This Week is Long

I feel like this week will never end. We are getting through what we have to get through but oy vey! Everything is like pulling eye teeth. There seem to be more bathroom breaks then usual. More "I am thirsty". More "He/she is breathing in my direction."

On the up side I have been listening to them negotiate who is doing which steps to make their mac and cheese for lunch. They are managing to do this without screeching/screaming/whining. If only it could be like that all the time.

Week 2 Begins

Today started week 2 of the school year. I don't know why but it seems the children always have a more difficult start to the week after a 3 day week-end. They both dawdled over math. M forgot common measurements (i.e. how many pints in a quart). B was negotiating if he really had to show the work if he figured out the answer in his head. An hour spent on something that should have been 30 minutes at most. Grammar went off without a hitch. B started reading a biography of Albert Einstein and M continued reading Minn of the Mississippi. Then we moved on to dictation and copy work. All smooth.

We stopped what we were doing to watch the President give his speech to the students. I really do not understand what all the parental hoopla was about. I thought it was an inspirational speech and impressed upon the students that the choice to doing something with their lives was on them. The parents can be involved, the government can make sure they have the tools the need, but ultimately it is up to them to make their dreams happen. That it would take work on their part to be successful. That failure is how you learn. It was refreshing to hear a speech that involved personal accountability for how your life turns out.

After a discussion about his speech we moved on to chemistry. Learning about the periodic table and how to read it. I have been reminded that chemistry is one of my least favorite subjects. However, thanks to the TV show "The Facts of Life" my two will not forget the symbol or gold (AU). When you are walking down the street and a bad guy takes your gold necklace you shout.........A U come back here with my gold necklace. They thought that was just about the funniest things ever and spent a good 10 minutes pretending to be mugged and shouting A U.

We finished up the day with reading out loud from Poor Richard. Ben Franklin was a funny kid.

Week 1 - Completed

Okay, we finished up week 1. I was not sure we were going to survive and this was a 3 day week. Day 1 was fab. Day 2 -the kinder were a bit resistant about Latin. Day 3 - a fair amount of groaning and grumbling but ending on an up note.

Yesterday started off with a bang. We had plans to meet friends at the park in the afternoon but the kids knew we would not be going if they did not complete their lessons for the day. In the spirit of wanting to go to the park, by the time I got downstairs they were already doing their math assignments. Much enthusiasm for grammar and writing....and then......Latin. Their distaste for Latin was my fault. I let the first lesson go on to long. So, after much cajoling and promises that this lesson would be shorter (and it was) they stopped moaning and groaning and got to it. Once that was over they agreed that the lesson was shorter and better and maybe not all awful. Then we moved on to Chemistry and an exciting discussion of matter, atoms, neurons, protons, and electrons. Finally, it was time to go to the park. They had a great time with their friends but the bees were out in full force and they were really being kind of pushy in that bee way. Usually they are out and about but leave you alone. No, not these bees. They were in your face, buzzing your ears, and landing on you. Not fun!

Today, I was greeted with a chorus of "We want to stay in bed and read. Our friends only have a half day of school today!" Mean mom that I am-I told them to get dressed, brush their teeth, and get downstairs since they had been reading for the past half hour. I also told them I was not interested in their friends school day as we always finish earlier then them anyway. Math, grammar, writing, copy work and dictation all done without a hitch. M continued reading Minn of the Mississippi. We looked at the globe to see where Minn was born (Minnesota) and looked at the distance Minn would be traveling (to the Gulf of Mexico). Then out came the atlas for a close up look at the beginning of the Mississippi river. This then led to a discussion of our up coming trip to Arizona and how we would not be flying over any oceans to get there. We wrapped up the day with a little Medieval history and a discussion on why calling someone a Barbarian was really not a nice thing to do. That it showed a rather egocentric thought process and was not really a good way to learn about another culture.

First Day of School 09.02.09

The obligatory "First Day of School" Photo.

Starting the day with eggs you made yourself is the way to do it.

Math was the first subject of the day. We always do that first so that is done and out of the way. B worked on adding and subtracting fractions with different denominators and M worked on double digit multiplication.

