Nature Study - County Fair

The County Fair is a summer tradition for us.  We don't do the rides and games though since our kids are still so young.  When we go to the fair it is much more nature study then anything else since we spend our entire time visiting all the animals.  This year we made it an event with our nature group and were able to share it with friends. We Care Wednesdays allow you to get free admission with a donation.  On the day we went it was children's books which I have plenty of! Kids 5 and under get in free as well so it worked out well for our group. 

We all meet up at Centennial Farm which is there year round. If you follow the link right now you can see a live webcam of one of the pigs at the fair. The farm is a great place for the kids to see all kinds of farm animals they wouldn't get a chance to see with living in a city.  We got to see chickens, goats, pigs, cows, and sheep.  And of course, since it's the fair, we got to see baby animals of all of those as well.  The kids got to review the vocabulary of the animals: ewe, bull, chick, piglet, calf, and more.  Little Miss' favorite was the two little calves they had while Green Bubbles was particularly interested in the piglets. 

 

After the farm the kids all went to check out the bees where they got a chance to find the Queen bee in a hive, and earned a sticker by doing so!  Most of the kids, including Green Bubbles and Little Miss, also got a chance to make beeswax candles too.

Now here's where it gets real.  It's getting hot here, and I was baby wearing Megatron so I probably didn't have the best patience level this day.  Green Bubbles and Little Miss were pretty naughty that morning as well and we almost didn't go to the fair at all.  They both weren't listening and were just running amock in the house.  We went because it was with our group and I'm glad we did because I don't know when we would have made it another day.  But it also means everyone was a little on edge.

This came out when Green Bubbles announced he was hungry and had to eat.  We had lunch less than an hour beforehand for exactly this reason so I was frustrated.  But we stopped and got a fair favoriate, funnel cake. (Sorry for the shadow in the picture).

Keeping it real... pushing Little Miss in the stroller, babywearing Megatron, and carrying a funnel cake and drink all at the same time does not work well.  The drink flew and the entire thing spilled.  But this is why you have friends with you!  I was about to lose it but our nature study buddies helped out.  We managed to find a good table for everyone to sit.  We ate our cake, but Green Bubbles complained the entire time about everything.  The heat was turning up at this point which I think contributed to the problem.

So we went indoors next and checked out the kids explorium.  Here the kids got to make a bracelet out of pipe cleaners and little beads, explore the principles of  buoyancy placing beads and other objects on pipe cleaners to see how slow they could get it to sink, played a fishing game, and pretended they were archeologists.

It was lot and hot still though, and Megatron just woke up so we took a pitstop at the baby station right next door where I was able to change diapers, refill out water bottles with cold water, and nurse Teddy.  We all felt better after that and ready to take on the rest of the fair!

Of course, we ended up walking right by a splash pad before we managed to do anything else.  It was still hot so I let the kids play.  That was probably my mistake.  They both got wet, Green Bubbles was soaked. They had so much fun but were just to wet and cold to keep going through the rest of the fair so we ended up leaving shortly after.  I'd glad we did it though.  Even though we didn't make it over to the livestock area or the pig races, I would much rather leave on a high note then with crying and complaints!

 

I'm linking this post up with Homeschool Mother's Journal.

Weekly Wrap-Up

So I'm going to start trying to join in on Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers Weekly Wrap-Up link. Every Friday there is a weekly wrap up where you talk about your week and what happened. We haven't done a lot of 'school' things this week, or even planning for school, but it is still summer for us!

Monday -   We started out Cats theme for our preschool, although all we really did was read a few books.  Mostly, I am trying to get a secret project done (stay tuned for the results).  The local consignment sale is coming up as well and I'm trying to get all of the outgrown clothes I'm selling tagged and ready to go.  This is a little bittersweet since it's the first time I'm not keeping clothes for a hand me down.  Little Miss' clothes are going away completely and as Megatron quickly outgrows his baby clothes those are going away as well.  Only Green Bubbles' stuff is being saved now. 

Tuesday -  We decided to go visit a friend today.  We spent a few hours just hanging out.  She has a son Little Miss' age and another son a few years older then Green Bubbles.  Her son and my two had a lot of fun playing out in her yard and with her kids toys.   Other people's toys always seem better then your own, right? The husband flew out of town this night too so we spent the rest of the day spending time with Daddy and saying goodbye.

Wednesday - This is our normal nature study day and we spent it at the county fair!  Here's the post all about it.  It was a really hot day and Green Bubbles and Little Miss were not exactly angels before we had to leave.  We had fun at the fair but it made me realize that I need an extra adult helper when I go some place that crowded with Megatron and Little Miss.  This time next year will be so much easier.

