|
Silver Moon Learning
Jan. 26, 2009
Kid/school stuff
New week once again. Last week disappeared in the blink of an eye it seems. Not sure how that happens. Here's a brief kid update!
Baby Faith is the cutest baby ever. She is. She's been "singing" into the bright pink, plastic microphone today. She belts out a "Da uh da!" then waits for a reaction before letting another one out. Then she found the toy keyboard (bright pink and plastic again), punched it's buttons until she got it to play demo songs, held it by her side and started getting her groove on. Nothing cuter than a diapered butt boppn' to London Bridge. 
Grace is Grace. Soooo sweet. She's starting to sleep better this week, not coming into our room in the wee morning hours so much. She's started going to a preschool group on Wednesday nights, without a parent tagging along. It'd been months since we even suggested it to her and we had no idea if she was capable of doing it. She's doing it. I haven't been called because she's distraught once. She's noticed the teachers elsewhere and gave them a shy wave, from the safety of mom or dad's legs, lol. The emotional growth spurt that happened out of the blue caused a bit of a backslide in other areas, but she's since caught back up. I *think* I'll get the hang of this raising an introvert gig. In a nutshell? It's parenting who she is, not who I think she ought to be.
Honor. What can I say about him this week? He's the class clown.The sarcastic humor he can interject into conversations is incredible. He's only 5! Where does he come up with this stuff? I can totally see him being a stand up comedian as an adult. LOL He strikes when you least suspect it. Like standing outside the van while Joy is taking longer than normal to get her booty out of the van so we can go into the store. Just when we think she's about to pop out, Honor lets out this exagerated :::::::::YAWN:::::::::. He's five! When the surprised laughs at his efforts die down he cracks up laughing at himself. 
Joy has become my right hand in the kitchen. We redid the bigs cleaning jobs and it's working fabulously so far. I try to rotate them through the jobs, even if it's one they despise or aren't good at, to make sure they know HOW to at the very least. They both suggested not moving from their current job for a long time. So Joy has the LDD load, lessons, dishwasher (empty it), and dining (knock-out toy hot spots and wipe down the dining table) daily, for a month or so. Then we'll reevaluate. In school she's racing ahead in First Language Lessons, it'll be done by the end of third grade without a problem. She's working on memorizing The Goops right now. I'm using a free spelling from Super Teacher Worksheets this week, so far she likes the activities. When Spelling Wisdom gets here I'll switch her over.
Justice has the LLL daily now. Lessons, Laundry (haul all folded by mom laundry to the appropriate room), and Living room (knock out the hot spots, clean up after the baby's toys, and just generally tidy the room). He's doing really well keeping it shipshape too. In school, I've really got to get an English course ordered for him. Daily Grams are keeping his grammar fresh, but they're way too easy for him. Today we did a writing lesson swiped from a curriculum sample, it's enough to stretch out all week long. The focus today was taking notes, how to condense information from a paragraph or speaker down quickly. Tomorrow we make an outline with it, by the end of the week we'll make our own paragraph with the info from today's notes. I say "we" because I'm doing it with him, so he can see a sample. I plan on going over the nuts and bolts of writing reports for a month or so before actually expecting him to write one. He spent the grammar stage learning the nuts and bolts of language, now to apply it.
The big two aren't pulling the WHOLE load in those rooms, I'm always behind them sweeping, decluttering, wiping down, etc.. When *I* only have to do half the job it's so much easier for me to keep up with everything! Like the mouse that got a cookie I'm certain to be distracted by other momma tasks before getting back to the second half. It's been a breath of fresh air. I think those two need some extra chocolate after dinner.
Dinner! Dinner was not raved about as well as our lunch was. I cooked up some gluten free, Trader Joes brand rice pasta plain, then poured some beef burger and veggies (prepared like stir fry fixin's) over it, and added some La Choy brand soy sauce. *I* thought it was scrummy. All three girls went to town on it too. The boys thought the peas were completely unecessary.  |
• Comments (0) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link
|
Jan. 26, 2009
Our lunch today (recipe linkage included)
I have to rave for the Taco Style Lentils and Rice recipe from Hillybilly Housewife!
