A Week of Schooling

We're getting back into the swing of things around here. School looks like . . .

. . .a No Sweat Nature Study class on apples. We've been doing these classes for about 3 years now, I think, and we're still loving them. They add a little science and nature study into our indoor school time which I appreciate (and sometimes give me ideas for my nature group, so it's work research, too!)

. . .watching The Secret Life of Pets for a writing class from Brave Writer. I thought we'd kick the year off with a fun language arts class and so far, he's a fan. He gets to watch a movie (this unit is all pet-based movies) each week and then respond to questions in the online forum, and reply to other students comments as well. It's casual, but gets them thinking about the elements of storytelling and character development. 

. . . swim practice. Peanut is doing the year-round swim team this year in order to keep up with the swimming when it's too cold for our pool. I don't know if he'll do any meets, but for now, he's happy practicing a couple times a week. I'm happy that the coaches seem great and he's already learning a ton.

. . . human anatomy and physiology for science class. He's pretty excited about everything we're learning this year. We're starting with introductions to the class and the body systems and then we'll spend a week on each system this semester.

. . . a day of looking for colors in nature. Our first Nature Explorations hike was all about colors and looking more closely. 

It was also ridiculously hot--when our high temps are over 110, no one really wants to be outside, even in the morning when it's only in the 90s. We started the hike a little early, didn't go very far, and were still all hot and sweaty by the end.

But the kids did have fun matching their paint cards to something along the way. It was amazing the variety of colors we found when we really started looking.

It's felt like a full week--even if we didn't get much math done. We're easing into our full schedule this year, and I feel like it's making the transition, for both of us, a little easier. A couple structured lessons each day, a lot of independent exploration and learning, some physical activity--it all starts to add up to a well-rounded education.

 

On the Eve of School

Tomorrow is the first day of school and I'm so scared! Our two kids who love to sleep in are actually going back to school and going to have to wake up a couple hours earlier than they have been most of the mornings since we moved here. I'm going to have to pack lunches, make tired kids get dressed, and get out the door way too early for the next 9.5 months.

Bean, our first little baby, starts high school, and is going to her first regular public school--where there are 2300 kids, and she knows almost none of them. It's going to be a bit of a change from the charter with only 100 kids in each grade, and an even bigger change from the last 1.5 years of homeschooling. But she's mostly excited about all the change and looking forward to all the potential she sees in going to school. She started water polo this week, so has already been spending 3 hours a day at the school, and has a few more faces that she will recognize if she runs into them on campus. I'm nervous for her, but at the same time, I know she will do great. She's friendly and good at meeting new people.

Peanut, is going to second grade at the local public school, and I'm honestly scared for him, too. I don't really have any fears about him making friends because he's younger and friends are more simple at age 7. He's always been the kid that goes to the park and ends up playing with someone new every time, even when we are there with friends. But I just have no idea where he'll be compared to the other students academically. He does things at his own pace, and has always had some very mild developmental delays, and rather than try to drill things into him before he was ready, I've just worked on fostering a love of learning. It worked great for homeschooling, but now that he's going to be in a classroom with a bunch of other kids, and with a teacher I know nothing about, I'm worried that he may feel "behind". He hasn't had anyone to compare himself against before--the other two kids are so much older, he doesn't even try to keep up with them, and I just don't know how he'll feel. I just hope that however it turns out, we can keep him excited about school and learning.

All this going back to school is weird for me, too, because these schools are so different from our experience with our charter in NC. Out here, we don't have a parent/teacher conference before school starts, there was no welcome letter from the teacher, no drop in visit. Peanut got lucky that when we picked up his teacher assignment on Wednesday, his teacher was in her room when we peeked in through the window and she let us come in for a minute to say hi. But I'm realizing that it may be a lot more work to feel connected to the school out here. And, of course, with Bean, they don't particularly want the parents involved. They expect the kids to take charge, which I both welcome, and feel a little sad about.

At least I still have Bug. It will be a very different experience this year just homeschooling him, but I think it will be good for all of us. I'm looking forward to being able to focus on middle school stuff with him, without having to meet the needs of three kids at three different levels. We're both looking forward to working in a quieter house, and to digging deep into some topics that he's specifically interested in.   I'm also hoping to carve out some time for my things each day. I know that juggling 2 kids in school and 1 at home isn't going to be easy and will probably take up just as much time as what I did before, but at least they won't all be home all the time. Just having a quiet house will allow me to concentrate and be more efficient (so I'm telling myself.)