Thursday - Today was a quiet day.  I finished up more of the prep work for my project.  Although this is proving to be harder then I expected it to be with Megatron never letting me put him down lately.  Green Bubbles also had a speech therapy lesson today.  Then I took the two youngest grocery shopping with me while Green Bubbles went with Grandma to Costco.  Divide and conquer! The rest of the day was just spent at home relaxing and avoiding the heat. Until the power went out just before dinner.  We have an electric stove and oven so we went out to dinner and walked around Target for as long as possible to avoid the heat and stay in the AC.  Lucky for the kids, they were excited to stay up past their bedtime.  The power came back on just in time for bedtime so we avoided sleeping downstairs to try and keep cool.  As much as the kids were excited about sleeping on the couch, that means the baby and I would end up on the floor and I wasn't looking forward to that!

Friday - Friends of ours are moving out of state next week and we haven't seen them in awhile.  We're going to go to a farewell party they are throwing last minute today after Green Bubbles speech session this morning.  Daddy is supposed to get home tonight too and I know the kids will be excited to see him, almost as much as me. The cat preschool lessons will just have to move onto next week!

Review: Egyptian Woman: A Year in the Life..

First of all, I love the kindle.  It's so easy to read a book with the kindle, or kindle app, versus a real paper book when you have three kids five and under.  I don't get a lot of time to read, and when I do I'm usually hunting for wherever I left my book.  I even have to hunt around for my kindle most of the time.  The auto sync with the app on my phone is a life saver because I can switch off between my phone and the kindle and actually get through a book.

So, maybe this will color my review, but it's been a long time since I've actually read a real, adult book.  All of it. But I really did enjoy this one.  Not only was it an interesting story, but I felt like I learned a lot in the process.

The book I just finished is called Egyptian Woman: A year in the life of a woman during the reign of Ramesses II .  Yes, it is a mouthful.  It is totally worth reading though!  I came across this book on accident while searching for other books on Egypt for our homeschool next year.  I've been doing so much researching the adult version of a living book intrugied me so I went ahead and purchased it.  I can honestly say I'm so glad this book crossed my path.

This book is written as a story that follows the life of a middle age woman in Egypt.  She is from a middle class family and through her experiences you are able to really see what life would have been like back then.  Each chapter in the book is one month of the year, all centered around relgious festivals they have going on.  I had no idea they had so many festivals!

The author was able to touch upon almost every subject you can think of.  Happy events such as marriage and childbirth.  Sad events such as death, of both the elderly and a child, war, and infertility.  It dicusses their gods and beliefs, medicine, food, jobs, family life, even puberity.

The woman in the book has 6 children and throughout the story you get to learn all of theirs as well.  From the daughter who has just entered womanhood to the boy who runs off to war, it's easy to feel both a sense of familiarity as well as something exotic and foreign.

If you have an interest in history, Egypt, or just curious about what family life looked like in ancient times, I recommend this book. 

(This post contains affiliate links for your convenience). 

10 reasons we homeschool

My husband and I are a very traditional couple.  Like 1950's traditional.  He brings home the bacon while I take care of the kids and house.  Well, I try and take care of the house.  Or maybe I don't really try that much at all.  Anyway, when it comes to things about the kids it's nice knowing he will always support my decision.  Even if that decision seems to come from out of the blue and isn't on most people's radars.

After Green Bubbles was born, and I mean 2 months after he was born, with my husband's encouragement I went back to school.  I already had my associates degree but never continued on to get my bachelors like I had wanted.  My priorities had changed since then anyway and, after a little soul searching, I changed my major from English to Liberal Studies.  Why liberal studies?  Because they had a track for elementary education and I thought teaching was where I wanted to be.  At the time I thought I would be a teacher.

It didn't take long for me to realize I didn't want to be a teacher.  My first class that I had observation hours in made me realize that there had to be a better way.  I did observation in a 1st grade classroom and while many children did excel I saw many that didn't.  There were boys who were high energy, constantly in trouble, and as punishment were made to miss recess and sit still.  How could that possibly help?  There was an English language learner who sat in the back of the classroom, lost and confused, and totally ignored.  There was no time to help her.  Another student with behavioral problems who was actually kicked out of school for a time for throwing things at other students, spitting at students, and hitting the teacher.  First grade!

I knew then and there that I wasn't going to send my son into that.  Besides having a classroom of 35 6 year olds to one teacher with a flawed system, there was such a huge push on test scores and testing in the schools.  Teaching to tests isn't real learning.  I told my husband what I thought and he agreed.  That marked the beginning of our resolve to homeschool our children, before Green Bubbles was even one year old.

Over the years I've added a few more to my list.  Some because of children and being in the thick of it.  Serious and silly, here are 10 reasons we homeschool.

