Last weekend was full of parties.  On Saturday we held his first "kid only" party.  Because of vacations and other committments, we had 4 out of the 7 we invited, making it "five for five" year old birthday party.  S has been wanting a sleepover, but really I think they are too young at this age, so I planned a pretend indoor campout sleepover.  They came in their PJs and brought sleeping bags, pillows, blankies. 

It started out great...as they arrived they made their own baggies of trail mix from different ingredients I had out, and from there all plans went out the window.  I barely got them to sit still for 4 bites of their picnic style hot dogs, popcorn and carrot sticks.  We did cake when two of the boys fought over the same hiding spot in their own game of hide and seek.  S blew out the candles after the first line of Happy Brithday and everyone stopped singing.  Then we did presents after another mishap (I'm great at diversions). I got two boys to do the hokey pokey with me. 

I had planned a few party games, including "Musical Sleeping Bags", followed by smores, hand shadows and ghost stories (not too scary), but the kids were having a lot of fun just doing their own thing and did not want to stop whenever I would say "Time for (fill in the blank)", so I just let it happen.  Ten minutes before the parents were due to arrive for pick-up, one boy said, "when are we going to do the campout?"  I wanted to cry (lol)!

They had alreayd been playing in the tents, so I said, "OK everyone in the tents for bed!"  They wanted all the lights out and S started telling a "ghost story" which was really a bunch of rambling in the classic preschool story-telling style, but everyone loved it.  And then the parents came.

Here is a picture of my "Campout Cake" that I copied from here  I used plastic trees and did not add as much dirt.  I think my fire came out better and S help decorate the sleeping bags.

Sunday was a Cookie Cake with family and no games.  We only have two other children on either side of the family which was why I wanted to try a kid party for Samuel.  I now understand why a lot of parents go the location party route!  We still may do the at home party again, but it was a lot of work and I'm glad it's over for another year.

Today we gave him our presents and will take him out for lunch to the restaurant of his choice.

Happy Birthday to my precious baby...even when you're a grown-up I still hope you'll snuggle with your Mama.

No one asked, but in case you were interested in what our Very Hungry Caterpillar looks like, here is a picture -

Anytime Samuel tries a new healthy food, I write it on a circle and add it to our caterpillar.  We started this about 2 1/2 years ago, and like most kids, you can tell he is pretty picky about trying new foods.

As I mentioned in my last entry, the rest of our "summer session" is going to be extremely informal.  However I am still working through the Kid's Cooking Camp.  First we did "blueberries".  I found three books (including the classic "Blueberries for Sal", but the only one Samuel liked was "Blueberry Mouse by Alice Low.  Then we made a blueberry smoothie which he liked at first sip, but then said he didn't like it.  I finished it (yummy!) and decided that maybe what he didn't like was some of the blueberry skin bits - very tiny, but still...he's a kid and can find fault with anything. 

Trying the smoothie did earn him another circle on his "new foods" caterpillar that goes around our kitchen walls.  I started this in January 2006 with a Nutrition Unit Study (before I found that neither one of us wants to read books about only one topic for a whole week).  There are two rules to get a circle on the caterpillar: 1) it has to be a healthy food, and 2) he has to swallow a good size bite.

The next segment was "apples" and I found four books to go with this.  This only one he liked was "The Apple Pie Tree" by Zoe Hall.  We're in the middle of birthday treat week, so we haven't made the apple pie yet, but that is the plan.

He went to VBS this week called "Power Lab".  I'm not really sure what he learned about Jesus because he didn't share that with me and nothing he brought home even hinted that this was a church activity.  However, he does love singing and dancing and they worked on both for a show on the last night, but he refused to go saying "he might get stage fright."  Nothing I could say would encourage him to try.  His compromise is that he will perform one song each day for me.  The songs do have a God/Jesus message.  He really did a good job on the first song...and it didn't seem that easy to learn over 4 days for an almost 5-year old.  We ran out of time today because we had to pick my parents up at the airport and we had to wait for their luggage and by the time we got back home it was bedtime and he was already starting his tired whine, so I didn't even mention it.

