A Litte Creativity

Peanut is probably the most inspired person I've ever met. . . meaning that every single thing he reads, watches, or does tends to get his creative juices flowing and he starts thinking how he can make it his own. This often means writing a new story, or trying to make something, like this Animal Crate box, similar to the dozens of Kiwi Crates we've had over the years.

He decided last year that he wanted to make this one for a friend's birthday. He started working on it, but didn't get it done in time for the birthday, or for Christmas, so this year, we finally managed to do the last bits and get it in the mail only a few days for the birthday.

I can't get over how involved it was, and how he managed to do most of it all by himself. I helped him work through a couple issues, but otherwise it was all him. He came up with an octopus tank to be put together, a sheet of stickers to decorate the tank, and even this cute yarn octopus.

Of course he had a booklet with activities and instructions.

His ability to imitate the style of things is uncanny--he does it with the voice in his writing all the time. I feel like he would make a pretty excellent ghost writer.

The birthday boy was pretty impressed by the gift, too. He sent us a photo when he was all done with the craft.

Field Trip Week

Some weeks, there isn't a lot of HOME in our homeschool. But on-the-go learning is the best, anyway, so we aren't complaining. 

Peanut and I went to the Oakland Museum of CA as a follow up for some of our CA history we've been studying this year. It had been a few years since we'd been and so it was mostly new to him.

This exhibit on recycling was pretty incredible.

We explored the natural history area, which tied in really nicely to some of our recent nature group field trips.

And we spent a long time in the Native American section. This was a fun history unit and the museum has a lot of great things that we recognized, like this fish trap which we had read about in the book, Adopted by Indians.

We spent another afternoon hiking in Del Valle. I love this area in the spring when the hills are all green.

Along with looking for birds and wildflowers and other signs of spring, we also brought along our read aloud because you can't beat a view like this while you're reading.

I managed to get a few miles out of this kid, too. He prefers hikes with friends for actually going much of a distance because apparently I'm not exciting enough to distract him from the pain, haha.

But it was too lovely to turn back.

I love these weeks when we have time to get out of the house and explore.

 

Post-Christmas Fun

We've been having a lovely, relaxing week of fun with the family. Bean did a painting class with Rara and then they watched La La Land, which is one of Bean's favorite movies. 

Peanut has loved having time with Unkie. They played several games while everyone else watched the movie, and Peanut was pretty happy.

We FINALLY made it to Deacon Dave's. Don't know why we hadn't been before the end of the month, but we hadn't.

712,325 lights this year.

and a Ferris wheel because why not? Always impressive to see what they come up with.

We taught Rara and Unkie how to play Nerts. It's such a staple in our house that it seems wrong to not teach anyone who is around for more than an evening.

And more games. We don't play as many games in a normal week as we used to, but holidays are game time for sure.

And then, it was the end of the year. Rara and Unkie had to leave us in order to beat a snowstorm home, but Grandma and Grandpa came for New Year's Eve. We had so much food. I'm in love with charcuterie boards and just can't stop making them. Snacky foods for the win.

We had a crackling fire, some people watched a movie, games and shenanigans occured--it was a fun evening.

And I'll just leave it with this view of the creek near our house. All the rain the past couple weeks has led to a few days of crazy deep water. Would be fun if we actually have a flowing creek this winter.

 

What 5th Grade Looks Like

We started the year with a little follow-up to our Harry Potter Schooling from last year. The curriculum we were using included several 6-week units that covered a variety of subjects as classes from Hogwarts. We did the Owl Study and Herbology last year, but still have a lot of mini-classes to complete, so Peanut picked a couple he wants to do this year and Care of Magical Creatures was the first one we tackled.

Along with reading a lot of books about mythical creatures, he did several writing projects. For a couple of them, he used the Myth Match book to create new creatures and then wrote up a thorough description of their various traits. He also took notes on a few of his favorite creatures that he read about in some of the other books.

And then he started getting creative. He wanted to come up with his own activities to do for this unit, so he invented the Phoenix pasta recipe and made it for dinner one night.

Doesn't it look like phoenix fire? It was very tasty, too.

And then he came up with edible dragon eggs. Chocolate covered peanut butter eggs.

These were an even bigger hit!