1) Because the public schools in our area, even the 'good' ones, aren't that good.

2)  I want them to learn at their own pace.  Be that a year ahead in math, or a year behind in reading, it is their pace and not what someone who has never met my child thinks their pace should be.

3) We can get outside!  This one is huge for us.  We can go hiking at 10am on a weekday, head to a museum anytime we want, get our wiggles out at the playground down the street anytime we desire for as long as we want.

4) Follow their interests.  If Green Bubbles wants to learn about bridges, we can drop our science and take a week or two to study bridges.  (This was awesome, by the way.)

5) The friends we have met have ranged in age from toddlers to teenagers.  And they are all respectful, get along, and are generally more socialized then many public school kids I've met.  Espeically the teenagers...

6) We can stay in our pj's all day long.

7) I don't have to wake my children up at 6am to get to school by a certain time.  They wake up when they aren't tired anymore.

8) No packed lunches!  At least, not everyday.  We still have packed lunches on fieldtrips and nature days.

9) No peer pressure to wear name brands, do drugs, or other random things.

10) Studies show homeschool students actually perform better on tests, are more likely to attend and graduate from college, and generally just be happier.

I would like to point out that religion or sheltering my children were no where on that list for those that think all homeschoolers are sheltered religious fanatics. 
 
And just in case you were wondering, I did finish my degree anyway.  I'm a firm believer in having a back up plan.  If anything were to happen later on, I needed a real career I could go to.  I focused it on natural sciences however so instead of elementary school I could go into middle school science.

What does Galleon's Lap mean?

Do you know what a Galleon is?  
It's defined as "a sailing ship in use (especially by Spain) from the 15th through 17th centuries, originally as a warship, later for trade. Galleons were mainly square-rigged and usually had three or more decks and masts."   They were a way to travel the world before we had things like trains, cars, or planes. 

  
So why did we name our homeschool after an old ship? 
We didn't!  If you haven't read Winnie the Pooh, the original books by A.A. Milne, your missing out.  Not the Disney movies or books, but the original.  It's full of laughter, love, and childhood innocence and I totally fell in love with them while reading them to Green Bubbles as bedtime stories a few years ago. He was to young at the time to truly appreicate the humor of the books and I intend to reread them to him again as a literature book for school.  But even as an adult, I'd recommend reading them just for yourself.  The stories are so very sweet.  But what does Winnie the Pooh have to do with Galleon's Lap?  The very last chapter in The House At Pooh Corner has Winnie and Christopher Robin visiting Galleon's Lap to say their goodbyes.

So what is Galleon's Lap?
"It was the only place in the Forest where you could sit down carelessly, without getting up again almost at once and looking for somewhere else. Sitting there they could see the whole world spread out until it reached the sky, and whatever there was all the world over was with them in Galleons Lap." - A House at Pooh Corner, Chapter X. 

What I Want? 
A Galleon is a large sailing ship.  A way to see the world and travel to new places.  Galleon's Lap was a magical place in Pooh Corner that allowed them to see the entire world.  I want our homeschool to be a place that my children can meet the world, explore, discover, but also be in a comfortable and safe place to do so.  While they are a little young to be truly going off into the world, they aren't to young to show them how big the world is, and the magic that's within it. Christopher Robin said goodbye to Winnie the Pooh when he went off to school, but I hope my children never have to say goodbye while they are learning.  I hope they have plenty of time to also just do nothing.

 And just in case you want your own copy of Winnie The Pooh, just like us, there's a link to a good copy.  The Complete Tales of Winnie-the-Pooh  You are never to old, or to young, to have Winnie in your life.  

Our Family

Who are we? 

We are a family of 5.  Wow, it feels weird to say that.  I always knew I wanted to have 3 children and now that I do it feels surreal.  My husband and I have been married for 10 years and there are times where it doesn't feel like that long, and then there are times where it does.  We've had our ups and downs but are enjoying life together and with our family.

Green Bubbles is our oldest.  He's 5 years old and entering Kindergarten this year!  You may wonder why we call him Green Bubbles and I honestly wonder at it myself.  Like many kids, he has discovered Minecraft and totally loves it.   When you create a new account they ask for a name and we let him pick his own.  Green Bubbles is what he came up with for himself so it feels like an appropriate nickname for him.  He does see a speech therapist currently to help with articulation problems but he doesn't let it slow him down.  He is sweet, social, and joyful.  Current loves: Minecraft, Flag Football, Iron Man.