Samuel is turning 5 next week!  I've always thought of our "school year" as from one birthday to the next so that means we will soon start Kindergarten!  The week after his birthday will be Zoo Camp and the following week we will be having a "staycation", so I'm looking at August 11 as my date to start being a little more formal. 

As such I have developed some lists of books, goals, and experiences that we will work from for the year.  By next week I hope to have a timeline/plan/schedule for getting it all done.

Bible

• Calvary Chapel schedule as a guideline for readings
• Keys for Kids devotions
• Awana for memory; Work on Genesis 1:1-5; Psalm 23; 1 Corinthians 13

Civics

• Volunteer on Thursdays - still looking for opportunity

Reading/Writing

• Start with one postcard to a family member each week and work up to letters
• Dolch Word Lists
• Practice reading by reading real books from public and personal library

Math

• Living Math books and activities (Stuart J. Murphy and others)
• Books and Ideas from Marilyn Burns' "Math and Literature (K-3) Book One"
• Begin addition and subtraction up to 10

Nature Study (Science)

• Complete 12 pages for his Zoo Animal Scrapbook (photo, name, and a few facts)
• Activities from Nancy Castaldo's "Little Hands Nature Book"
• Nature Walks/Scavenger Hunts
• Keep a Caterpillar
• Weather Lapbook (Christmas Break)
• Nutrition Lapbook (Summer Break)

History/Geography Book List (most of this list comes from Laura Berquist's "Desigining Your Own Classical Curriculum")

• Legend of the Indian Paintbrush by Tomie de Paola
• Iktomi Stories by Paul Goble
• First Strawberries by Joseph Bruchac
• Native American stories by Terri Cohlene
• Corn is Maize by Aliki
• More Than Moccasins by Laurie Carlson
• Picture Book of Columbus by David Adler
• In 1492 by Jena marzollo
• Pocahontas and the Strangers by Clyde Bulla
• Colonial Times from A to Z by Bobbie Kalman
• Sam the Minuteman by Nathanial Benchley
• If You Lived at the Time of the American Revolution by Kay Moore
• If I Were President by Catherine Stier
• Story of the White House by Kate Waters
• Hero Tales by Jackson
• Children Just Like Us by Kindersley
• Paddle to the Sea by Holling
• Picture Book Biography Series by David Adler

Literature/Poetry (most of this list comes from Sonlight Core C and Tanglewood)

• Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson
• The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner (may read others in series if we like this)
• James Herriot's Treasury for Children
• A Bear Called Paddington
• American Tall Tales by mary Pope Osborne
• Li Lun, Lad of Courage by Carolyn Treffinger
• Betsy-Tacy by Maud Hart Lovelace
• The Apple and the Arrow by Buff
• In Grandma's Attic by Richardson
• Story of Dr. Dolittle
• A Grain of Rice
• Just So Stories by Kipling
• Pagoo by Holling C. Holling
• When We Were Very Young/Now We Are Six by A. A. Milne
• Wonderful Wizard of Oz
• Twenty and Ten

Music Study

• "Amazing Grace"
• "In The Garden" (grandfather's favorite hymn - learn and sing as a surprise)
• "God Bless America"
• William Tell Overture
• Nutcracker Suite
• Selections by Mozart and a biography of his life

Life Skills

• Building (Lowe's and Home Depot Clinics)
• Making simple items for gifts (e.g. plastic canvas bookmarks, painted ceramic items)

***This is in addition to 2 days a week in a classical school.  We read a lot anyway, so I might as well read something that has some cohesiveness and educational value.  All the books on the list, I own or are owned by my public library.

Nature Study -

We had a storm that brought in a cool front, so we took advantage of the cooler weather and went outside for a nature walk along the fence line that the condo property shares with a horse farm.  We had not been since early May.  Here is what we discovered -

1. "Our secret house" is very overgrown and we almost missed it.  It is a small clearing surrounded and covered by trees.  I couldn't fit back there, but I was able to move enough branches for S to fit.
2. Two ladybugs and a small lavendar moth/butterfly.
3. Several orange flowers that had fallen on the ground. They looked like trumpets.  We looked for the source and discovered some way up high in a tree.  Using the internet after we got home we found that it is a trumpet creeper, which is a vine that grows on trees.
4. A tree with thistles growing on it.  This led to a memory exercise in how different trees make seeds.  For instance, pine trees use pinecones, apple trees use apples, and oak trees use acorns.