Looks simple aye? We just had this for lunch today and it is definitely going on our faves list!
Changes I made:
~ used chicken broth instead of water with beef bullion cubes (we don't eat beef often enough to keep beef broth on hand)
~ used a wild rice blend instead of brown rice
~ tweaked the seasonings some. I'm out of chili powder (eek!), so I used paprika and white pepper in it's place, and I left out the onion powder entirely. I don't do onions.
I offered cheese and warmed corn tortillas or chips as options. (Goat cheese for the cows milk free) The baby had some in a bowl with cheese on top.
My family's review:
~ The Hub said, "Oh my goodness. That's great! Not what I expected from glancing in the pot, love it!"
~ The very skeptical Justice who's been on a self-imposed lentil strike said "This is fantastic Mom! What did you put in it??" He was amazed something with lentils in it tasted this good. *snort*
~ The lentil loving Joy exclaimed, "Oh we've GOT to make this more often."
~ The even more skeptical and fairly picky eater Honor was nervous but gave it a fair try. He said both he and his Bionicle liked it. (Huh, I don't remember inviting a Lego to dinner.)
~ Grace didn't leave a comment. She was however the first person to toss her empty plate in the sink. That's a good sign. LOL
~ Faith raced to her high chair when she saw her bowl being filled and grunted until someone put her in. She quickly took the spoon out of the bowl and set it out of her way, then dug in with both hands. Five minutes later her bowl and tray were empty and she was only wearing about a tablespoons worth.
~ Not to leave myself out, I ate three burritos, then poured the rest of it over chips and I'm finishing that up while I type. Good stuff!
So it is a very simple lentils and rice recipe. Why all the blog worthy excitement? A BRAND NEW recipe was approved by every single family member the very first time I served it!
I'm happy dancing over here!!! |
• Comments (1) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link
|
Jan. 25, 2009
I've been tagged!
Jan. 19, 2009
Monday already?
May the Force be with you! My kids are running around with light sabers again this morning. They've affectionately dubbed the baby "Stinky" for a Clone Wars reenactment. She smiles and toddles after them, just happy to be included in the big kid game.
I woke up this morning to my husband and Faith (the baby) having a "My mama" argument. One would put a hand on me and loudly declare "My mama!!" Then the other would try removing that hand with another loud "My mama!" in return. Lather, rinse, repeat. Coffee please!
Homeschool stuff. Last week went well, in spite of the internet going down for a little while. Thankfully I'd already printed and filed the internet printables I wanted (mostly from TLSbooks). I'd planned to step it up a notch this week, I've reconsidered. We'll keep it light this week too.
- Justice needs some math drill review, I think a week of math games and such will have him back up to speed.
- Joy has mostly picked back up. She did get stuck in grammar, like up against a brick wall stuck. I gave her a list of lessons in First Langauge Lessons to go back and read. She had them memorized by the end of the day. That kid! I ordered Spelling Wisdom level 1 for her last night, from www.simplycharlottemason.com.
- Honor is moving right along with his reading. He did tell me he's tired of learning new numbers and just wants to add now. *snort*
- Grace is amazing me with how well she's going through Phonics Pathway's blending exercises. She's only 3!
- Faith is adding a new word to her vocabulary every time I turn around.
Somehow our geography study last week morphed into American history. That continues this week, with the focus being the Declaration of Independence. Quite the rabbit trail there! Most of the materials I've pulled are from www.americanheritage.org and some Knowledge Box stuff I found in the depths of my documents folder. ('Cause what else do you do when pinned under a nursling and the internet is off?) We'll have to watch the first National Treasure movie later today.
Oh! I'd totally spaced adding the American history we did last week to their Book of the Centuries. Putting that first on the list for today.  |
• Comments (1) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link
|
Jan. 12, 2009
I need a "take a number" dispenser.