One of the many advantages to homeschooling is that you can do your literature reading in the comfortable spot of your choosing.

This year we are using Growing With Grammar. They really enjoyed it. I like that the explanations are straight forward. So far, they like it better then the program we used last year.

Here are my darlings working on their copywork. B is doing a poem by Robert Frost. M is doing an excerpt from Tennyson.


We ended the day with our first Latin Lesson. The first lesson took awhile. I am hopeful that this will not be the way it goes for the year and that as we become more familiar with the language the lessons will have a more natural flow.

The Cloisters 08.27.09

We took a field trip to the Cloisters (http://www.metmuseum.org/cloisters) today. Another homeschooling mom organized a one hour architecture of the middle ages tour. We went with some friends of ours and it was tons of fun. Here are the kids posing at a scenic overlook at Fort Tyron Park where the museum is located. You can just see the George Washington Bridge behind B's head.

Outside the entrance. We are about to meet up with the group.

In one of the Cloisters the kids were learning how the tops of the columns told a story. What were Chinese dragons doing on the top of a French column you may wonder. Turns out this monastery was on a trade route with the Orient.

You can learn a lot from dead people. Here we were finding out how to look for clues as to who this person was and what kind of job he had.

One of the 7 famous Unicorn Tapestries. You see them in the books but you don't realize just how large they are.

The Girls were feeling meditative in the Cloister. They really liked the idea of sitting and feeling nature around you.

Planning, planning, planning

School will be starting for us in a couple of weeks and I am still in the process of outlining our school year. I achieved a new level of geekdom when I squealed with delight this morning because my order from Rainbow Resource will be arriving today.

I will be going through our science and history books to make sure I have the supplies needed on hand. Last year I would occasionally skip that step and ended up scrambling. Not pretty. I am trying to get a handle on it for this year.

In some ways we have started school already. Puberty has been a big topic of discussion. B has been reading What's Happening to me? and It's perfectly normal. I really like these books. They cover just about everything. And I mean everything. If you do not have the liberal secular view on sex and what is okay that I have-these are probably not the books for you. This way he reads the books and then we can discuss any questions he has (or better yet-he can talk to his father. As I explained to him-I am glad to discuss with him but I don't have the equipment and don't really know what he is feeling). M has been reading The Care and Keeping of You and It's so amazing. A story about eggs, sperm, and families. The Care and Keeping of you discusses all those girl questions you wanted to know and were afraid to ask. It's so amazing covers reproduction and some puberty basics about boys and girls. It is the book that comes before It's perfectly normal.

Trip to Philadelphia

Here we are about to leave for our we
ek-end in Philly! Star Trek Exhibit here we come.










I took these while stuck in traffic on the Turnpike. I held the camera over my shoulder and snapped the pic all the while hoping a child would be in the shot. I got lucky. BTW, you should not take photos while driving.







Look at the cool banner at the Franklin Institute. Hubby was very excited. He is such a Trekkie. Okay, I thought it was kind of cool, too..

A giant sculpture of Ben Franklin greets you as you enter the Institute.



Engage! The exhibit was fun. They had an assortment of costumes from all the series. A replica of the Next Generation Bridge. And lots of fun space facts and series facts. For example: The phrase "Beam me up, Scotty." has never been said by a single character in the series.

Check out engineering.

There was also tons of other stuff to see. We walked through the heart, found out how much blood we had in our bodies, watched some open heart surgery, trains, space command, sports, and B rode the Sky Bike.

Enjoy this little video clip of M being a human gyroscope.

We also checked out the Galileo Exhibit. I think I was the only one who was really excited to see Galileo's telescope but they all agreed it was cool. So much was happening in the arts and the sciences during that time. Fascinating. At least to me. Hubby, being so tall, was able to look down through the telescope. The kids were able to bend down low enough to look up through the telescope. I looked at the telescope.

No trip to Philly is compete without cheese steak. This time we tried Tony Luke's. Absolutely fantastic. Way better then the place we went to last time. We ended the trip with a stop at the Reading Terminal Market. It was a lot of fun. We had lunch and enjoyed the Dixie Land Band.