Thursday we went with 3 other families to the monarch groves.  We heard the docent speak on the butterflies and saw so many of them flying everywhwere and alight on trees in amazing numbers.  Toby and I hung out at the little docent / gift trailer.  But I still got to hear most of the talk.  I didn't realize quite a few things about the butterflies.  They winter here and mate, then fly north to milkweed to lay their eggs for the caterpillar eats the milkweed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ty6sTQesxMU

(couldn't paste this short  closeup video of the butterfly laying her eggs in my post)

We then walked the short distance to the beach.  For some reason there was a lake of water on a large area of the beach we hadn't seen there before, about two feet deep.  The kids had a lot of fun playing there while the moms watched and wondered.  Kiera had to watch Emily. Toby stayed near the edge.

Coleman and Emily got too wet and were very uncomfortable for the drive home, but we don't live too far.

www.homeschoolfreebieoftheday.com

Visit there by Nov 15 and download some cool old Thanksgiving PDF's -- hope you get there in time

Sign up for the email news to remind you to visit their site daily for free downloads.  I have bought products from them in the past.  They are a pretty good value especially considering all the free stuff they give out.

You probably all know about the gutenbergproject free book downloads www.gutenberg.org

www.librivox.org for free audio books

www.blackgold.org  Search for the Rosetta Stone Spanish program in their online library - don't have the direct link right now.

http://www.crosswalk.com/11583324/page1/

Article by Kim Lundberg at Crosswalk.  Also in HSE mag.

Hello friends and family.

I thought you might be interested in this weblog entry:
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/JenofAvonlea/555994/

Just staying up late and visiting new friends, but this post is one to remember.  The Lord has been convicting me on so many things lately.  I am blessed He finds it worthwhile to do so.

Love blogging but I better get some rest ...  Tomorrow is Monday after all.  I love homeschooling.

I love my kids.  Yes, with all of its imperfections, I love my life.  Thank You Lord.  Amen

Keep Your Eyes on Jesus,

Michele

I meant to post this before but I forgot. 

We however, will not be able to attend due to finance constraints.  All the reports I have had about these classes were favorable.

Russ McGlenn, http://www.tccsa.tc/adventure/   Adventure Safari

http://www.skirball.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=28

As we sat here after the guys went off to football practice, Kiera asked me - what exactly is a corset?   She had read about them in her historical fiction novels.  I tried to describe one and then just looked it up online, finding a link to a bunch of photos. 

Did we ever have a great, girly time looking at corsets and talking about us, and the past, and all kinds of funny things, We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.   Ah, the good ways to learn ... 

www.corsetsandcrinolines.com (I think that's right.

We are taking baby steps here.  We used to walk so much when K/C were small.  We were always out and about and at the park (very much a nature park), so all the early learning nature stuff came pretty naturally.  

However, about the time I learned of Charlotte Mason, bought all of her books and wanted to build upon this concept, we had our next son (with challenges) and began our moving adventures.  We did keep on as best we could for awhile, but many things changed rapidly. 

So, now Em is 4 and already a computer bug.  Kiera is loving blogging, and Coleman, well, it's hard to get him off some screen...

So, I said to Emmy last week, "Hey Em, get your boots, we are going to go on a nature walk around our yard (2 acres)."    Without looking up, she answered with a somewhat belligerent tone, "I don't want a nature walk.  I'm not going!"  I was surprised, regained my composure and made myself more clear....   We went out and about the yard, seeing a wonderful show by the dragonflies and looking at everything with 'nature' eyes.  We kept it short.  She loved it.   The next afternoon, she said, "mom, I'm going to get some shoes.  Let's go on a nature walk!"      We have done a few more in the past week.  Just baby steppin' here .....

I have been expending much effort mentally and physically to try to get organized with more routines and a schedule of sorts.  This is a very difficult thing for us for many reasons.  Yet I am finally to the point where just thinking about it needs to become 'doing it'. 

I wish we were all truly self motivated learners.  I think in some ways we get close.  But the reality is that we get stuck in our areas of interest and the other stuff we need to do doesn't get done. 

I also am working on a positive behavior program, which is working fairly well, but I need to put alot of time and effort into it -- and have to change alot about the way I think and do things.  I am making progress, but it is challenging.

I tried to make a very detailed schedule, but it was too much.  Then I created a schedule closer to a routine, then created a little bit different one for each of us.  This will have to be fine tuned but is going to work better.  I made lesson plans M, T, and W and the kids were fairly good about doing what I asked them to.  My goal, though, is for them to be independent (there are alot of details in that I won't explain here and now) but I found that they were still totally dependent upon me to go through the plan with them, multiple times.  We have a ways to go....  I may stick with doing lesson plans only for three days per week, I don't know yet, that will depend upon results.