You know, those thingies at the store when it's super crowded? DMV has one too.
Can you tell today was our first day back at the books? *snort* Four children with pages loaded on clipboards vs one mom. Round 1: DING!
I loaded all four clipboards earlier in the morning. Each kid has their own, often decorated. And there's stuff like cursive alphabets taped to the bottom too. Yes, even the three year old has her own. She was VERY indignant about not having her own last fall. Then we found a 3yo preschool book at Staples, much to her delight. I'm getting derailed here before I even get going.
We started out by reading chapter two of Little House on the Prairie. All five kids gathered round listening intently, baby crawling up to nurse when bored. Apologies for the quaintness, I was just as shocked as you are!
Once the story was finished I grabbed the clipboards, pencils and box of crayons. Time to divide and conquer! Geography with the oldest two first. We talked about their "Our City" page and what I expected of them, got them thinking in the right direction, and passed off their clipboards and pencils. Once they were settled I got Honor writing his name, spelled a word for Joy outloud before Honor finished his name. Next was a couple number 11 pages for Honor, with more spelling advice between them. The big kids finished up their My City pages somewhere around Honor getting to his number 12 pages. Then I got Honor content coloring twelve birds, explained the map skills page to Justice, got Grace coloring a teddy bear, football and boot the color brown, explained the map skills page to Joy, helped Justice with an answer to his, explained Honor's next page, helped Grace find an orange crayon for her next page. Lather, rinse, repeat. The constant bouncing from clipboard to clipboard didn't end until both the younger two had depleted their pages. Then I had Joy self sufficient with her math page, and could sit beside Justice to help him through a rough patch on his. The baby bounced on the chair behind me, nursed, stole crayons, danced to the Blue's Clues radio and invited herself right into the noise.
I shooed Honor and Grace to the toy garage to play with cars while I worked more with Justice and Joy. Justice sailed right into his Daily Gram, and finished it just as fast. Then he grabbed a book, Bionicles something or other and hauls off to his bed. Little House on the Prairie as the read aloud balances out the total fluff/twaddle of Bionicles, right? I gave Joy a nudge and went to the kitchen. In there I scooped some pinto beans that had been cooking in the crock pot all morning into a sauce pan, added some taco-like seasonings and turned it onto low. Changed a diaper, took a potty break, washed up, smooshed the beans and stirred them up. Hub showed up right about then. The younger three kept him occupied long enough for me to pile some chips high with beans, salsa, cheese and whatever random toppings I found in the fridge. Ta-da! Lunch.
Hub headed back to work when his lunch hour was up. I sat down here to nurse the baby to sleep, which worked like a charm. Unfortunately Honor and Grace had a screaming fight just as I was laying her down in bed. Scrap that nap.
Honor and Grace separated, put in different pieces of furniture where their toes can't reach each other, and the TV babysitter was turned on for the first time of the day. I chose the newest Charlotte'a Web movie for them. Back to those clipboards! Papers double checked, dated, and stacked on top of the computer monitor. That pile of papers is almost two inches high I might add! I bet the bottom of it has early December dates.  Pulled Joy away from the Game Boy for a lesson in First Language Lessons. We worked with the Mr. Nobody poem, she loves it! Justice was snickering at it from across the room. That was his favorite poem when he was in FLL.
Now Joy is finishing up some copywork from Mr. Nobody, Grace is asleep, Honor is pretending to be asleep (if he does that long enough he usually does fall asleep), and Faith keeps climbing up to nurse for two minutes before hopping down to play. I'm a drivethrough milk bar apparently.
Day one back to school was a success, even without the take a number dispenser.  |
• Comments (2) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link
|
Jan. 11, 2009
Sweet vintage sewing for the baby
I just finished this set up for the baby. The floral fabric is vintage. The zipper package was dated 1958 and is a perfect color match. The denim is only a couple years old.
