Feb. 8, 2010
Junior Museum
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On Friday we went to a new place. It is amazing how many new and exciting places there are in the bay area that we haven't seen. Anyway we went to the Palo Alto Junior Museum and looked around. We saw plenty of interesting things to see and touch and a bunch of critters too. Peter decided we needed to take pictures of everyone on a frog. I think he remembers similar frogs at the zoo in Arizona.     We enjoyed looking at the animals. I liked the bats. The kids liked geese and bunnies and the racoons.     Cute critters! |
Feb. 7, 2010
Cirque
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Tonight my husband and I went on a date. We went to see the Cirque du Soleil show Ovo and then to dinner. Two of his friends watched the kids. We had a good time. The kids had a good time. It looks like the babysitters survived the experience. The trampolines were amazing. The trapeze was amazing. The clowns were amazing. The whole show was amazing. I am tired. So I am going to go to bed. Good night. |
Feb. 6, 2010
Home
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He is HOME! The kids were very happy to see him. I was very happy to see him. He was very happy to see everyone too. I think he was at least as happy to see his bed as he was to see all of us. He slept for a long time. The kids loved their treasures from Switzerland. Peter got Lego games, unavailable in the US. Michael got a Swiss Army knife and promptly cut his finger. (Just a little, it got a band aid but nothing more.) Amanda got a set of watercolor pastels. And I got a new Sigg bottle. This one is green and is a one liter bottle, double the size of my gray Google one. Most important. He is home!!!! |
Feb. 5, 2010
The Book
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Peter has been able to read for several months now, but he didn't really want to. I tried giving him the usual early chapter books. He would look them and go do something else. He didn't want anything to do with them. I tried Magic Treehouse. I tried Flat Stanley. I tried Jigsaw Jones. I tried the Littles. I tried everything I could think of and none of them worked. He wasn't interested. So I waited. I made sure our library box was stocked with good picture books and kept on going. About a month ago, he found The Book. The book that was interesting enough that he wanted to read it. The book that would turn my little boy into a bibliovore. So what book was it? The Trumpet of the Swan by EB White. The first book that my son read himself was Trumpet of the Swan! He has good taste. It took him three weeks, but earlier this week he finally finished the book. Today he wanted a book to take to read while waiting for Michael's piano lesson, he choose Stuart Little also by EB White. He finished the book tonight about 9:00. He read the whole book in a little over three hours. I don't know why I ever was concerned that he would not find a book worth reading. I surely don't have to worry about that now. Tomorrow he says he wants to read Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. I bet he will do it too. Welcome to the world of books, little man. We are glad you are here! |
Feb. 4, 2010
He comes home tomorrow!
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Late tomorrow night my husband will be HOME! He has been in Zurich for the last week on business. It has been hard on everyone. We will all be happy to be back under the same roof again. In other news, it is raining again. The roof isn't leaking so no water on the inside, but lots of water outside and three kids who are not playing outside in the pouring rain. We did get to go to the park while Amanda was at her recorder lesson today so that was good. It wasn't raining yet. It was cloudy and cold but running around chasing two boys or being chased by two boys warms you up pretty quickly. We went to Yogurt Works this afternoon. It was the treat I had planned for the week when we were trying to find interesting things to do while Daddy wasn't home. I had pineapple sorbet with fresh strawberries and rainbow sprinkles. The kids had much more interesting mixes and a ton of toppings. Yogurt Works is neat because you can serve the frozen yogurt yourself, choosing from 16 flavors, and then put on your own toppings as many or few as you would like. The cost is 35 cents an ounce for whatever is in your cup. So you can get a little of this and a little of that. I like it because I can choose exactly as much as I want and exactly the toppings I want. The kids like that they can pick an assortment of toppings I would never buy at 50 cents a topping. Anyway it was fun. We are still working on Amanda's curriculum. The good news is she decided that she liked most of my choices after all. Math (Videotext), music (more recorder), art (Artistic Pursuits), geography(Trail Guide to US Geography) and foreign language (Japanese) are all decided. She even picked a latin program (Latin Alive!) from the short list of ones I likes. The big problem is English. That is still a puzzle. She likes the idea of a