No matter what, we're in for big changes. I can't wait to hear tomorrow afternoon about what they each think of their first day of school.

The Many Faces of Education

Last month, the kids got to see government in action when we went up to the state capitol to stand up in a hearing and declare that we did NOT support the bill they were trying to pass that would  infringe on homeschoolers rights. 

We waited in lines for 3 hours (such a huge turnout--the politicians there that day had never seen so many constituents turn out for anything before) for our 30 seconds at the mic, but it worked and the bill was dismissed that evening. I hope my kids always remember that it is worth it to show up and speak up. If everyone there that day had thought that it wasn't worth the drive, someone else would do it for them, then the vote may have gone another way.

Our new favorite "school" activity--Poetry Teatime. I can't take credit for this idea (it comes from Brave Writer/Julie Bogart, who I listen to on her podcast), but I finally made it happen. And I did make the semi-healthy chocolate chip scones that the kids scarfed down with their hot chocolate.

The basic idea is to put out a bunch of poetry books, serve some type of snack and drink, and let the kids enjoy. By introducing poetry in a fun way when they are young, they won't be intimidated by it when they come across Shakespeare or Dickinson later in life.

We took turns reading aloud from the books we'd picked, but then my favorite part was that Bean got excited, remembering some poems she'd written and ended up pulling out a bunch of her old stories and poems and read them all to Peanut, who loved seeing what she'd been working on when she was around his age.

You really can't tell from this picture, but the kids spent our last couple creek-side park days creating villages out of rocks. Bug built an ancient Greek style palace and throne, while Bean's was a Viking-inspired village with a blacksmith and chiefs house and a museum.

Photo from our homeschool end-of-year picnic. Because we like a good excuse to play at the park with friends. Finding a homeschool community has been key for us--all my kids, wherever they fall on the extroversion/introversion spectrum enjoy our weekly park days and I absolutely love the support group of parents--as a sounding board for questions and inspiration and experience. We've learned about so many awesome classes and field trip ideas, and we've made some good friends.

First Grade Art Crawl

We've come back to where we started.  The artist unit was Bean's first one at Corvian 3 years ago, and now Bug's class got their turn.  They Jackson Pollocked their t-shirts as one of their projects.

 

The performance was fun, as always.  Who doesn't love a good fight between "Pigasso" and "Mootisse", the Picasso polka, and a bunch of cute first graders?

Then, we went back to the classroom to see the kids' art gallery.

Picasso's blue period

Degas' horses

Matisse inspired work titled "Under the Ocean"

A Degas ballerina

This is probably one of my favorites.  Picasso is such a fun artist for the kids to work with.

 

  Bug loved this whole unit.  He enjoys art, and loves learning new styles to try out.  He'd come home every week and make new pieces to give to Bean.  Lots of fun artwork around our house these days!

A Little Two Much Responsibility

We've been working on independence and responsibility for ourselves this summer.  I decided that as long as I was going to be the kids' full-time teacher, I might as well teach them some useful life skills this next year, along with everything else.  Actually, Daddy-o and I have been meaning to get some regular chores set up for years, but the last couple years have been full of pregnancy and baby distractions. 

And really, its more work for us to have them do things than just doing them ourselves, and more work did not sound fun these last 2 years.  As evidenced in the picture above, having them fix their own lunch or snacks can lead to disasters (but Bug now knows that pouring his yogurt from the container is not an efficeint way to serve himself).

But with Bean turning 8, we decided it really is time.  It's not that they have been doing nothing--they have set the table and cleared their own places for years.  They occasionally will pull the laundry from the dryer for me, and we all do a lot of picking up together, but they are so much more capable than that.

So now, they have morning chores which we do before we start that day's activities--emptying the dishwasher, vacuuming, feeding the dog, watering flowers, swiping the bathroom, starting the laundry.  It's only 15-20 minutes (if they stay focused--I haven't figured out how to make that happen yet). 