Reading/Phonics -

Some time ago I found this site and printed out the complete list of Dolch sight words by grade level and Dolch Nouns.  On the Fourth of July, I went through the list of "pre-primer" words and while I thought he knew them all, I wrote a few up on the white board and he just breezed through them.  Then I wrote a few from the Primer list and he got them all.  When I got to the First Grade list, he got one out of four words, but after  I explained the phoncs rule involved and he looked at them for a few days, he knew them.    In addition to these "quizzes", he has been reading every few days from a reader that I find in a library or in our bookshelves.  He was getting a little frustrated with some of the harder beginner readers so I'm stepping back on those to a really beginner level (like "My dog likes to play").

History -

We read Lynne Cheney's "America: A Patriotic Primer" that I found for $1 at a yard sale last year.  This is a book that is great for a wide variety of ages and I plan on reading this at this time of year eveyr year.  It goes from the very simple "A is for..." to historical details and quotes in addition to the nice illustrations.  Last year I only read the "A is for".  This year I talked about it and added in some of the details, but not all.

Crafts -

The Craft King lives!  This week's big project was a "Swan Machine".  He cut up a piece of yello cardstock in several different shapes and sizes, then drew and colored on them.  Finally he glued the pieces together collage style (with no background paper). When he was finished it kind of looked like a swan, but then he decided it was really a machine that sucked in mosquitos and turned them into ladybugs!  I want that invention!  He went so far as to show me how each part of the machine does something different to turn the mosquitos into ladybugs.  Very creative...but I take no credit other than letting him keep his craft supplies in plain sight on the dining room table.

Math -

This continues to be informal, but I sneak it in whenever I can.  For instance, today at the grocery, it was cheaper to buy 2 boxes of 3 bags of microwave popcorn each, so I had him calculate the total which he did by multiplying or adding rather than counting, and see if it was the same number as in the one big box.  All this was done in a conversational way rather than a quizzing way.  He'll start formal math in the fall using Rod and Staff.

Kid's Cooking Camp -

Kid's Cooking Camp Installment #2 was tomatoes.  We read "First Tomato" by Rosemary Wells and a Charlie and Lola book called something like "I Will Never Not Ever Eat a Tomato".  Samuel said he would not try homemade spaghetti sauce so we just had spaghetti out of a jar.  I am thinking about making homemade sauce without him and seeing if he'll try it.

Installment #3 was Muffins.  We read "The Muffin Fiend" by Daniel Pinkwater about Mozart playing detective to find out who is stealing all the muffins in Vienna; and "Come Meet Muffin" by Joyce Carol Oates which was about a cat and had nothing to do with muffins whatsoever.  But it was still a good book...just goes to show you how lacking our library's search engine is.  Again I took the short cut and made banana nut muffins from a mix, but this time Samuel did do most of the work.

Handipoints.com -

I must have read about this site somewhere else and bookmarked it a while back.  This week I was organizing my bookmarks and started playing around with this site.  You can enter up to 35 "chores" on a chart for each child and they check off boxes as they do them (we have just been checking off the boxes before bed), the parent "grades" each chore (for instance if Samuel fusses about going to bed but still goes to bed on time, he would get an A- instead of an A+ for "going to bed on time, which translates to fewer points), then the child gets points to redeem for fun stuff or playing on the web site.  The parent sets the rewards.  I decided to give a dollar for every 100 points.  

In addition to chores on the list, you can add fun things like "Sing a Song" or educational things like "writing a poem".  We also have "give mom a big hug" as a daily "chore.  You can also get points reduced for "arguing" or "talking back".  Anyway, so far, it's gotten Samuel a little more interested in doing his part to keep the house clean and himself healthy.

I have really relaxed my requirements in favor of fun and child-led learning this summer.  He is still in his three day a week camp and although it is a fun camp as opposed to a learning camp, he comes home exhausted, so mostly we spend the rest of the time "playing around".  Now I fully believe learning happens all the time, plus the fact that a four-year old ought to have a lot of free play, so I am just going with the flow.