vocabulary program; Wordly Wise is the forerunner there. Literature and writing are the hard parts. I am looking at WriteGuide for the writing, it is email one on one tutoring. I think it might work if I can get the teacher to understand that she isn't a typical eleven year old. Literature... is hard because she doesn't want to discuss the book for fear of 'spoiling' the end for someone who hasn't read the book yet. I found out today that the reason she reads through our library books so fast is because she is worried that someone might spoil the ending. And that she got seriously mad at Michael for talking about a book he read that she hadn't. He ruined the book for her. All he did was talk about a cool book! Anyway I am still working on figuring out how we are going to do Literature. And the last subject... study skills. The elephant in the room. We are still fighting the idea that studying is cheating. The idea that reviewing the material before a test is not only allowed but encouraged. That taking notes and practicing problems is a way of LEARNING. What you may ask is the alternative to all this? Read the book or watch the dvd ONCE and get everything perfect from then on and failure to do this means you are a failure. No joke. This is the side effect of being crazy smart and not having hard enough material for too long. You expect everything to be obvious. All the time. I could beat myself up on this one, but it wouldn't help and I couldn't have guessed how high the levels I would have needed to go were. So instead I am just going to deal the best I can and hopefully get the level high enough to challenge now so that maybe she can learn this lesson sooner rather than later. |
Feb. 3, 2010
Curriculum Update 2/3 done!
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Back to curriculum posts for a minute... I think I have figured out what we are going to do for Michael and Peter! They are going to do: Math - the next level of the programs they are currently working on (RightStart and Videotext Algebra) Music - more of the same (group piano lessons and piano lessons) Art - the next book of Artistic Pursuits Foreign Language - Japanese Language School (this is new) English - the next level of the programs they are currently in (Writing With Ease, All About Spelling and IEW 'All Things Fun and Fascinating' and Apples and Pears) and add in Wordly Wise, Latin (still deciding which one), Literature discussion (Teaching the Classics) and memorizing poetry (Living Memory). Science - Life Science from an Animal Encyclopedia, a Human Body Encyclopedia and a book on Plants, two different sets of books but covering the material together and a bunch of kits and hands on stuff History - Ancients with Story of the World Book 1 and the Activity Guide and some kits and hands on stuff I have not figured out what to do with Amanda. I thought I did. I have a very nice list that is very similar to the above list for the boys for her. Except she saw it and said it was too slow and boring. And why did she have to wait so much for everyone else to catch up. So I am frustrated. She is hard to to curriculum for. She wants minimal review. She wants fascinating content. She wants more information at her speed always. She does NOT want dvd programs (too slow). She does not want group classes (again too slow). She does NOT want to answer boring no thought handwriting practice questions. She DOES want to discuss everything with someone who really understands the topic. To say the least I can't do that. Not only do I not know every topic in enough depth, I don't have the time to talk that much either. I have other things to do. Like make dinner and do laundry and teach two other people! And maybe even take care of ME! And spend time with my HUSBAND! ARGGGGGG! So I gave her my planning sheets and told her to research curriculum and get back to me. Maybe she will find something I didn't see. Or at least understand the magnitude of the problem. I can hope. |
Feb. 2, 2010
Recorder Class
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Today was MY first recorder class. Michael and I are signed up with Amanda's previous teacher for 18 weeks of classes. Today was great. I played three notes (B A G) and attempted to play them at the same time as the rest of the group. Mostly I was okay, except when I forgot the fingering for A and B. They are similar and I kept forgetting. But I am going to play pretty music by next Tuesday or at least I am going to practice and get better. Maybe someday I will be able to play the music on my Celtic Thunder cds. Anything is possible right? In other news I took the kids for haircuts. The boys have much shorter hair. They look neat and tidy even if they try to mess the hair up. I like this and so do they. Amanda got a haircut too. Her hair isn't quite a long as it was before but is almost shoulder length. The stylist gave her some layers, though, and that will help with the weight and combing problems. We are still missing Daddy. We are counting down the days until he is home. Friday night is coming soon! |
Feb. 1, 2010
What happens at Park Day?
