My last entry was ages ago, I'm embaressed to say.  Since then things have changed a lot in our little homeschool, and I'm so happy to say it's going better than ever.  I don't even remember how it all started.  But some way or another I started nosing about a site called Ambleside Online.  It's a Charlotte Mason homeschooling curriculum site, which of course means high quality literature, art, music, and nature study among other things, if you know anything about Charlotte Mason.  What a fantastic lady!  I've been doing reading and research on her method of educating children and I am so impressed.  I knew shortly after visiting Ambleside and reading articles there that I had to try it.  What could it hurt, afterall?  I've been somewhat of a jumping bean for the last couple years, trying to find my niche and get in a groove with our day.  With Ambleside I have finally found it at last and I'm so very happy! 

So we did not study American history together this past year as I originally had planned to.  Oh sure, C.S. did reading on the American Revolution and Native Americans because he was interested in it.  But his main course of study has been the Middle Ages, which has fascinated us both.  While G.C. has been busy with Rome and Brittain and other famous stories that every child should have the pleasure of hearing.  But history was just the tip of the iceberg this year.  We've started our mornings with Bible time, enjoying a panoramic view of scripture throughout the Old and New Testaments.  Both boys have delighted in Shakespeare plays and have the most fun labeling blocks as all the many characters and 'acting' out the stories with the blocks.  C.S. has enjoyed Greek myths on his own as read-alouds, while G.C. loved the original Pinnochio and Winnie the Pooh.  We've had the pleasure of reading The Wind in the Willows and have recently started the original Peter Pan, which has my boys begging for more. 

We've had such a good time with all this great literature, as well as the other aspects of a CM style homeschool.  I'm so glad that I found Ambleside and that I took a chance with it.  It has changed my whole outlook on what learning and education really is, or can be.

Wow!  A whole year since I've done anything with my blog.  I'm really hoping, or at least I have the best of intentions, to do better this year! 

Having completed Sonlight World History (Core 1) last year, we will be skipping up in history a bit and studying American history with WinterPromise.  We are very excited and have already started some Native American study this summer.  I wanted to share with you some pictures of what we've been doing so far. 

Here they are putting the final touches on their pueblo.  They really enjoyed this project!  They had just gotten finished putting on their clay outdoor ovens and here they are adding moss for desert plants.

They LOVED putting this village together. 

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From World Around Me we have our parachute guys! 

We are not doing Shoot, Sprout, Buzz and Bite yet, but we did get the Ant Farm already and they are fascinated by it, especially my 6-year-old. 

Looking forward to a school year full of literature, activities and memories!

Last school year we successfully completed Sonlight Core C (Intro to World Cultures) as well as the first 11 weeks of WinterPromise Animals & Their Worlds.  I've actually had reservations in the past about both programs for different reasons, but we are finally finding our groove and feeling where we're being lead for the future.  My original plan was to use WP American Story I for the upcoming school year, but after much though and deliberation, we've decided to continue with Animals & Their Worlds and will be adding in previously unusued resources as well as the remaining books in the One Small Square series.  We will save the American Story program for next year. 

With our new baby having safely arrived June 19th, I feel like my hands will be plenty full this year without adding an entirely new program to the mix.  We have recently changed math programs (using Right Start, so far so good!) and will be using WP Language Arts for the first time this year as well.  We will be adding in a bit of world history, as my oldest son LOVES, LOVES, LOVES the ancients.  We hit on them briefly in SL Core C, but will cover them a little bit more in depth this year.  It will be rather informal, my own creation of reading and activities on a light schedule so as not to overwhelm us. 

I will soon have all my materials for the upcoming year and we will most likely begin any day now! 

Yesterday we received our WinterPromise box in the mail containing American Story I books.  I think they look great and my boys will surely enjoy this study very much.  I think I will, too! 