The laundry has been fun for them and a huge help for me--I just made a chart to show them where to set the washer and dryer for each load and then I bring down my laundry load of choice for the day.  They're getting pretty confident in how to put the load

And then we all work for 10 minutes in the zone of the week (following Flylady zones).  We also have laundry folding parties, a before-dinner pick-up, and a table setting/helping with dishes rotation.

 It goes a long way towards keeping the house from getting out of control, even with three kids around all day every day.  Once we can stop dragging it out for hours, I think we'll actually get a lot done.  And they are also learning how to clean up the messes they make along the way--good life skills.

Thinking Outside the Box

This was a fitting final play for the school year-- about 4 famous inventors put on trial for thinking outside the box and changing our world, just like these kids are learning to do.  It's been an amazing 2 years with Mrs. A and this little group and its sad to see it come to an end.

And it really is coming to an end. A couple months ago, the school found out they were approved to become a charter school this fall.  Good news in the long run, but because of a state law, the school was required to hold a lottery for every single spot at the school--no spots held for the current students (don't even get me started on how ridiculous this law is).  And in keeping with our past school lottery luck, neither one of our kids got in, or is close enough on the wait list to hope things will change.  In fact, no one from Bean's 10 person class made it in through the lottery.  While one or two of the students will be back because their parents work there, for the most part, this is it for this class.  It has been pretty bitter-sweet to watch these kids together this last month, knowing that each event is a last.

But back to the sweet part of it all--their play, "Law and Order" included orignial artwork and props,

lots of dancing (doing the Electric Slide here),

and incredibly cute off-key singing.

Bean was Henry Ford, on trial for thinking out side the box when he created the automobile.

She loved learning about Henry Ford (and all the inventors), and was pretty excited when we pulled out the pictures of when she got to ride in a Model T while we were living in Michigan.

As part of this unit, they also wrote reports and made a visual about another inventor of their choice.  Bean picked Margaret E. Knight, who began inventing things as a teenager and is the creator of the modern day paper bag.

This school has been the most amazing learning environment and I'm so glad that we've been able to be a part of it.  We're hoping that when the school expands for 2013-2014, we'll be able to get back in, but for now, it means we get to return to homeschooling.    There are actually a lot of things that I'm looking forward to, but I'm completely dreading having to break the news to the kids.  They are both going to be pretty dissappointed, but I hope that we can get enough fun stuff planned to make the blow a little softer. 

For now, we'll enjoy one last week of school and keep making plans for an awesome summer.

No Blogging Mojo

I don't know why I can't get back into this habit, but the blogging, obviously, just hasn't been happening lately.  It's not even that I don't have time to get on the computer, but I just have no motivation anymore.  And what little energy I can muster to do things ends up getting spent on folding laundry and sorting and organizing.  And occasionally cooking for my family.  That mojo hasn't totally come back either.

But here's a summary of what we've been up to lately:

--Trying to kick yet another virus of some sort that has made its way through everyone but Daddy-o.  Luckily, the fever and aches part of it only lasted about 36 hours for each of us, but now the kids and I are going through Kleenex boxes like crazy (Buggy used an entire box yesterday, but that is due somewhat to his manner of using tissues, and me not having the energy to stop him.)

--Dealing with more school woes, but I think we've made a decision and will be moving Bean, hopefully next week, to a very small school we found that is modeled after our dream charter school that we will probably never get into.  The biggest pluses--very small class size (11 kids in the first grade), only 5 minutes from our house, good teacher/parent communication, thematic studies, and no TV in the class, so there will be no more reports of which Disney movie they got to watch in class this week (because I don't care if Lion King is set in Africa, that movie does not teach them about Africa!  And Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs doesn't teach weather, and I have no idea what Up was supposed to be teaching, but I know we'd decided to wait a couple more years before showing that movie to our very sensitive, emotional child.)  I hope this school works out for all of us--Bean was pretty excited after visiting today, and I was impressed and hopeful, but mildly wary after how our last experience has turned out.

--I'm 25.5 weeks along in growing this new little boy, and feeling every second of it.  I have never loved being pregnant, but I'm so done this time.  I'm not nauseous anymore, thank goodness, but I still feel a little bleh after pretty much every meal, and the heartburn has kicked in full force.  I just don't feel good, and I'm kind of tired of whining about it, so I just hope the last 3 months go quickly so I can stop.