I realized the need for this last year when I left plans for them and their gramma while I was gone for 2 days, and they didn't even read them, let alone follow them (including gramma) even though I expressly told them what to read, where everything was, etc.

so,  well, more on this later, maybe....

http://www.crosswalk.com/homeschool/11581097/

Another great article from Crosswalk by Cathy Steere, which I think she wrote for Homeschool Enrichment magazine.  I like their magazine but I am currently not making any new subscriptions for the year so am having trouble keeping myself from subscribing to TOS, HEM, Back Home and all of our family favorites and new discoveries.  They really can add up... 

I have in this post not copied the article directly but I have done so in a post to myself only, I copy the entire article so I can read it again later. (I mean I have done this with previous articles written by others as well.)

So if the link doesn't work for you, you can ask me personally for more information. 

This article is really good.  Enjoy and think about how to use the concepts in other areas of learning.  I  used a similar method with my two   now ages 11 and 12  and plan to use this expanded method with Em, age 4.

Well, I decided this year to stick my neck out (like  a turtle) and try to get involved with the SMILe group's planning of a coop for the families.  We met at our house two days ago and talked over a lot of ideas about what everyone was interested in and what it would look like.

Today those same families are coming back and we are going to meet with the kids to futher define what projects and activities the kids would like to pursue and to talk with them about the ideas we would like to explore as parents.  

We decided that a dual family collaboration approach would give us ways to get to know other families better and develop coordination skills.  A delight directed family interest approach to presenting a day of learning activity is also on the planning board. 

Ie. one of the interests of a family can be presented to the group and explored by the group.  For example, say one family likes to do model rockets, one has alot of gardening experience, one wants to present their knowledge of horses... we are looking for real life learning with personal motivation in the activity or topic.

We also talked about a sharing circle (Show and Tell  ) where every person could get an opportunity to share something in their life that they had done, studied, etc.  or even give a short individual presentation.  This gives everyone in the group a chance to participate at their level of comfort but all will learn something and be motivated naturally by their friends and families to share.

We also talked about appointing a different food committee each week.  Two families will collaborate on what to prepare ( a theme or seasonal etc) and bring the food for the group.  This could include presentation to the group or inclusion in preparation.

Well, our first meeting is TODAY.  Better go clean up ... 

I'll talk more about what happens ... as we go on.

I really wish I had time to read all the cool mom's (or dad's?) blogs about what they are doing for learning inspiration ... the good ideas I have heard and want to try just haven't seemed to materialize.  Guess they haven't been a family fit no matter what my inner yearnings. 

I do think I will try getting together with some other families  to see if some things might materialize in a group.  I will keep you posted.

There is a lot of material to cover ... I think I might be able to get dad more involved ... he has a really recent interest in TRUE history and CREATION science.  That helps. 

Well, sorry for the boring post, but you gotta have one or two of these...

LOL

Michele

Emily loves Thomas the Train; so did Kiera, Coleman and Toby.  The other night she saw a tv program about a family with 8 small children who went to see the 'real' Thomas.  That was fun for her.  We took K / C / T  to see the real Thomas when Toby was a baby.  I wonder if any of them really remember it....  It was in Sacramento at the big train museum there. Now that is a really c ool place to visit  !!  Go there if you can. 

Emily loves her Thomas trains.  Well, we actually collected them when the other children were small.  There were a lot of them.  Some were lost and the dog chewed up some of them.  There is still a lot.  I never got the small table for them as it wouldn't make a big enough track.  

Of course, we have worn out a multitude of vhs tapes and dvds.  Well, the dvd's are attractive to young folk and especially Toby who likes things that are round, shiny and have an interesting surface. That is autism for you. He puts everything in his mouth, even at age 7.  Many of the discs have teeth marks...

Emily recently got to start checking out her own library books.  They have Thomas books...  and pink books (never mind what they are about).

People wondered about  the extreme fascination, but K / C / T (almost) have outgrown Thomas, despite their previous addiction.  Now I realize, it was just part of their education, collecting things, collecting data and experience.  It's all fun.

Oh did I forget the tshirts?  We have had so many.  In the beginning we didn't know where to find them, so grabbed them when we saw them, one out of a humongous pile of tshirts on their way to Africa...  Coleman loved it.  Emily is wearing one today.  Toby still wears Thomas - last year I guess. 