I'm 34 weeks along today!    I'm so very excited to meet this new little one!  So far we have no name for him, and I'm getting really antsy about this.  We didn't choose the name for our dd until she arrived, and didn't have it on our list until 3 days before her birth, so I'm hoping that we'll be so blessed again as to have the perfect name hop out at us at just the right time. 

My boys are SO SO SO excited for the new baby to be here.  A couple weeks ago we received in the mail a catalog listing the summer school classes available through the public school system and I thought there were a couple that looked like a lot of fun!  So I asked C. if he would be interested in taking an insect class or Tae Kwon Do class.  He said he hoped that I wouldn't be disappointed, but he really did not want to take those classes.  He said he really wants to be here at home helping take care of his new brother.  Can life get any better than this?  =)

Thanks WinterPromise for a great day!  I say this because I wouldn't have thought of it myself, as silly as that may sound! I was reading in an AW book and the activity was to take the kids to a natural setting for nature walk, etc. So we actually got ourselves out yesterday and went to a state park with a lake that is only about 20 minutes away but I haven't been there since I was 11 years old! It has really nice trails and we walked all the way around the lake. We saw a huge bullfrog, a leopard frog (which my dh caught with my dss net so I have pictures of it with my boys!) and we saw turtles sliding quickly into the water from their warming spot on logs when they saw us coming. We walked by a fisherman just as he had caught a fish and he let my ds5 hold the rod and helped him reel him in! My boys got to practice casting with their scooby doo fishing poles that they've had for a couple years and we've NEVER used. We saw ducks and geese and a goose egg and we picniced....well, it was just fabulous! I can't believe that little treasure is only (maybe not even) 20 minutes away and it's been SO long since I've been there. My boys had SUCH a GREAT time! And so did my dd, who walked around much of the lake by herself even though we had a stroller. By the time we got around that lake this pregnant lady was VERY ready to relax on her picnic blanket and take her shoes off! And eat strawberries!

Well, I just wanted to say thanks to WP, because as silly as it sounds, our AWESOME day wouldn't have happened without the activity suggestion. Especially being 33 weeks pregnant...I just don't feel all that motivated as I'm rather soar. Don't get me wrong, my boys do get to play in the woods at grandma and grandpa's house frequently, but it's not a family day like this was, where wildlife was everywhere and we shared it together.

This week is going to be a lot of fun!  We are reading Ereth's Birthday, a book about a porcupine, who, while adventuring, is stalked by a fisher.  My boys adore this book (we've read it once before)!  This time however, we are going to be learning about porcupines and fishers while we read the book.  Today we read about porcupines in our DK Animal Encyclopedia and the next couple of days we will be using the Kids' Wildlife Book to find out more information, as well as doing some small activities.  We will use toothpicks (smooth vs. rough) to demonstrate how a porcupine's quill works when it enters its target.  Also, C. and G. are very interested in Native American's in history so we will learn how they felt about porcupines and how they used porcupine quills for decorating canoes, teepees and clothing.  C. & G. will then be able to paint toothpicks (their quills) and make a Native American design with them.  They'll love this!  We will also do some notebooking about porcupines for their Animal Notebooks and C. enjoys doing word searches so I made him one with words all about fishers and one based on words from the entire book, Ereth's Birthday. 

C. began his new math workbook today and did very well and mentioned twice how much he liked it.    Needless to say, I am very pleased indeed.  G. is almost done with his math workbooks (he alternates between two) and is looking forward to getting a new one of his own. 

C. began his new Draw-Write-Now book today, based on Native Americans and Pilgrims.  He is so excited and wanted to do more than one.  He chose a teepee to draw and design. 

For now I will close.  My family went downstairs to watch a movie on this cold, gray day and I will go snuggle under a blanket and join them. 

This past week I was sick with strep throat.  Yuck!  I did do some school with my boys, but.....DADDY did some, too!  I think he liked doing some of the reading and I know C. & G. enjoyed their special time with him.  They also made me feel special and missed with encouraging statements like "Mommy, I wish you weren't sick because then you could get up and have fun with us." 