--We've started some minor baby preparations.  Got the kids new dressers so theirs could be moved to the baby's room (and I immediately filled it with all the newborn stuff we have), and finally got the crib out of their room (Bug hasn't been sleeping in it for months), and I'm working on figuring out colors for the room so I can paint and get it all set up.  And I visited the birth center I want to use and have set up to switch from my doctor to the midwife group there.  Now I just have to start my Hypnobabies again--I'm guessing it will come back to me quickly, so I don't want to start too early and get burnt out on the daily practicing.

--Daddy-o has been working too many hours again.  Poor guy had to work through most of his birthday last Saturday, taking care of a little emergency.  Things have slowed down a little now, but we won't know for a couple more weeks what the long term story on this project is going to be.  He's already counting down to paternity leave.

--Bugaboo has been mostly loving preschool again.  It's a relief to drop him off without the tears and yelling about how much he hates school--we've only had one of those days in the last 3 weeks.  And school has been fun.  They've been painting with feathers, sponges, stamps, and different textured rollers, hammering into playdough, playing in their newly set up grocery store, and running up and down the new pile of mulch that was delivered this week.  He's come home really dirty and grinning from ear to ear, so I have a hard time believing him when he tells me he hates it all.

--Bean celebrated the 100th day of school (which funny enough, she'll get to do over again at the new school this next week).  She made a picture using 100 beans and pasta peices, and then got draw a picture of what she'll look like at 100, make a necklace with 100 fruit loops, build with 100 legos, and eat cake--no idea what that had to do with 100, but it seemed to be her favorite part of the celebration.

We are all surviving, hoping for the early spring the Groundhog has predicted, and counting down until Mama gets her motivation back.

School Woes

I've been trying to be patient with our transition to school, and so I haven't wanted to write this post, but then I've been finding that I haven't felt like writing any other posts, so I just haven't been blogging much lately.  I do have a few pictures from other activities I need to put up here, but school is occupying a lot of my thoughts right now.

I think its so funny that one of the most common things I hear about homeschooling from school-going families is that it seems "too hard"--That whole "I could never do it" arguement.  I agree, sometimes it is really exhausting having your kids home with you all day, although you can sign them up for classes and arrange playdates so that doesn't have to be the case every minute of the week.  But right now, I'm thinking sending them to school is WAY harder.

There's the fact that you have to do things by someone else's schedule.  Which means that you may have to wake them up an hour before they are naturally ready (and despite what you try, they may not be able to go to sleep an hour earlier to make it up).  And you have to get them dressed and out the door right away, even if they are having an off morning and really need time for extra hugs and snuggles, or even extra breakfast.  You have to get them to and from school by the clock, whether it works for you or not.  Believe me, its a lot easier to set your own schedule and do things when it works best for your family.

Then there's all the time wastage.  I knew that was going to happen--its one of the reasons why I think homeschooling is so great.  And after spending a little time in Bean's class, I've seen firsthand how much effort and time goes into getting 25 kids to all do what they need to.  The example that has me the most annoyed would be coming in from lunch.  They finish recess at 12:50.  They come back into the building and stop for a bathroom break.  I don't know exactly how long this takes, but since only 3 kids are allowed in each of the bathrooms at once, I'm guessing that they don't get back into their classroom until at least 1:10.  Then they have DEAR time.  When I was teaching, this stood for "Drop Everything and Read", and it probably still does in most classes, but for Bean, it means Drop Everything and Rest.  They have to put their heads down on their desks while quiet music plays for about 20 minutes.  Maybe more.  I know the day I got there at 1:45 they were still "resting"  Then, because they have electives from 2-3:00 p.m. most days, they start to pack up and line up.  This means that from 11:45 (let's be real--they probably start lining up for lunch at 11:30) until 2:10 or so, they aren't really doing anything.  And if you figure in how much time it takes for each of the transitions, that means the first 3.5 hours of school are probably mostly group management, too.  I'm not saying I don't understand it--25 five and six year olds are a lot to handle--but its just one of those things you don't have to deal with when homeschooling.