Side view of her jeans (lightened to show the topstitching).The buttoning cuff is my favorite part!
Faith modeling
 |
• Comments (1) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link
|
Jan. 9, 2009
Our Friday.
Today has been busy! Somehow I haven't accomplished much.
I'm trying to get us back into our regular habits. As in, not hectic-always-something-extra-going-on-because-it's-December, kind of habits.We'll kick school back up on Monday. My older two are starting to slide back into it. They chose to do their book reading this morning as to free up the afternoon quiet time for other activities. I wasted a grand chunk of my morning on this computer, but I did manage to scratch out some lesson plans in the process.
My "mediums" (I'm not allowed to call them littles anymore...) have played a few math games on a kiddie computer, and we had a rousing game of London Bridge is Falling Down in the kitchen while lunch warmed. Even Joy got in on it! The tween boy only left the screen of his Game Boy long enough to object to the inappropriateness of our singing "My fair lady!" when we'd captured his brother. *snort*
Lunch was leftover stir fry and misto alla griglia. Mmmm.
It's official quiet time as a type. Aaaah. I do enjoy that habit coming back. Faith is napping. She's sleeping extra lately, growth spurt time again. Grace is snuggled up in the new blanket she got for Christmas and watching Nanny McPhee, I expect her to be asleep in about ten minutes. Then I can turn the tv off and it might really be quiet in here. Snicker. Honor is slowly finishing up his lunch, then he'll move to the comfy chair with a pile of picture books and a few toy cars. Justice is back to the Game Boy, and Joy is working in her multiplication book (all of her own accord I might add!).
This afternoon my goals are getting some laundry knocked out of the way, finishing up a couple sewing projects, and finishing the lesson plans for next week. The latter requires me to sit at my computer desk and ignore the computer, lol.
Dinner will be some scrumptious gluten, casein and corn free french toast. Your choice of homemade berry syrup, honey, applesauce or cranberry apple butter to put on top. And turkey bacon!
Then we have a Girl Scout cookie training meeting for Joy, Hub and I. Since we'll be on that end of town we'll make a Costco and Trader Joes run to save some gas before heading home.
And now Justice is trying to pry me out of my chair. It's his day for the computer and he's anxious to check out something on the Lego site. |
• Comments (1) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link
|
Jan. 9, 2009
New semester. New plans.
The details of that PKC meeting I mentioned last night!
- I compared the major points of what was left in their books to the worldbook.com typical course of study lists for their grades. Between those I made a list of what I considered important to get done by the end of this school year.
- I added the things they wanted to get into.
- The big two and I discussed each point and how we thought they should happen
- We made a fresh list of those goals.
We tend to cover the subject bases fairly evenly for the first half of the year, then mix up the last half. This year won't be any exception. Broken down individually that goal list looks like:
Justice
- Needs a new grammar book, he'll use Daily Grams with some added sentence dissecting from mom until it's replaced.
- Spelling will be dropped completely. (But he'll have ample opportunity to exercise his natural spelling ability in the next one on this list)
- Language arts will become the nuts and bolts of writing. Outlines, gathering facts, cohesive paragraphs, writing reports, proofreading, oral presentation, etc.. We'll wing this for now, I'll look for curriculum options now and keep a few in my wishlist if we get to a point of needing more guidance. Justice works best just digging in feet first with me, rather than having a book guide his efforts.
- Math will get a lot of focus. Fractions, decimals, percents, and geometry.
Joy
- Dropping phonics, and stepping spelling up a bit. I'll order Spelling Wisdom for her asap (from www.simplycharlottemason.com)
- Finishing up First Language Lessons for grammar (She wasn't ready for this until the end of second grade)
- She wants to go back to cursive, which she hasn't used for over half a year, so copywork comes back.
- Her language arts will focus on vocabulary, proofreading, oral presentation, and writing original thoughts well (Just a sentence at a time! This will be the hardest part for her)
- She's completed third grade math. She wants to go further with multiplication though. She understands the process well and is ready to move on to using it (drills etc).
