With fall firmly here we decided it was best to take advantage of the warmer day and some spare time, so we went down the block to one of the walking/bike paths and took some pictures of the family dressed up a little (or more than a little in the case of the girls). I have to say, there is so much tree variety here that the colours are lovely and bright and differ greatly!
My 5 babies
Just the girls
Just the boys
After our photographic enjoyment of the start of fall we headed out to Jo-Ann’s to facilitate my newest project – a shawl… something time consuming and still on the easy side with a coupon I got in the mail for signing up as a teacher. It took a bit of hunting as the original pattern I found and fell in love with (after 4 aborted tries) did not match the picture or really make sense to my resident (through FaceTime) expert Karyn. Instead I decided to make THIS one with my light weight yarn.
And then it was time for SCIENCE! I was so glad that Amazon came through FASTER than projected with our solar panel items. We had a car and a grasshopper that went on super sale. I lucked out and saw a listing on Facebook so I could take advantage. We talked about how the sun is needed to shine on the panels where that light is turned into energy to move the wheels on the car and to make the grasshopper squiggle. What I LOVED about these two is that as soon as they landed in shade they STOPPED so the kids got a really clear idea of the cause and effect. Of course we had to record this in our observation journals!Add to that our usual work and another chapter from our Judy Moody story and we are progressing nicely.
Hands on learning
Fun in and out of the sun
Thursday was a rather random day. With someone coming over to see about something in regards to the house we figured it would be best to take the kids out for a walk. Now I believe everyone when they say FALL IS HERE, but once again – the COLOURS!!!!We stayed out as long as we could before fingers were chilled and our minds were made that we need to get mittens and gloves before a bonfire we have planned for Saturday at another friend’s home. But I think we had fun, and came home with a selection of leaves and seeds to draw in our journals.
Pre walk car time
So cute!
With all 5 kids sick (and Emanuel another tooth lost and probably swallowed at night – did I mention he lost his FIRST tooth in August???) I figured quiet time with Cyberchase and Handy Manny was a good choice. Sometimes you just need to lay back and let the educational programming entertain you.
The ability to keep busy is definitely a great one to cultivate in the pursuit of home education! And Tuesday was no exception. I wish I could say it all went smoothly but with kids involved… NEVER! We started the morning with… breakfast… then time with Ken (gotta get it in before he is gainfully employed here in Minnesota) working on Minnesota… and that is where we hit a wall. Sadly when Ken read to the boys from the lapbook I found on Currclick they really didn’t listen so when Ken asked questions about it they guessed and really refused to try. So the response was a 5 min cool down in the bedroom to see if they could remember what was read to them, and then a redo… which didn’t work so Ken tried 10 min and a redo… nope… so the final solution was actually a rather smart one… he gave THEM the reading matter (which was rather advanced for them), their observation journals and some pencils and told them to read each word and write it out as they do. Every 3 words or so they came back to Ken to reread what they had written until the first couple sentences were done and amazingly enough they not only TRIED but succeeded both in reading the words (with some assistance, silent K’s are RUDE) and writing it down legibly! Although in the end there was an unfinished word I had to squeak a few letters onto for them!
So while the actual lapbook progression was short and sweet we did get the boys TRYING and that is HUGE! I made sure to take advantage of that and jump right into the rest – workbooks, Farmer Boy (I think we have TWO chapters left) and of course reading their books. We have a new plan in action… each day each of the children has a chance to earn a check mark. Once they get TWENTY FIVE of those they get something special. Trinity is doing a workbook page PROPERLY a day, Emanuel 2 letters or numbers a day in his copybook, and the twins reading a book a day to myself or their daddy. I am hoping this will foster motivation and maybe even some special one on one moments with our busy family. Day 1 went VERY well!
Working on their check marks
Baby on the go
Animal Planet has become a family favourite as has Turtle Man and today’s marathon of Steve Irwin (remember the crocodile hunter??) on the anniversary of his death. Emanuel absolutely loves the snapping turtles and was excited to record some knowledge about it and the show in his journal. I figure if it has him on the edge of his seat wanting to know more it is all good! There is another show the kids have latched onto, by the way, on Animal Planet. This one about people making extreme fish tanks called Tanked. The boys were very impressed by the tanks and LOVED seeing all the fish!
Gavin at work
The Perler bead pieces that the kids were working on over the weekend and such are FINALLY ironed. Gavin finished the last one Tuesday. Ken had quite the job to do with all that ironing!!
Terrific job!!
I actually finished my very first crochet project Monday night! The single stitch piece which is now going to be a headband once I get a nice strong snap to finish the back! I think it looks rather nice for a first project and have already jumped into my second project – learning the (US) double stitch with a ball of white yarn… the jury is still out as to what it will be, depends on how far the yarn goes! Thank goodness for Facetime and Karyn who was able to sit with me Monday night and watch me go. The best part about it is that the camera reverses you so when she was stitching it looked lefty to me (though from the wrong side) and was much easier for my mind to wrap around. I found a great vid for cementing the turning of the row in my mind.
The new piece… dolly blanket?
We are still working our way through the registration process… it is very frustrating that we had to wait until last week Thursday to receive the information packet from the district we HAVE TO register in. In fact the packet only just sent us to a website. Not overly helpful yet. I am still attempting to figure out things like the age to the grade, the immunization records we have to submit and of course how much information we are LEGALLY required to send in to the district. I have asked on Facebook and lucked out with a lady who has a friend who is registered and homeschooling here in the state so I am hoping with her help, our research and hopefully talking to the lady who has the position here as liaison we can get all our ducks in a line in the shortest time possible!!
Reading with Zander
Today was one of those best laid plans going askew sort of days… Our morning actually was PACKED with stuff done! I was surprised at the get up and go. It helps that everyone was excited about having another set of letters to respond to! Jimmie’s Gammie is a TERRIFIC pen pal. Each of the kids got a letter and they all were more than willing to respond! Emanuel even included one of the completed Perler bead creations (an Emanuel original tiny snake) in his letter! And of course we had to send out two of our Moo cards!
Zander working on his response
Sadly we were not able to take our nature walk as Echo went for nap over the span of time Ken had his phone interview (which went VERY well, he just needs to do his test code for them and then do the tour and then… second interview we hope!). So we couldn’t leave her in case Echo woke up while he was on the phone. So we are hoping to go once Ken finishes his code as a family. We did have ANOTHER completion of the review books… EMANUEL!!
Completion!
Sneaking in a pre-interview moment with Daddy
I think we are starting to find a rhythm… varying what we do is helping as is keeping track of what IS easy to accomplish and what we struggle with. And now, two nights in a row one of the twins has read their story over the IM on our iPad to Karyn! I love them including someone ELSE in their learning and progress!
Echo chatting with Aunty Karyn and visiting with her kitties
Gavin reading to Emanuel
With our new year begun and Ken’s job hunt progressing, well we are settling in and able to say that we are putting down some new roots this week. AND I am going to look into the Magic Tree House series for the boys. Apparently there are resource guides and fact books. Something new to think about! And on that note… back to my solo evening.
I HAVE TO share this one… Gavin spent an hour or more outside with nothing but sticks… he made this table type thing!!!