And along with all the daily time that is wasted, there's the fact that they've been in school for 5 weeks already and STILL haven't managed to finish the school-wide assessments and get their small learning groups set up.  I really liked the idea that they would be breaking the kids into small groups for math and reading, and that the whole school does these subjects at the same time, so its easy to switch kids to different rooms for these groups depending on their level in that subject, but it was supposed to happen in the first 3 weeks.  I'm not sure what the hold up is, but its now gone long enough that I'm ready to start asking more questions (I was trying really hard not to be that parent, but I'm not going to last.)  I keep asking Bean each day if she has done any math, and most days, she can't think of a single thing that would qualify.  Maybe she's not recognizing math time, but I'm getting a little worried.

Finally, today, she got her first weekly homework calendar.  Now, I'm not a big fan of homework anyway and completely agree with the research that shows that for the most part, its pretty pointless in elementary school except for the occasional special project.  But this list I just got seems completely over the top for K/1.  Each day, on top of the 30 minutes of reading she's supposed to do each day (and I'm a fan of reading--only it would go a lot better if she wasn't so tired at night after getting up too early and spending a long day at school), she's supposed to do 2 projects with her sight words (could take anywhere from 10-30 minutes each day), has a couple math concepts to work with (which she swears they have done nothing with in class), and a couple social studies projects to do as well.  For example, this week they are supposed to be watching the local news or CNN and summarizing one of the stories and they are also learning about homes and neighborhoods, so for tonight she needs to draw a blueprint of our house.  Some of these projects are fun ideas, but she's already spent 30 minutes on homework today and could easily spend another hour!  We don't get home until almost 4 and we try to have the kids in bed by 7:30.  Somewhere in there we have to do dinner and bedtime routine, oh, and bathe the kids once in awhile.  And all she wants to do when she gets home is play.  This is a kid who was used to spending hours and hours every day in her make-believe games and setting up complicated scenes and situations.

Honestly, I'm just not so sure about this whole school thing.  Part of me thinks that we made a mistake in the school we picked, and part of me thinks that school in general was a mistake for us right now.  But Bean is having fun, and I don't feel like I can change things on her right now because of that fact.  So I've been trying to keep my whining to just a few choice people, but maybe now that I got this out of my system, I can blog about something else.  And it could be worse,  I heard from one kindergarten mom whose daughter is just coloring all day.  At least Bean gets to chant with her class, "B says buh".  (And she actually did tell me that in this 6th week of school, she finally sat down and read for her teacher--so maybe her teacher now knows that Bean already knows what B says.)

And I'm going to apologize right now to all my public school teacher friends.  Like I said, I know so much of this is out of your hands--classroom teaching is a lot of crowd control and trying to meet the needs of kids at a million different levels.  It's hard to get away from a lot of this.  I actually like Bean's teacher--she seems like a nice lady.  I'm just having trouble reconciling what our lives are like now compared to a couple months ago.

A New Phase of Life

I haven't been in much of a blogging mood these last couple weeks. Too many TV shows on Netflix, end of summer playdates with friends, books to read, and meals to make. But things are moving on and I'm getting behind.

Big news of the week--Bean got in to our (second choice) charter school we were waiting on. I feel like that should have an exclamation mark, and when she tells it, it does. But I'm still a little sad. It sounds like a good school and I think she's going to love it, but I'd started to make tentative homeschool plans when we hit the end of July and no news. I was gearing up for science projects and art lessons and reading and writing activities, and more math games. We've actually had a pretty productive summer and I feel like Bean has made a lot of progress with her reading and spelling and math. She's getting to that place where you can start to do so many fun activities, and I was just really looking forward to being the one to get to have all that fun with her. Not to mention the field trips I wanted to do.

Luckily, the school is called the Community Charter School for a reason and they encourage a lot of parent involvement, so I won't be totally left out. And I still have my little Bug at home with me, as of now, full time, so we'll get to have some good mama and Bug time. I'll get used to only having one kid with me for our playtimes (and honestly, it will be WAY easier and much more calm).

So only one more week of summer -- it seems so wrong to start school 3 weeks before Labor Day.

500!

I can't believe that this is my 500th post, but here we are, just a couple weeks short of the 3 year anniversary of the start of this blog!

And what better way of celebrating it than a long overdue crafty post. I haven't been doing much in the crafty realm lately, but in the spring, we did take on a few projects that I've been meaning to post.