There has been a lot of swimming, a zoo trip with a friend, and time with extended family. He loves crafts and often just makes up a craft with materials on hand.  Right now, he is working on "Samuel's News".  I don't know what makes it news, but he has about seven pages of it now, as well as some smaller pages he cut down.  All the pages are covered in different scribbles, lines and dots.  One of the pages has a spider web on it.  He came in to the bathroom this morning while I was taking a shower to ask me how to spell "The End", but even though he wrote those words on a piece of paper, I guess the "news" never ends because he is still working on it.

Instead of every night asking him to read, I ask him maybe 3 or 4 times a week.  Literature is slowing down too as he wants to squeeze as much play out of the day as he can which takes us right up to bedtime instead of having at least 30 minutes of bedtime reading.  Plus I haven't been checking out as many books as I usually do so there's not a lot of good stuff to choose from.  

We did one planned activity:

We signed up for a Kid's Cooking Camp at this website.  It's free and you get a link and password once a week.  The first camp is about carrots.  The site gives you a few book suggestions and a recipe.  Even though I have 4 weeks worth of camp in my mailbox, we have just finished the first "camp".  the recipe was for carrot cookies.  We had a lot of fun making the dough.  Samuel grated carrots, cracked the egg, helped me measure and stirred the dough.  While each batch was cooking, we read a book - Carrot Soup by John Segal, The Giant Carrot by Jan Peck, and The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss.  Samuel liked the dough, but the cookie was less liked.  They were not very sweet...think muffin cookie.  I liked them though so they will get eaten! Next installment is tomatoes.

I will begin by inviting you to read my other Kid Funnies blog entries.  But for Flashback Friday I have some from my childhood and early early in my son's childhood.

My middle brother (I am the oldest and only girl) -

1. On vacation one year when we were in a sit-down restaurant for dinner where the food didn't arrive 2 minutes after we ordered - "They must have a slow cooker".  From there we got "fast cooker" and used these terms often as a family.
2. Trying to describe a memory without enough words and  told us it happened on "that great big long day".  None of us ever knew what he was referring to, but again, it became part of our family vernacular.

My youngest brother -

One Mother's Day we (my Dad) bought my mother a pair of tennis shoes from all the kids.  My youngest brother was maybe 3 or 4, not a good age for keeping secrets.  Even though my Dad wrapped it in the shoe box so it was obvious what it was, Mom asked in that Mom voice "I wonder what it could be" as she opened it.  Youngest bro answered, "It might be shoes..." but at the stern look from me and middle bro, quickly added, "...or it might be a candy bar."  Now, whenever there is a shoe box shaped present we joke that "it might be a candy bar."

Of course, since I am the oldest and it was really us kids who kept these funnies alive, there are none for me....so sad.

Now, here is one I remember periodically from my son just after he had learned some letters and gotten the idea that when you put letters together they make words.  We are fortunate to have two wonderful Christian music radio stations in our city.  One of them has the call letters in their tag line, "WJIE, Where Jesus is Exalted".  One day in the car after hearing this, S said "WJIE...that spells music".  The reason this was so funny to me is that I didn't even realize he knew that letters formed words....up to this point we had just played alphabet games.  He was probably around 3.

Monday we spent an hour at the pool, playing, but also "practicing" his beginner swimming skills.  Tuesday was his swim class.  In talking to another mom there I got a recommendation for some early readers, so I put one on my reserve list at the library and will let you know if I like them.

S finished the last of the ten books he had to read for the library's summer reading program.  I liked their checklist...after the space for the title of each book it had a smiley face, a neutral face and a sad face.  Samuel had to circle the face that described how much he liked each book.  He is only supposed to fill out one list, but I think I may snag a couple more just for our records and not to turn in for prizes.  He read a book Monday and Tuesday. 

Last year he began an alphabet book that was a series of worksheets for each letter with a picture to color, so cut and paste shapes and two lines for practicing the upper case and lower case letter.  In our review of this "book" a few weeks ago, we noticed that "k" was missing, so he did that this week.  He is a perfectionist (read "slow") so it took him two days to finish, one day for the color, cut and paste and the second day for the writing.