Dad recently found two giant blue Thomas swim towels to replace (haha) the old and very thin Thomas towels.

I am sure I am forgetting many of my stories from the Island of Sodor.

Take care all,

Michele

Emmy (4) has been bringing me little scraps of paper the past few days with 'words' on them.  She knows her name has an E.  Then 2 days ago she happily brought me a little paper with the letters MOM.  Isn't that cool?  You just love the learning at this stage...  Kiera first wrote my name MOOM, which I thought was so cute. 

She is also learning to cut with scissors.  Boy, I bet there are some stories out there about this topic.  She just loves to cut paper into smithereens.  And she shredded a pair of pants.  She happily showed me this morning how she cut a string off of her t-shirt.  Both Kiera and I quickly looked to see if the shirt was shredded, but it wasn't!

The other day, she decided she wanted the pink flower off of her Kitty inflatable from the fair.  When she brought it to us triumphantly, Kiera went to look to see if the Kitty survivied.  Of course she had deflated.  When Em followed Kiera into the room and saw the Kitty, she said something like, "Why you do that Kiera? !  Why'd you scrunch up my Kitty?!"  She still believes that it was Kiera who did it.

Make your own poupourri - am I spelling that right?  (I am not going to check, hehe)

My kids loved this project and I still have one ongoing.  Unfortunately the one we had worked on and had for several years was thrown out during one of our many moves....

Take a jar, wide mouth is best, and have the kids collect GOOD smelling flower blossoms.  Roses work awesome for this, of course. 

Sprinkle a thin layer of SALT in the bottom of your jar.  Then sprinkle a layer of petals, then a layer of salt. 

Then take a wooden spoon (or other utensil if you have one that works better) and use the handle to lightly poke and pound around on top. 

Add another layer of petals and salt and lightly pound, and so on.  You can make layers of different colored petals if you like.  You can just cover the jar and open it again and add some more whenever you like.

I believe I first saw this done on tv years ago.   She assured us that the longer the jar sat, the better it would smell.  It never rots, etc.  She was right!  After the first several weeks of sitting, just open the jar -- mmm!

I keep mine in the pantry and it gives me a lift to open and smell it every so often. 

Have a wonderful smelling day!

http://www.crosswalk.com/homeschool/11577060/page1/

I really enjoyed this article about keeping our preschoolers busy during the day with ideas for educational activities that they will enjoy and learn while we are busy with lessons with our older children.  By Susan Lemons, from Crosswalk.com

The other day when i was "really" sick, my little Emily amused herself collecting natural materials (leaves, flowers, dirt, sticks, rocks) outdoors and putting it into categories in little plastic dishes I put down low and then freezing each one.  She has a great imagination and I am sorry I missed alot of her imaginative play due to how I was feeling.   Age 4 is awesome! 

http://www.homesteadoriginals.com/?p=79

This link is to Lisa's blog, which expresses some of my sentiments pretty well and alot of others I think

Recently I wanted Coleman to sit with Emily and look at Rainforest Maths, which she liked when he was doing them for her observation and joining in.  The next day, when I was going to do them with her, she almost immediately lost interest.

There are lessons to be learned during Toddler Math.  Interest cannot be forced or hardly even guided, but perhaps fostered , followed and facilitated ....

Hi everyone!

If you would like to express your support for HOMESCHOOLING in CALIFORNIA, please take 15 seconds out of your day, call the number below, push 3 buttons and YOU'RE DONE!   So it is fast and easy.   This will show your support of ACR-115, which is summarized below 

REMEMBER--this is not just about homeschooling, but is very much about parental rights!

Summary of Resolution:

ACR 115 supports the right of parents to direct the education and upbringing of their children.  It expresses the Legislature’s position that the Appellate Court’s interpretation of the laws, under which parents teach their children at home, was misguided.  And, it would call on the California Supreme Court to reverse the Appellate Court’s opinion.  ACR 115 will NOT change any existing laws and it will NOT create any new law.

If you are in support of homeschooling as a choice for parents, call
Governor Schwarzenegger' s office at

916-445-2841.

It's entirely automated.
Press "1" (English),
Then "2" for Legislative bill.
Then the recording asks if you are calling regarding ACR115 - press "1".
If in favor, press "1".

That's it. It took all of 15 seconds.

Please take the time to do this and send this to EVERYONE you know.

Thank you!


Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
State Capitol Building
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: 916-445-2841
Fax: 916-445-4633
Local office: 619-525-4641
Local fax: 619-525-4640