 Little Miss is 2 years old, in the middle, and the only girl.  I'm actually very grateful for that because she is an independent little spit-fire.  Having a sister to share with would probably lead to conflict.  She is a girly girl who loves to get dirty, just as happy playing with babies as she is with hot wheel cars.  Her loves of the moment: pink, glitter, and all things princesses.  Although Frozen and Elsa hold a special place in her heart like most little girls right now. 

Megatron is a happy baby.  The youngest, we're still waiting to really see his personality come out and shine.  My favorite thing about this age is watching them discover the world around them and how much they change just day to day. Where did Megatron come from?  Since he was our third we kept the gender a surprise which means we didn't have a name for him until after he was born.  But we had to call him something, so Green Bubbles decided Megatron would make a really cool name and it just stuck. Current loves include: sucking on his hand, rolling out of his bouncy seat and swing at every opportunity, and trying desperately to crawl despite lack of any progress.  He's also got a special place in his heart just for his siblings. 

Curriculum 2014-2015

I love this time of year.  I walked into Target yesterday and got positively giddy at the back to school section.  Is there anything more exciting then shelves full of pencils, crayons, markers, paper, notebooks.. you get the idea.

So in honor of "Back to School" I thought I would share our curriculum choices for 2014-2015.   Now, I may have 3 kids, but only one of them is old enough for a real curriculum.  I learned a lot from last year's TK.  For example, I'm awful at just winging it and really need a little more structure for what to study and when.  So, even though it's just Kindergarten this year, we have a lot more 'formal' curriculum.  But that doesn't mean I'm going to push Green Bubbles to hard.  Everything will still be kept to his pace and when things stop working, we'll take a break and switch it up a bit.
(Note: There are some affiliate links below)

Megatron - Baby!

Megatron's job this year is to just keep growing.  I'm sure we'll see crawling, first words, first steps, none of which require any type of curriculum.  I think it's important to keep that in mind for the older two as well.  So much learning takes place every single day, no matter how old you are, without a well planned out curriculum to follow.

Little Miss - Tot school/Preschool

  I totally intend to just keep doing what we're doing right now.   Using weekly themes for her, reading everyday, and just exploring what she's interested in.  She'll sit in as desired on Green Bubbles lessons and I'm sure she'll suck up whatever knowledge she wants to in the process like she already has.  I'll probably grab some fun packs from Confessions of a Homeschooler and 1+1+1=1 for her to play with as well. 

Green Bubbles - Kindergarten

Language Arts
 - Handwriting without Tears: Letters and Numbers for Me  : We used HWT last year and it was great. The preschool level only teaches upper case letters.  That was great at the time but over the summer Green Bubbles has started getting frustrated that he doesn't know how to make many of the lower case letters.  Thankfully it's something we'll be covering this year so I'm sure he'll be as excited as any little boy can be with handwriting.

- All About Reading: Pre-reading - This is one I wish we did last year and I have hopes it will help him learn his ABC's better then my letter of the week type approach we did last year.  Green Bubbles is not one of those kids who just picked up the ABC's and phonics sounds all by himself (unlike Little Miss which, from what I can tell, knows more letters than her brother).  All About Reading does more than just letters though which is why I picked it.  Stay tuned later in the year for our review to see how it worked out for us.

History
 - The Story of the World: Volume 1: Ancient Times and Activity Book - We'll be reading through Story of the world and using at least one activity and various books recommended in the activity book to supplement. Also, there should be a few history related field trips coming up. Hopefully, this will help history stay fun since it will be more hands on than what we did last year.

Science
 -R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey- Life (level one) - We tried REAL Science for Kids last year and it started out great but mid-book we struggled.  Odyssey has more hands on projects and activities so I'm hoping it will be a better fit for my guy.

- Magic school bus kits including: A Journey into the Human Body, The Wonders of Nature, and The Magic School Bus - Microscope Lab

- Nature Study - We have a group of friends we meet with weekly at various nature centers, beaches, and wilderness parks in the area.  This is still very informal for us and isn't really guided yet.  1st grade we'll step up how structured we are with this.


Math - Singapore Primary Mathematics Standards Edition Level 1 - We did the Early Bird level (Kinder) over two years, preschool and TK.  Depending on how Green Bubbles does we may stretch this out two years as well or pick up our pace and complete it in one year.  He does well with math but I don't want to burn him out.
 
Electives
- Swim Lessons with Blue Buoy Swim School: Green Bubbles has been asking to  go back ever since we stopped for summer.  He loves his swim teacher and has improved dramically from last year.

- Flag Football with i9 sports - We've done two seasons now and Green Bubbles keeps asking for more.  He didn't enjoy t ball so I'm glad we found something he likes so much. 

- Art - I still need to figure out how much funds we have left over from our charter school.  If there's enough I'd like to enroll him in Art Steps. A friend goes here and it was highly recommended.