Music to a Mommy's ears. 

We did have an fun learning moment on Friday when I was finally starting to feel like myself again.  C. was learning about money in math.  I had coins out and we were making up stories, counting, etc.  When we were done I told them they could split the change up and put it in their banks. C. had already washed his hands so I put the change in for him. I opened his bank (which is a cottage cheese container with a slit in the lid, decorated, etc.) and what do I see when I peer inside? A little white worm! Ack! So I pulled out the contents of his bank, which included a little black pouch, and find that at he had been quite the little squirrel!  He had filled it with walnuts and acorns and placed them in his bank for safe keeping; hence, the worm.  We took the bank outside, emptied the walnuts and acorns out. My boys quickly pointed out a tiny hole in one of them. A couple days prior we had read in One Small Square: Woods about Acorn Moths &  how to find out if their larvae are inside an acorn by placing them in water.  If they float it means that they've been eaten on the inside and have larvae in them, if they sink they are solid.  I filled C.'s "bank" (which was now empty) with water and they excitedly put in all the acorns. One other acorn floated besides the one we already knew had larvae. We looked it over but saw no cracks of any kind where anything could have gotten in. We ended up cracking it open and peering inside to find two Acorn Moth larvae. My boys were SO excited about all of this!  I, however, felt like we had thoroughly disrupted their tidy home.  I  pushed the acorn halves back together the best I could after we were done, in hope that their tiny home will still be enjoyable and a good meal. We also got to see another larvae crawl out of the hole of the first acorn, which my boys thought was so GREAT!

We hadn't planned on "doing science" today, so this was SUCH a great surprise! And to think we just read about it a few days ago and here it was, live and in person!

It is one of my greatest joys to see my boys developing a true love of learning. 

C. LOVES history.  He loves to read about it, talk about it, and live it in imaginary play.  Last week he learned about Ancient Egyptians in Sonlight Core K and he literally asked for more and more information about Ancient Egypt.  After our reading each day C. pretended to be a Professor while I pretended to be gathering information for a paper on Ancient Egypt and needed his help.  He gave me all the information he could about our reading from memory, while I typed it and "oooohed and ahhhhed" about the amazing knoweledge of the great Professor.  These were the most enjoyable narrations he's ever done.  Afterwards I printed out his narration and he illustrated it and placed it in his notebook.  C. (& G. participated in this, too) also enjoyed making an Egyptian collar and wearing it while he made his brown bear pull a homemade chariot with leggo guys sitting on it to the leggo pyramids that were located on top of the dresser so little sister wouldn't be able to destroy them. 

G. is reading about farms in Sonlight PreK and enjoying his own special school time.  He loves it when F. is napping and C. is doing independent work at his desk and he gets my lap and a good story all to himself.  I have to admit, I really love this part, too. 

I believe Charlotte Mason was completely correct in her idea that nature study is very important for children.  I feel that using Animals and Their Worlds is staying perfectly in tune with this idea, and we are so blessed by it! 

Today we read Flute's Journey, a book that follows the life and migration of a wood thrush named Flute.  It is not only informational and touching, but also a gorgeous picture book.  My boys LOVED it!  And I did, too!    This book described the trials that this amazing little bird goes through each year, and how the choices that people make in developing land and using pesticides can affect migratory song birds.  After we were done reading, C. & G. drew the wood thrush's migration route from Maryland to Costa Rica on the mark-it-map.  They both enjoy maps very much, so this was a perfect activity for them.  Tomorrow I will print out a map for each of them so they may have a copy for their notebooks as well. 

WELCOME to Small Wonders!  Here you can join us in our daily life and in adventures at our homeschool, Stronghold Christian Academy. 

Our 2006-2007 school year is now up and running.  We are running on a 4 weeks on, 1 week off schedule, which gives us 3 weeks off for a Christmas holiday, and about 6 weeks for summer vacation. 