Another writing activity involved copying "Happy Father's Day Love Samuel" onto his dad's card he made.  We hd the beginning of a melt-down on that one because he didn't like how it was looking and his "r" looked like an "n" and he didn't have enough space...you name it. 

He is such a little perfectionist and he is sometimes afraid to try if he thinks he cant' do it perfectly.  I have told him that "practice makes perfect" and that I will just be proud of him if he tries and does his best, and that his "best" doesn't have to be the same as Mommy's best, and many other variations of encouragement and explanation.  I want to pull out my hair sometimes because I have never been a perfectionist, but a "good enough" person.  I am good at a lot of things, but not great at any one thing as a result of my attitude.  But I really need to find a way of helping him deal with his way of thinking that doesn't result in temper tantrums.  Any ideas?

We went on vacation for week 5 so week 4 was mostly getting ready to go.  However, we did fit it  -

Family Picnic and Nature Walk - The goal was to find three yellow things (three different flowers), three red things (found a wild strawberry and a red stem on a weed), and three blue things (the sky, the reflection of the sky in the stream).  We decided that maybe somewhere in the park had been a cardinal and a blue jay, so that would finish out our list.  We went on a small hike also after we found our items.  We all tried humuus for the first time and decided we liked it.

Science - We read Octopuses by Sandra Markle.  This is the next one in the prey series, although we have read that octopuses are both predator and prey.  I also told him that the more common plural of octopus is octopi.

Reading - Spent a few days reading Dr. Seuss' One Fish Two Fish.

We went to Myrtle Beach for our vacation and took 2 days getting there and two days back.  We listened to The Mouse and The Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary.  I started reading The Enormous Egg by Oliver Butterworth at bedtime each night and got about halfway through.  We all are really enjoying this story about a special egg that hatches out of a small town hen.

During the car trip, I had a bag of tricks that S dubbed the "surprise bag".  In it I had a maze book, a sticker book, a coloring book, a read to yourself book, some markers, a plain notepad, two toy cars and some snacks.  I could have done with more, but he really did well with the trip.

We all loved our vacation week, but mostly we just had fun.  S practiced his swimming and I taught him to open his eyes underwater.  Hubby and S found some cool shells, including one that still had the dead animal attached.  We went to a privately owned zoo with some interesting animals including several babies.  Whenever we see a baby animal, S adds it to "his baby collection".  I don't necessarily take pictures of all of them, so I this is a collection he keeps mostly in his head, but he can rattle off the animals in this collection pretty well.  For me the best part was the Lazy River at our resort.  I love these things...they are so peaceful.

S starts camp next week (T/W/Th 9:30 - 1:30), so probably the only "school" I will get back into with him is reading/phonics, as well as good lit/poetry for bedtime reading.  I may be gearing up to try a weather lapbook the following week.  At least I've been gathering books and materials.  I won't press it if he is not interested, but I think he might like it.

One of the things I love best about homeschooling is that if the child loses interest in something you can just put it on the shelf and (maybe) come back to it at a later time.  In public school, they just have to plug along and either get it or don't and possibly end up hating it.

Such has been the case with reading for us.  I started with letter games, singing the alphabet, puzzles, etc...very laid back.  When I decided he was ready for a little more formal program, I bought the Fun Tales set of 26 readers from Sonlight Curriculum.  This was just too much of a jump from letters to reading, so I stopped and tried a few lessons from Ordinary Parents Guide to Reading.  This was good, but just more formal than I wanted.  I finally found Progressive Phonics, which was just perfect for us through the three letter short vowel words.  We started the next book, which was still short vowel sounds, but added two letter beginning blends.  half-way through this one, he got bored and wanted to go back to Fun Tales.  But he didn't just want to read Fun Tales, he wanted to read other easy readers from the library.  He might even go a week or two without reading anything other than just words he would find in real life.

He started reading around September and just finished the last Fun Tales reader!

My point is that he has learned to read at his own pace, but if I had pushed it at any time and with a curriculum or reader series he wasn't interested in, would he hate the idea of reading now?  If this happens when he does start formal Kindergarten in the fall, then I see my job as a parent to help him find other ways of learning the same thing.

