Wrapping up the School Year

This is our last official week of the school year.  We will take next week off and then summer school will begin.  The children are not too thrilled with it but they know it has to happen since we had those 2 really light months leading up to Mister B's Bar Mitzvah.

That said, Little Miss has been very enthusiastic about her lessons this week.  She has approached them with energy and delight and has been finishing up everything by 11.  Mister B, well, he is less then enthused.  He is dragging himself to the table, dawdling his way through the morning, and being a general grump.  Not to mention the constant "I am getting a drink.  I am going to the bathroom.  I am going to stretch my legs." Then he has the nerve to be annoyed that his sister is done and he is still working at 4pm.  Today he has started an outline for the essay he is going to write on Religion and the founding of America.  From the head banging, groaning, and heavy sighing you would think he was being asked to perform in a drama.

Yesterday for Discussion Group we had a year end party.  The kids were thrilled.  They all had a great time playing games, eating pizza, and enjoying each others company.

Monday Update

This past weekend was birthday celebrating for Little Miss M.  She had her friends over on Saturday for a Cupcake Wars party.  Little Miss loves that TV show.  If you have not seen it, it involves baking some unusual cupcakes that look and taste good.  Since I was not about to have 6 girls whipping up unique cupcakes in my one oven kitchen I modified the idea.  We baked all the cupcakes ahead of time and then for the party I put out all kinds of things to decorate with and different colored frosting.  It was a processed food extravaganza. Giant marshmallows, mini-marshmallows, sno-caps, chocolate chips, M & M's, writing icing, sprinkles, and sugar stars.  The girls had a lot of fun and Mr. B was the judge.  Sunday we had family over to celebrate.  More cupcakes and fun with great grandparents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.

Needless to say, after all the sugar today was not the smoothest school day of the year.  But it did happen.  It just took a bit longer. 

Little Miss:
Math:Continuing to work with reducing fractions.
Grammar: Pronouns
Science: Chapter test.  She received a 90.  She has not quite mastered writing the complete answer.  For example: What do the turtles need to survive? A pond with a soft, muddy bottom.  The missing part: Sufficient food, and basking places.
History: The liberation of South America.

Mister B:
Math: Dividing with decimals and review of finding the area of a rectangle.
Grammar: Diagramming sentences
Science: Continued work with his sundial
History: The Mayflower Compact and how it relates to Democracy

Tomorrow is a new day.

Happy Birthday Little Miss M

11!  My baby girl is 11!  I can not believe it.  Where did the years go?  Where is my baby?  She has been replaced with this poised young lady.  Okay, she is not always poised and does not always behave like a young lady.  She is often telling me that ladies don't have any fun.  It is difficult to argue that point.  Truthfully, I do not expect her to sit and be silent and dainty all the time.  Only when we are, say, at a restaurant, or with family.  She has started to make the foray into shoes with a small heel.  Oh, how I remember wanting to wear heels and here that click clack of them across the floor.  Little secret-I still love the sound of that click clack.  We now spend a lot of time discussing-lady steps.  One can not clomp around like a horse.  If you are going to wear grown up shoes you have to walk gracefully.  Little steps.  Glide across the floor.  Did I mention how ladies don't have any fun.  As Little Miss is learning-there are shoes for different occasions.  You want to run around and be less then graceful-wear sneakers.  I digress from the birthday.........My beautiful girl chose ice cream pie for her birthday breakfast with cookies and cream ice cream.  It was yummy. 

School wise everyone is progressing along.  Little Miss is reducing fractions and learning how that relates to a ruler in math.  Grammar-picking the proper pronoun.  Science-she finished a short unit on bats.  We love bats.  They eat mosquitoes.  She is now working on ants.  She conducted an experiment as to which food they like best.  Sweet (honey), protein (a piece of hot dog), oil based (peanut butter).  We all knew honey would be the favorite.  We were all surprised that the hot dog was preferred over the peanut butter.  History-The Spanish and Portuguese enslaving the people of South America and taking their gold because The Pope said it was okay because they were not Christians.  Okay, there is more to it then that but that sums it up.

Mister B is dividing with decimals.  This week he is mastering dividing a whole number by a decimal.  Grammar-diagramming adverbs and appositive adjectives.  Science-he made a sundial and is enjoying telling time.  History-The first settlers and The Mayflower Compact. Literature- Helen Keller-The Story of My Life.

Today, in honor of Little Miss M's birthday they only did math and grammar and we are watching movies.  Which seemed like an excellent plan since we are in the midst of an awful heatwave.  Over a 100 today.  Even the dog does not want to be outside and he loves to be outside.  I am saying a little prayer because I am very thankful for my ac.

So much happening

I realized today that I have gone from updating this blog 3 times a week to "Oh my, when did I last update the blog?"  Now that the kids are older our school days are longer and we seem to be doing a lot of running around and I have less energy to update the blog.  How was that for a run on sentence?

Lessons have been progressing.  Mister B and Little Miss M are steadily moving forward.  I have been planning out next year and purchasing everything that will be needed.  Mister B is making a workload leap (Perhaps I should make that sound more positive-Hmm, Mister B will be rising to the challenge of additional course work.  Well, I'll work on that).  8th grade-time to get ready for high school.  Little Miss will be in 6th grade.  She will also be feeling the joy of an increased work load.  So hard to believe. 