We will continue to use WinterPromise Animals & Their Worlds for our core studies.  We have up until this point skipped around a bit, studying the animals of the African Savannah and moving on (Gavin's choice) to some amazing desert creatures!  We will take the next two weeks to complete our deserts study and then will go back to finish our African Savannah study (maybe a week and a half to go) and then we will be doing woodlands!  I'm VERY excited about this because we will really be able to spend a great deal of time out in the woods exploring, drawing and appreciating the beauty of nature, all while learning about the creatures who live within our "small square." 

I will start by posting a few of our past adventures & projects from the time we started (March 2006) until recently. 

These are the books that came with our AW package.  My boys LOVE them and especially love the DK Animal Encyclopedia.  They can consistently be seen pulling it off the shelf to peruse, and will often be seen with their heads together leaning over gorgeous colored illustrations of their favorite animals that we've studied so far, or those that they wish to learn about next! 

This is C.'s first Draw-Write-Now assignment!  I am very proud of his effort on this, and on all of his drawings since!  He enjoys his weekly drawing and copy-work, and tries hard to get his pictures to look "just right."  We are actually quite ahead of schedule in this book.  When we took our summer break from most of our studies, he kept right on doing this book!  I am planning on purchasing the entire set of these in a few weeks, so he will have a huge choice of animals to choose from, and may even get a little history out of it as well.

This is my feisty youngest son, G.  He is loving the projects we have done in Animal Worlds, and will often play with his creations for hours after completion, until the creation falls apart!  Here he can be seen playing with a snake that he made all by himself, looking at the directions in a book, and then he went ahead and started using the kleenex box as a mouse hole.  I pity the mouse when he makes his exit!

While studying the African Savannah C. & G. kept busy making animals and playing with them for hours!  I regret to say that eventually the zebra was in fact caught by the lions and is not with us any more. 

Here my boys can be seen planting their peppers.  This we did instead of the grass growing project that was scheduled.  Mostly they just loved playing in the MUD! 

Gavin LOVES doing projects along with learning his letters.  The Alphabet Art book has been GREAT for this, as the projects are fun for him yet very easy to prep for and usually require mainly everyday household items.  He's made Fluffy F, Shiny S (with tinfoil), & an eggshell E!  This week is the letter T, which he will practice using a variety of resources.  Besides the Alphabet Art book Gavin enjoys Starfall.com abc's & corresponding worksheets, his Dover Animal Alphabet coloring book, Handwriting Without Tears Get Set for School along with wood pieces for building the letters, and the parts of the Explode the Code Primer series that he's ready for. 

One of our most memorable projects that we will for sure duplicate in the future was animal footprint casting, from the book Make Your Own Wildlife Habitats.   We went out on a lovely, yet cool early spring day looking for animal tracks.  We found lots of deer tracks, but found many were too muddy to stay in a perfect deer print shape.  We finally found one, however, and the boys loved mixing the plaster of paris and pouring it into the print.  We then went exploring while we waited the 30 minutes for it to dry.  The boys insisted on going into the creek, and against my better judgement I said go ahead, warning them that they very well may fall down and it WOULD BE COLD!  This didn't dampen their spirits, however, and they happily waded around the creek, until suddenly C. was stuck in deep mud and couldn't get his boot out!  After being extremely silly for a while, he then really tried to get out, but fell down in the water instead!  It was far too cold to have him walk all the way back to grandma's in soaking wet pants, so we took them off.  Of course C. & G. thought this was rather hilarious. 

Here they are with supplies at the ready!

Here they are heading out to search for tracks. 

And here is C. after the "incident." 

This week we will be back to school full swing.  Gym at the park starts this week (my dh and I will be leading ages 12+ which should be fun!) and Cornerstone (the church program we will attend Wednesday nights) will start next week.  With the dreary, rainy weather we've been having it surely does feel like Autumn is upon us!  And with it, the perfect chance to cuddle up with great books and enjoy our school year.