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Someone asked what happens at Park Day on one of the message boards I read. So I thought I would answer here. Two important things happen at Park Day. The first one, I get to sit and talk with other homeschooling parents. There are some dads and mostly moms who come to our park day. We bring our chairs stake out a piece of grass and chit chat. For hours. It is wonderful. I spend most of my time talking to a lady who has a son (older than Amanda) in private school and a daughter (About Amanda's age) she homeschools, a lady with boys who are a little older than Peter and a little younger, another lady with two boys about that age, and a lady with a boy a little older than Peter, a girl who is younger and a brand new baby (she wasn't a park day today, she sent her husband instead.) All these people are different. I talk about different things with each of them. I talk about dealing with teenagery and girly things with the mom that has older kids. I talk about dealing with boys to the other ladies. I generally just sit and be. And the other important thing, the kids get to visit with their friends. Amanda has a group of girls she likes to talk to. They tend to walk around the park and talk about stuff. Michael brings his nerf weaponry and plays with a group of boys about his age. They tend to wander the park yelling and playing battles. Peter has his light sabers and plays all sort of battles with the boys his age. They all run and jump and giggle and just plain be kids for hours at a time. We love our park day. There is no stress. No commitments. No problems. Just friends. And fun. And I love it. |
Jan. 31, 2010
Weeds, Pancakes and Grocery Shopping
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Today we went grocery shopping. All of us. Usually I leave the kids at home with Dad and go alone. It is both a short break for me and they don't like going. Today, we didn't have any other options. So we all went to Trader Joe's and bought food. We bought a whole bunch of fruit, four dozen eggs, some meat and then some cheese. It was kind of shocking how expensive it was for how little food, but at least I know everything I bought will be eaten. This afternoon I weed wacked the garden area. It was a case of knowing that waiting wasn't going to make the weeds shorter. No matter how much I would like it if I want to have a garden, it is going to be my hard work to get it. So I just took care of it. No fun, but the job is done. And finally I made pancakes for dinner. I used rice milk in them so I could even eat them with the kids. Amanda flipped some and everyone like them. No one noticed the rice milk instead of cow milk so I think we will try that again. Brad is in Zurich trying to get his sleep schedule straightened out. I think he is sleeping right now. It would be good if he is. |
Jan. 30, 2010
Birthday Party
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Today we went to a birthday party. Actually I just drove, I didn't go to the party. Amanda went to the party. She had a great time and the boys and I went to a nearby park and played. It was good. I miss Brad. He is visiting museums today. His train pass gives him free entrance to a whole bunch of museums. He is enjoying riding the trains and seeing new stuff. He found a bunch of Legos that are not available in the US. I think we have figured out what he is bring home for one of the kids. No ideas for anyone else yet. I miss him lots. Less than a week to go... |
Jan. 29, 2010
Early Morning
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2:40 am is early. Really early. I don't like being awake at that hour. But while some people can tell where they are almost anywhere and don't get lost. I can tell what time it is. Even when I am sleeping. So when I am concerned about waking up on time my internal alarm clock turns on and I wake up minutes before the alarm goes off. My husband's alarm went off this morning at 2:45 am so that he could catch a super shuttle and get to the airport for his 6:00 am flight to Atlanta and then to Zurich. He got up and did all the normal things he would do and then he waited. And waited some more. The super shuttle that was supposed to be here at 3:20 arrived at 3:45. And I was far to awake to go back to sleep. I tried. I really really did. But it didn't work and so at 5:00 I gave up and took a shower and started my day. The kids and I did all the normal school related things that we needed to do. I even made muffins so that we could have scrambled eggs and muffins for dinner since I knew I wasn't going to be up for cooking after we got home from Peter's music class tonight. I was planning on leaving early and going to visit a new place before Michael's piano lesson, but... I fell asleep on the couch and decided that I needed the sleep more than I needed to take them on an outing. The place will still be there next week and we will still be looking for neat things to see. Peter's music class was good. We have a couple of new kids from other days/times in our class. One of the parents was amazed at Peter because Peter could sing and play piano and knew how to read music. The parent followed us out the door asking about how old Peter was and what grade he is in. Peter is good at music, we practice as part of our school day. I guess he is normal for this house and just right the way he is. I miss having my husband home. The kids miss him too. Michael has sent him two emails already today telling him how much he misses his Dad. Amanda is snuggly and Peter seems oblivious but I am sure he would rather Dad be home too. We are going to go grocery shopping and then take Amanda to a birthday party tomorrow. I miss him. |
Jan. 28, 2010
Recorder Park
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Today we took Amanda to her recorder lesson and then the boys and I went to the park about half a block away. We played in the sand. We climbed on the play structures. We went down slides. We had fun. And then we walked back and met up with Amanda again. And then we walked back to the park again and played some more! This time Amanda got to play too. It was a welcome relief to see the sun and be able to go to the park and just be. We almost went to Yogurt Works on the way home, but not everyone was hungry and we decided to go home and go to Yogurt Works another time. At home Peter decided to go back outside and play some more. He wanted to ride his bike which was fine except that his tires were flat. So I got out the pump and put some air in them. And heard a leak in the rear tire. It looks like the heat cycling just cracked the rubber and it won't hold air. Maybe we will get him a new bike for his birthday. This one is small and now leaky. Sounds like a replacement is needed. Hmmm. |
Jan. 27, 2010
Salamander!
