take care of a work emergency. Nothing says good times like some hot chocolate with whipped cream.

The emergency ended up taking longer then he thought it would.

Waiting for daddy. Boooooorrrriiinngggg!

Once we were all together again, it was time for sushi! Edamame for everyone.

Full bellies means it is time to meet up with the cousins. Yeah! A quick subway ride uptown was full of adventure. This was the kids first real subway ride. We were entertained by some street singers. They were very good and we felt bad that we did not have any small change to give them. When we got off we the kids had their 2nd real New York City subway experience: Pay attention to what is going on around you. At our stop when we got off the train we immediately went to the left because a child was throwing up on the platform to our right.

Riding the subway. That's my daddy!

We headed downtown to have dinner at RUB (Righteous Urban Barbecue. http://www.rubbbq.net). We partook of some barbecued bacon slabs, chopped beef sandwiches, BLT's, pulled portobello mushrooms, ribs, and some home style potato salad, baked beans (with bacon), some wilted greens (also with bacon), and of course-french fries. The kids loved it because it was the kind of place where you don't get in trouble for being loud and kid like.

Having a good time with my cousin.

Cousins riding the subway.

After dinner we took my sisters kids home with us so my sister and her partner could have a night out in the city. Sleepover! They cousins all had a ball. Best of all was the surprise snow. When we woke up there was snow on the ground. I put all the kids to work shoveling snow. Many hands make little work.