First was our adventure with paper mache while Uncle D. was here. There is no way I would have been brave enough to try this on my own, but the kids had a good time getting messy (and we learned after the first day to do this in the driveway, rather than the kitchen.)And the finished product turned out so cute! This was supposed to be our pinata for Cinco de Mayo/Uncle D's birthday, but Bean couldn't stand the thought of smashing him to peices, so he's still hanging around. She keeps saying maybe for July 4th, but I have a feeling I should just find him a permanent home hanging from a ceiling somewhere.

And to follow the monkey theme, I made the kids breakfast placemats.These were supposed to inspire them to get themselves ready without so much interference by me, but inspite of the cute song Bugaboo made up to help him remember the list, I haven't seen much change. The fastest way to get them dressed is to hand them their swimsuits and tell them we're going to the pool. Too bad we don't usually do that until after naptime. And finally, I'd decided that I wanted to get better about our daily scripture reading. We'd originally started out our "school year" with a little morning devotional but that only lasted a few weeks. I recently heard a fun idea to get the whole family involved at whatever their level of reading and studying, so I made the kids and I each a Scripture Notebook (I just covered notebooks or for Bugaboo, a pad of drawing paper).

Now we try to read a story each morning, and Bean and I record the date, scripture reference and then a summary of what we read, or something we learned. She and Buggy can each draw a picture to go along with the story. It's been great reading practice for Bean (and she's learning to recognize some less than common words, like "goeth" and "thy", LOL ) and also makes sure we get in a little writing every day, no matter what else we do. And its good practice with the calendar. My goal is to get a good space set up in the playroom where we can do this near their wall calendar so it can all tie together better.

And what would a milestone be without a giveaway? So one random commenter will get a personalized notebook of your choice and a colored pencil roll (my new favorite writing storage--but I forgot to take a picture of the one I made the other day.) I'll contact you after for color preferences and notebook type. Just leave a comment by July 1st! I love writing, but of course its more fun when I know who's reading.

PS (For my foriegn readers, I love you, too, and will send it wherever :))

Summer School

On the last day of our homeschool classes, another mom asked me if we school year round. I reminded her that we unschool, so we don't really take time off. The whole philosophy behind unschooling is the idea that life is for learning and the world is our classroom--its kind of hard to take the summer off. I supposed when/if we are in a situation that we have to turn in detailed records to the state, I'll schedule times through the year that I stop keeping track, but we don't even have to let the state know that we're homeschooling until Bean is 7, and NC has pretty loose requirements even then.


However, I have been making some plans for this summer. Things have gotten really lax around our house the last few months. First it was the winter doldrums and several colds/stomach bugs in a row. Then, the awesome spring weather and vacations and visitors. We've still been learning, but I am feeling the need for a little more structure to our day. Besides, we want to make sure we can fit all our fun in and not miss out on anything this summer.



Our plans:


Summer Reading Program--Our library does one, but its so basic and we read a lot, so it really has been an afterthought the last 2 summers. When we were in Michigan, the library there did a really fun bingo sheet with different types of books for each square, so I decided to borrow that idea and make my own. I'm hoping this will help us stretch a little and read a few different things this summer, along with our favorite types.

(I tried to post the chart I made, but I don't know how to post a table from Word quickly, so if anyone is interested, let me know and I'll email it to you.)

Nature Activities--Between the Latta Plantation Nature Preserve, the Charlotte Nature Museum, and the Reedy Creek Nature Center, there are a lot of fun things going on that we're going to try to make it to. I think the kids will especially like the water day at the end of the summer where they get to get wet while learning about animals that live in the water.

Natural History--We discovered the Natural HIstory Museum in Gastonia a few months ago and I'm really excited about their outdoor farm and Native American Village where they do living history activities in the summer. I'm hoping it will help satiate my longing to go back to Greenfield Village, which seems to hit strong every year. And the Plantation has some fun stuff planned as well that we'll probably try to fit in.


Kidgits Club at the mall--Putt putt, bowling, crafts, music activities--different things 4 mornings a week for a month. We did some of these last year and had a blast. The best part is that after the $5 membership fee, its all free!


Free Summer Movies--I need to look into some of the films they are showing, but there are already a couple that I think the kids will love--The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything, March of the Penguins. And those airconditioned theaters feel really nice in the summer.