This afternoon when we moved the trash cans to take them to the curb we found a salamander. It was dark brown and had tiny yellow spots. It was super cute. We tried to give him some space and not scare him too much.   Isn't he cute? I don't know what kind of salamander he is. I don't even know for sure that he is a salamander, but his skin looked wet and lizards have dry skin. Anyway, we thought he was neat. Update: It was an Arboreal Salamander. It is commonly found in the Bay Area and is found after rains and under things. We have had lots of rain in the last few days and he was hiding under the trash cans. If you want to confirm or look at more pictures the link is below. http://www.californiaherps.com/salamanders/pages/a.lugubris.html And here are a couple of still pictures from Amanda's recorder concert.   |
Jan. 26, 2010
A Patch for Curriculum
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In mundane news, the cable box/dvr is not working properly and is going back to the cable company tomorrow. Brad talked to a representative last night and they reset it and tried to fix it. Since it shut down three times in less than half an hour while we were watching tv tonight, the fix obviously didn't work. Brad will be bringing a replacement home with him and installing it when he gets home from work. So we will be tv less for the day, but that isn't a big deal we don't watch tv during the day anyway. Most of my curriculum choices for this year have worked. And some have not. The biggest bust this year was Amanda's history. The material was good, but it lacked in supportive materials for me. It was supposed to be self teaching. I think not. Anyway, history didn't work. So last night I down loaded a unit study (Hitty, the First Hundred Years) for her. It is a 6-10 week unit study that covers history and science and writing. It will mean she is doubling up a little on writing and science for a while but I am not particularly concerned about that. After she finishes I will need to come up with more materials, but I think I know what to do next. I will probably let her loose with some of the Amanda Bennett unit studies and use them until June. I am still working on figuring out our plans for the Fall. The good news is that I haven't changed my mind in the last twenty four hours. The bad news is that means I haven't made up my mind either. |
Jan. 25, 2010
Park Day
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Today we went to the park. This is a big deal since we have had rain for days on end and today's forecast was for still more rain. Thankfully we had a break in the rain long enough for everyone to get out and run around. We got chased out of park day not by rain but instead by wind. We were alright until from 1:30 until 3:30 and then the wind got fierce and everyone packed up and left. In other news, I asked the kids about the choir. I explained that if we did it we would not have any days at home during the week and instead we would have some class everyday. They unanimously decided that they wanted their Wednesdays with no outside classes. So we are not going to the choir. But I am going to take an introductory recorder class with Amanda's old teacher. And Michael is going to take it with me. It will be something that we can do together. There will be another Mom in the class so I won't be the only adult. I expect Michael will get very good at recorder very quickly. I am going to concentrate on just doing my best. At least I know that I will have 'expert' help if I get into trouble. Back on the Curriculum front, I think we are making progress. I woke up this morning at 4:40 am (too early!) and couldn't go back to sleep because my brain was working so hard at coming up with at plan. I am cautiously optimistic that I we are going to have a plan soon. I hope... |
Jan. 24, 2010
Plans change...