We also made a magnet of another creature he invented--the wildeflyce (flying wildebeast like creature.) All of these ideas, and a couple more, can be found in the Magical Creature Art booklet that he typed up. This boy is never satisfied to just do the projects that are given to him. Everything he reads or hears gets his mind turning and he has to invent his own projects, too. The hardest part is keeping up with all his ideas. We probably only do about 10% of the things that he comes up with, but I think he is finally realizing that that is okay--half the fun is thinking of the idea. Not every single one needs to be brought to fruition. 

In other school news--Peanut started piano lessons this year. We were going to begin last year, but with everything being virtual, we decided it would be better to wait until he could go in person. The virtual lessons worked okay for Bug, but it would be hard to start off a beginner like that.

So far, he's liking it okay. His teacher offers a small candy treat for 5 days' worth of practice, so that helps with the motivation a little.

Science class has been going well. Lots of new students in Peanut's class especially, and I think he's had fun getting to know them. He definitely has fun with the science. And he's been helping out with my youngest class, too. He loves getting to be the "TA" and even made himself a nametag.

Along with being back in the art studio with his fabulous teacher, Mrs. G, we did a little fall art at home. He painted a corn maze with a pumpkin on the path while I did a chalk pastel of a fall tree.

There's been some solo game playing. Being the only kid home all day means a lot of time to fill and I can't be there for all of it. He's doing pretty well keeping himself entertained most days.

There's been a LOT of backyard schooling--at the table, in the hammock, or on a quilt. It just feels good to get outside for awhile each day.

This was our first read aloud novel of the year and we did the Bravewriter Arrow guide to go with it. It was a really great book with some very fun writing.

One activity we did had us pairing random nouns and verbs to see what we could come up with as creative descriptions--Sky swimming, blood moving, and book smelling were my favorites.

Outside time means the animals can get out as well, and they love that. Or, at least, Poppy loves getting out to run and stretch her legs. The guinea pigs like to eat grass, but also seem a little terrified of the whole process each time. They don't love getting picked up, ever, don't love being exposed, don't love being chased by the rabbit, and really don't love being chased to bring back in the house. They spend most of the time hiding in the pink little house, eating grass as fast as they can chew.

We've also started a new program for history. I ordered the CA history curriculum from Beautiful Feet Books which uses novels and picture books to teach about history, and lays out lessons for notebooking about what we learn. We've been really enjoying it and I love the idea of having a notebook full of pictures and maps and summaries of the highlights from CA history.

And, even though I didn't get many pictures at all, our first couple weeks of school involved a lot of games with Rara and Unkie. They spent the first half of September in Livermore at an AirBNB just a few blocks away so they could watch the high school water polo games and hang out with us every afternoon and evening. Peanut and I would finish most of his school by lunch time or so and then they would show up to play games and hear all about what he'd been doing and hang out until bedtime.

I'd say it's been a really great start to the school year. Not that we haven't had some rough days, but for the most part, we're getting a pretty good routine going and finding ways to have some fun with our learning. 

Last Summer Hurrah

It's kind of turned into a tradition for us to go to San Francisco for an adventure before the kids go back to school. This year, thanks to water polo practices, we were a little tight on time, but Bean picked for us to spend the day at the SF MOMA.

This Contemporary Optics special exhibit was beautiful.

I love how these kids are pretty much game and interested in anything and everything. 

(Love being in the city--I don't think I'd want to live in a big city full time, but they sure are fun to visit.)

This kid was loving the outdoor statues🤣

We did take a break for awhile at a nearby park to eat lunch and get some fresh air. This was the longest indoor activity that I've done in 1.5 years.

Peanut and I worked on the museum's scavenger hunt for awhile. It kept him interested so the other two could enjoy the art for a little longer.

Favorite color (and I will never understand this type of modern art.)

And HIS favorite color.

Very cool airplane.

This girl loves it all. She could have stayed a lot longer.

One of my favorite exhibits--lots of miniatures in this architecture exhibit.

Love how they took something flat and made it pop.

And these miniatures, too. I'm fascinated by tiny things.

And with that, Summer Break 2021 is over. I don't know how many more years I'll have all three of these kids to adventure with, but for now, I'm just going to keep going as much as we can.