Pool Time--We're planning to spend a lot of time there. Counts as PE. And I didn't end up getting the kids into swim lessons this winter because there just weren't good prices at convienent times (and I taught swim lessons for several years, so its really hard for me to pay $20 for a 30 minute lesson that I could do myself), so I want to spend a lot of time in the water and get them both really swimming this summer.

Teacher Appreciation Day!

We hadn't had a good excuse for a baking day for awhile, but since Bean goes to her homeschool classes on Tuesday, it seemed like a good time to make some Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins (I used the recipe in the link, but left out the nuts and added one extra egg white) to share.

And we had a friend over to help us with the baking, and the enjoying. Apparently she REALLY liked baking with us--her mom said she kept talking about it in her prayers that night :)

Another homeschool day at the Latta Plantation--this one focused on the spring sheep shearing and crop planting. I was surprised at how entranced my two kiddos were by the sheep shearing. We were easily there for an hour.

My favorite line of the day--about 5 minutes after the men had pinned the sheep down and started clipping, a little girl who was about 9 asks, in a very polite voice, "Excuse me sir, I want to ask a question. Have you cut off his head?" Guess the little nick they'd made on one leg and the fact that one of the guys had the sheep's head pinned down left her wondering.

A Week of Socialization

The topic of socialization so often comes up when I'm discussing homeschooling with people that I wanted to post a sample of what our week looks like based on the last 7 days. Sure, we have weeks that we are stuck at home because of sick kids, or no transportation, but in general, this is pretty normal for us.

Saturday--Home Depot Kid's Worshop--not a lot of interaction with other kids, even though they were around, but they got to work with the instructor one-on-one for a few minutes as she helped them each build a rain gauge. And then we spent the rest of the day as a family, which is high in my books for quality socialization.

Sunday--2 hours of kid's sunday classes--including the big group where they sing, pray, read scriptures, and have a lesson or activity, and then their small class which is divided by age and has another lesson of some sort with their teacher.

Monday--This is our library storytime or Ray's Splash Planet day. This week was library. They go to the drop off class for 3-5 year olds, which is awesome because not only do they get to interact with the teacher on their own, but I get to browse the library for about 40 minutes--pure heaven!

Tuesday--Normally, Bean has Circle Time and Music & Movement with a local homeschool group, but it was cancelled this week so we took adavantage of the gorgeous weather and went to the park for a couple hours with a few friends. They were all Bugaboo's age, but Bean has fun with the little kids, too, and there were older kids at the park as well, who she was playing with.

Wednesday--This is playgroup day. It is technically Buggy's playgroup, but we have a friend from our neighborhood who comes who is another homeschooled 5 year old, so there's actually a great spread of kids for my two and they love this time. Two more hours of running around the mall playground like maniacs.

Thursday--Stay at home day, but this is the day I watch my friend's almost 3 year old, so we had her for a couple hours in the morning, and then Bean's best friend, who missed the kindy cutoff by a month and is in preschool in the mornings, came over for 3 hours in the afternoon. Then, the kids had a babysitter come for a couple hours in the evening.

Friday--We tried out a new homeschool co-op today for 3.5 hours. I think it is going to be fun for the kids--open gym time, then a craft or art project of some type, lunch, and a science class for the school age kids, and some little hands on science activities for the preschoolers. They had a blast today and there is a nice age spread from 4 months to 7 or 8 years, plus the mom's take turns teachingthe different classes, so they'll get to work with several teaching styles.

When I added it all up, Bean spent 17.5 hours this last week either playing with other kids and/or being instructed/supervised by someone other than her parents. And this doesn't include all the casual interactions we have with neighbors (I love springtime when everyone is out walking and gardening all the time) and store clerks and other people we see when out in public. This is also with 3 days of no car (thank you, thank you, thank you, to my friends who come to pick us up so we don't have to miss out on everything!) When you consider how much time in school is supposed to be quiet time, or independent work time, I feel like we're doing okay. And I love the multi-age interactions that I'm hoping will make my kids more comfortable around all people and not just their peers.

Homeschooling is a pretty social life.

I Am A Feminist

There's been a recent small uproar in part of the blogging community because of a popular blogger's view on feminism, which has made me feel like I need to make this declaration. So much of it comes down to semantics (which she even admits) and the stereotype of feminists that still seems to persist in some people's minds, so maybe its time to start sharing a different view, even though I know with my 40-50 readers (if even that--my sporadic posting seems to have lost a few people), I can't reach near as many people as the original post, but I have to start somewhere.