Justice and Joy
Science and history have always been done together and we can't picture it any other way. They're going to rotate weekly instetad of daily. We're adding the -nyms (synonyms, homonyms, antonyms, homophones... I'm forgetting one) and geography. Justice said he could use the review on the -nyms and Joy has them on her LA list too. So they'll do those together. And I've never included geography separately. This is something that Joy has always had a really hard time wrapping her mind around. Any of it that's not within the US went right over her head. She's had a lightbulb and wants to get into it, and Justice does too. These two will probably rotate weekly too, just to spare some planning time if nothing else.
Honor is happily playing along in random workbooks, Phonics Pathways and Starfall.com.
Grace literally demands her own Phonics Pathways lessons and I've got to find more workbooks for her or she'll wipe out the printer ink.
Not to be left out, Faith is trying to run and talk. |
• Comments (1) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link
|
Jan. 8, 2009
I think I'm getting the hang of it...
I've poked around in every setting I could find anyway. :)
So more about us would be the next topic. My kids have all been homeschooled from birth. I hesitate to label us a particular flavor or style of homeschooling. We just do what works for us. We're relaxed. Some say we unschool, others say we certainly do not (make up yer mind already..). Classical roots, some Charlotte Mason ideas thrown in where it's convenient. Hodge podge of books. Sidenote: I'm allergic to boxed by grade curriculums. I had to use them myself as a kid and vowed never to do that to my own, lol.
I'm a stay-at-home mom. Instant human - just add coffee. My spare moments usually find me in my sewing room, with occasional breaks for other fiber arts like quilting, knitting and crocheting.
From little to big I'll introduce you to my kids:
Faith is the baby at ten months old. She walks, climbs furniture, stands up in the middle of a room, lugs a sippy under her arm half the day, and simply adores her older sibs. Peek-a-boo under a blanket is her favorite game.
Grace is 3yo. She's amazingly smart, but an introvert so you'll have to get into her trusted zone before she'll let you see that. She knows all the sounds of the alphabet, and knows most of them by sight now too. She's starting to blend two sounds together in Phonics Pathways. I can't pull that book out for Honor without Grace demanding her toon as soon as brub's done. She is hot on his heels. She's a sweet, sweet girl, always concerned about others and eager to lend a hand.
Honor is 5. He's tinkering with some kindy work, a few random workbooks, Phonics Pathways and www.starfall.com make up his curriculum. I don't plan on adding more than that until fall. Honor is a boisterous boy, full of energy, spark and excitement. He spends most of his day driving his cars and trains all over the house. And lately his little boy doll, Herbie, goes with him on every adventure.
Joy is 8, and solidly in third grade. She has made SO MUCH advancement this year! She's really grown. Things that she once struggled with are a breeze now. Somethings that she's never understood well she's flat out asked me to teach. Amazing. She's a fun, quirky kinda kid. Always certain to put a smile on your face.
Justice is the big guy. He's all over the board, using materials from fifth to eighth grade. He's also made some pretty big advancements this year. He tries so hard to be big, whether he's at home or boy scouts. He's a great big brother, picks on his siblings one minute and fiercely defends them the next.
Joy, Justice and I just had our big bi-annual PKC (Parent-Kid Conference) today. We discussed what worked for us last semester, what we'd like to change this semester, books we want to order, specific things we want to learn, goals, compared what's left in books to the typical course of study at worldbook.com (crossed out the ones we considered irrelevant), stuff like that. We made a pretty good list of our goals and plans for this upcoming semester. That's another post for tomorrow. :) |
• Comments (0) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link
|
Jan. 8, 2009
It's about time, aye?
| Hello Homeschool Blogger world! I'm Kara, a homeschool mom to five amazing kiddos, wife to one sexy mechanic, and firmly addicted to coffee and fiber arts. I'll do a more proper introduction for the kids when I get this new blog figured out. :) |
• Comments (2) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link
|
|
|
|
|