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Yesterday I was happily working on my curriculum plans for the fall and down to only a few last details. And then Brad asked why we never seemed to get past the Ancients in our history and the plans changed. Now no more Ancients, instead we are going to do geography instead. I haven't decided on US geography or world geography yet. And no more life science either, now it is astronomy and meteorology. At least it is January and nothing had been bought! Anyway for the next few days I will be researching what resources we already have and what we will need to do this updated and improved plan. I am still working on the literature study and deciding which books to use for that. I think we are going to aim for three books and some short stories/poetry for each kid. Hopefully that will be both doable by the kids and by me. And Brad has agreed to read the books with me so that we can have real discussions. Hopefully this time, we have a plan that will last. |
Jan. 23, 2010
Another Concert and SCAT and more Curriculum ponderings
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Tonight we went to a choir concert. The kids sang well and we had a good time. Two of Amanda's friends are in this choir and it was good to be supportive of them like they were supportive of us. They came to Amanda's recorder concert last week. The only interesting part is that now my kids want to do this choir too. EEK! That would make for one very very busy Mommy and a lot of driving. Neither are my favorite things. We are still thinking about our options on that front. Amanda and Michael also took the SCAT test this morning. If they did well it is possible for them to do some interesting things this summer. I hope their scores are enough to do the cool stuff. Amanda got invited to a birthday party next weekend. This is really cool. I am so excited for her. She is so loving having friends here. Birthday parties and sleepovers and a new and special thing for my sensitive and intense child. The only problem is Amanda has a Girl Scout Meeting next weekend at the same time as the party and she obviously can't be in two places at once. The Girl Scout meeting is about the Bronze Award, a pretty big deal for the girls. Amanda came home from today's meeting in tears because she knew she couldn't do both events and she wanted to. Thankfully a decision was reached and she is mostly happy with it. She is going to the birthday party and is not going to worry about the Girl Scouts. This is fine with me. The reason she joined Girl Scouts was to make friends. It is turning out that Girl Scouts isn't working that way and is causing stress. So after cookie sales are done in a few weeks, she is going to be done with Girl Scouts for a while. I am still working on curriculum for kids for next year. The big sticking points are: PE (I can't figure out what the goal of PE is. Maybe if I figure out what I am trying to do, I can figure out how to do it), Literature for everyone (I need secular homeschooler friendly literature guides with discussion questions at multiple levels. This is amazingly hard to find. Religious homeschool friendly guides I can find. Secular classroom based guides I can find. But not both secular and homeschool friendly.) and history for Amanda (I need secular late middle school/early high school level homeschool friendly ancient history. Preferably with a time line, maps, discussion questions and ANSWERS to the discussion questions.) If you know of anything that will work please comment. And if you know what the point of PE is comment about that too! |
Jan. 22, 2010
Sunshine and curriculum ponderings.
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Today we saw the sun for a little while. It was wonderful. Of course, right now it is dark so I can't see the sun, but it was nice while it lasted. I am working on figuring out what curriculum we will be using in the fall. Peter is pretty well figured out. He is mostly doing the next book in the series that he is working on now. It is great when that works out. Michael is mostly figured out. He is doing many next book in the series subjects too. I am still working on deciding about grammar and trying to decide about any interesting extra things. Amanda is not as well figured out. The perils of being the oldest, I am sure. I am still trying to decide on History and grammar and extra things with her too. PE is the stumbling block for everyone and literature is on my figure out list too. Thankfully we have come to a solution with regard to a foreign language. We are going to take a Japanese class. EVERYONE is going to go, Brad, me, Amanda, Michael and Peter. It is going to be a family event. One problem solved! I never know which entries are going to get comments. Will it be the one with the video of Amanda playing recorder? Will it be the one about the new chairs? Or food? Or nutrition? Or homeschooling? Or our trip to Menlo Park? I just never know. |
Jan. 21, 2010
The Concert
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We finally have video (and audio) of the recorder concert. Here is a link to Amanda playing What Child is This Hedwig's Theme with the strings. |
Jan. 20, 2010
Rain
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It is wet here. Really really wet. We are warm and dry inside (mostly) but outside it is really soggy. I don't mind too much because it gives me a chance to regroup and recharge my batteries to get ready for another day. We are supposed to get rain until the end of the week. Eek! |