No, I don't hate men, I don't think women are better than men, I wear a bra, shave my legs, stay at home with my kids while my husband works more hours than either of us is happy with while I cook, bake, plan, shop, and organize my family.

But the man-hating, bra burning feminist is no longer (if it ever was) the typical feminist.

I am a feminist because I believe that women and men are both EQUALLY valuable in the eyes of God. Our world, even our country with all its progress, may not always treat us that way, but its something that is worth fighting for. I think women should be free to make choices based on their interests, talents, and abilities, and I think they should be valued for their contributions to society, whether they look exactly the same as men's or not. Equality isn't really about sameness, but about respect and worth.

I am a feminist because I believe we are individuals before we are part of any group. More of our differences can be accounted for because of our individual personalities and experiences than because we are women, or men. And stereotypes only hurt us and limit us in what we can really be.

I am a feminist because I don't want my daughter to ever wish she was a boy. I don't want her to feel those frustrations of not being respected because of who she is. I don't want her to feel unable to persue her interests and talents just because of her gender. I want her to feel loved and worthy just as she is. I want her to be free to be who is she wants and to know it is good. I don't want her to think she needs to be a boy, or even like a boy, to achieve that.

I am a feminist because I want the same things for my son, and think that feminism can only help him as well. Those stereotypes go two ways, and the patronizing "oh, you women are so much better than us anyway" comments are derogetory to both men and women. I don't want to be better, or more, I want to be me and I want that to be enough.

And I am a feminist because beyond my fairly privileged life, I know there is a world of hurt and sadness out there where women are held back from being who they could be, and who aren't valuded for what they are. I know other women have fought long and hard in this country to allow me to vote, go to college, own property, work in whatever field I want, have control of my own money, and I think every woman deserves these same rights.

I can't really see how any woman, or man in this nation of supposed equality, for that matter, can say they aren't a feminist. (But if you still don't think that you are, don't be afraid to comment--I'd really like to hear your side.)

A Day of Unschooling

Just a peak into what we call school around here: A little playdough time while I clean up from breakfast--Bugaboo made lots and lots of cookies,

Bean made a microraptor. I thought it was an archeopteryx, but she was quick to correct me. She's very specific about her dinosaurs.

Then we did a little "What word starts with ___?" Then a few worksheets--I've tried to avoid worksheets because they aren't really "unschooling" materials, but Bean likes them. And I don't push her to finish them, just print out a few and let her do what she wants. So she did a little handwriting, a little telling time, and then some coloring. Bugaboo decided he was more interested in coloring and cutting the paper into little, tiny pieces. Now if he can just learn to sweep. . .

Then it was time for a science experiment. We learned about why we sweat by blowing on dry skin and then wet skin. I checked out a book that is full of these types of experiments, which I love. It reminds me of why I liked Physiology so much in high school

--all these hands on things we can learn about our own bodies. After lunch, we decided to make some banana bread with our overripe bananas. Good opportunity to practice our reading and fractions. It's fun to watch Bean try to guess her way through the words that she doesn't know, but she has a pretty good handle on the basic ingredients in most baking recipes, so she's making educated guesses.

To help with the 3/4 fraction, we cut up a tortilla--I figured its an easier visual than measuring cups of sugar or liquids. Especially since I don't even have a 1/4 measuring cup--kind of silly how much baking I do without it, but both mine have gone AWOL.

Mix in some playing, reading stories, fighting, whining, coloring, organizing, and then TV (but not until just before dinner, so that's a big improvement over last week), and that's a fairly typical stay at home day.

Speaking of stay at home days, we have now been home for 7 days straight and I am starting to go a little crazy. The walls are closing in, the whining is over the top, our heater downstairs broke a couple days ago (thanks goodness we have a split system so we could still use the one upstairs, and it got a lot warmer this weekend, so it hasn't been too awful except for those first couple hours in the morning), and I don't see any end in sight. Bean is starting to cough and get the runny nose now and Daddy-o will be working late every night for the next 2 weeks, so its really expensive if we keep the car (he has to take a cab home at night).

I am already counting down to Saturday when I am going to spend the entire day gone--a woman's conference at church for a few hours and then I don't even care where I go, just as long as I'm on my own.