For Discussion Group this past Wednesday the kids watched My Fair Lady.  I remember watching this movie when I was younger and thinking of it as a wonderful romance.  Now I look at it and think "What an abusive jerk."  The kids enjoyed the movie.  They agree with my assessment of abuse and wondered why she put up with it.  This led to a discussion on the time period, the choices woman had, and class.  On a side note-at the end of the movie when Eliza returns to the house (typical - repeat the patterns of abuse) and Henry asks
Where the devil are my slippers?" We think she should throw them at him again.  Overall, I think they all preferred Oliver to My Fair Lady.  It will be an interesting discussion at the next meeting when they compare the 2 movies.

Monday

It was another nice lesson day. 

Little Miss: Math-Reducing Fractions.  Grammar-Diagramming subject, verb, and direct object.  History-Finishing up India.  Science-Competition among animals for resources.

Mister B: Math-review of dividing fractions.  Grammar-Verb Phrases and Indirect Objects.  History- Jamestown and he started reading The Landing of the Pilgrims.  Literature-Finished Alice in Wonderland and moving on to writing assignments.

Shopping with the Children

We finished out last week by clothes shopping.  Mr. B had outgrown his dress shoes.  Little Miss M needed Spring/Summer clothes.  Shopping with a teen and a tween is an awful experience.  I told them our budget.  They had choices.  At this sale price you can get 2 t-shirts.  Or you can pay full price and get only one.  Mr. B was not so terrible other then his insistence on dark colored shorts.  I wanted him to get one light beige pair.  It seems to me that a lighter color would be cooler but what do I know.  Little Miss, on the other hand, that was not fun at all.  She has totally outgrown children's sizes.  She can wear adult petite sizes but lets face it, most of those are a bit frumpy for a 10 year old.  The majority of the Juniors clothes are not appropriate for a 10 year old.  I don't think they are appropriate for a 16 year old, either but that is another topic.  The quality in a lot of the items was incredibly poor.  I hate the thin material they are using for the tops.  After much trying on and disagreeing on most everything she managed to get a few pairs of shorts and some t-shirts.  The dress shoes were the easiest portion of the day.  "I like these and they fit."  Me, "Okay."

If nothing else, the day gave me the opportunity to rant, er, lecture on the price of things and quality.

The Week Goes On

Yesterday at Discussion Group the kids had a great time.  Ahead of time we watched the movie Oliver (the 1968 version - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063385).  Then they answered a series of questions that one of the moms put together.  Some examples:
Background Questions:
What is the movie based on? Who wrote the book? What famous Christmas Story did he write?  When is the movie set?

Things to pay attention to during the movie:
What does the sign say behind the boys in the workhouse scene?
How was color used in the movie?
What do the owl and the dog symbolize?
An example of irony or contradiction during the movie?

After the movie:
Which characters are the most well developed?  Write a back story for one or more of the following character: Fagin, Nancy, The Artful Dodger, Oliver's Mother.

When we all got together we started off with a brief history overview of the period of time in the movie, the creation of the water closet and where the sewage was draining too (The Thames River) and how that water was used for washing and drinking (universal "Gross!").  How the homes in London were built creating the warren of alleyways.  Then we showed a pic of cute and clean Oliver from the movie and a couple of pics of what the workhouse kids really looked like (Shock and surprise) which led to a brief talk about how you can't always trust what you see.  Looks can be deceiving.

Then we got into the movie.  Some great observations: Workhouse was dull and gray.  Colors were bright and popped when the food showed up. Where Fagin and his group lived-dull and dreary.  When Oliver wakes up in his Great Uncle's house the room is washed out.  He opens the window to a world alive with color (aka The Wizard of Oz).  The Dog-Bulls eye.  The symbolism of how he leads them to Bill Sykes.  The Owl-none of us knew the answer but some of the kids said; The owl shows the wisdom of hiding his stuff.  He was there to guard the box.  Fagin just needed someone to talk to who wouldn't talk.

We talked a bit about Nancy and staying in an abusive relationship.  Drove home to them that staying with someone just because they need you is not the same as love and is not a healthy relationship.

The group really enjoyed the movie and the discussion.

Today Mister B got himself a job.  We were out walking the dog this morning and we came upon an elderly lady doing some gardening.  We exchanged good mornings.  Talked a bit about the garden and then she asked if I knew anyone who would be interested in helping her mow her lawn with her reel mower.  Mister B said he would help.  So, I stayed a bit to chat with the lady and make sure all was okay and then left Mister B there and continued on my walk with the dog.  He mowed her front lawn and her back lawn and helped her do a little weeding.  He was happy to help.  When he was done she told him she wanted to pay him.  He didn't know what to ask for so he said $10.  She gave him $2 extra dollars for the good conversation.  He was thrilled to earn some money since he was willing to do it for free.  He will do this for her every 2 weeks.  She also offered to pay him to shovel her walk in the winter.  I told him we will see about that one because he is usually pretty tired after doing our walk. 

As he told his friend today: Homeschooling is awesome.  If he had been in school this morning he would not have gotten this job.