Friday

S spent the morning with my mom.  He played Reader Rabbit Preschool Math for a while in the afternoon.  It lets him practice his math concepts and he just thinks he's playing a game.  He also finished cutting out some shapes he had colored yesterday.  The next step is to paste them on a sheet of paper to make a picture of two birds in a nest.  He wants to paste it on sky blue paper so I have to look for that color in my scrapbook stuff.  After dinner, we did our neighborhood walk to check on our caterpillars we found two days ago (yeah, we found them!)  and also found two roly-poly bugs (I poked one to show him how it rolled up, but said we shouldn't scare the second one) and picked a leaf to identify back at home...I knew it was a white oak leaf, but he didn't, and he was able to match it to a poster we have in his room.  Also, he checked on and watered his flower and it's not dying yet.  At bedtime, he read two books ; The Foot Book by Dr. Seuss and I Like Stars, a Step Into Reading book by Margaret Wise Brown.

Saturday

Samuel read Dog and Cat, a reader from the library.  I read him two poems by Jack Prelutsky, Millions of Cats by Wanda Gag, the beginning of a story from Winnie-the-Pooh, and the end of Porcupines by Sandra Markle.  He planted another weed he pulled from outside and the first one is still alive.  He wanted to check on "his" two caterpillars, and since I was short on time, I discovered a possible side benefit to studying nature.  Normally, our nature walks are leisurely strolls, but this time we had a purpose...get there and back in the shortest possible time.  So at about a mile round trip with a small rest in the middle, I definitely got my exercise in!  Back to the caterpillars - we saw an additional two smaller ones hanging on the same fallen branch as one of the bigger ones.  The other bigger one, we could actually see him munching on a leaf, just like in the Eric Carle book.

Sunday

We team-read Hop on Pop by Dr. Seuss (he read the big words and I read the small words - big and small physically).  He played Reader Rabbit Preschool Math.  We baked a cake together.  I measured, he cracked the eggs and did some of the mixing.  He wanted a banana chocoate cake, so I bought chocolate cake mix, substituted mashed banana for the amount of water and used water for the amount of oil.  The batter was really good, but the cake wasn't such a big hit.  Next time, I may try adding chocolate chips and chocolate frosting to banana cake.

Monday - Friday

My home computer broke and I just got it back today.  My habit is to add things to a draft entry every night and I didn't write anything down anywhere else (and even if I had my house is such a wreck I probably wouldn't have been able to find it today when I got my computer back).  So this will really be just the highlights as opposed to the more detailed record I normally have.

At swim class #9, he actually swam about 2 feet without the teacher giving him assistance.  It was a proud day for both of us and he has renewed interest in continuing with classes.  He will start the next level this coming up week. 

The literature book that stands out in my mind was a picture book retelling of Little Babaji by Julius Lester called "Sam and the Tigers"  I thought the author did a great job of keeping with the feel of the original language but taking out any hint of racism that is sometimes brought up.  I used voices and tried to read the book as though I was telling the story instead of reading. 

On Thursday we showed up at the library on opening and they were excited that Samuel was the first one to get the summer reading program form (they know us well at our branch).  I told him this was the first year all the books could be ones he read instead of ones I read to him and he was so excited by this that he read 5 books that same day!  Since then (and I'm writing this on Sunday) he has not wanted to read a whole book through, although he has read a few pages each day.  I guess he overdid it!  He has to read 10 to get the prizes and be entered in the drawing for the bigger prizes.

Also, his "Your Big Backyard" magazine arrived and we read about lizards and ants and a few other articles.  And sad news on the caterpillars...the mowers came and when we checked the usual spot did not find a one.  I am hoping there are more around that we just did not see, but we didn't have time to look around that day.

And that's about all I can remember, although I am sure we did more.  Also, I only need two more comments to reach 100, so please leave me a comment and tell me your (or your child's) favorite beginning/easy reader.

I'm a couple days late for Kelli Ann's Flashback Friday, but I liked her topic for this week, so better late than never.  Her son's birthday was Friday, so her flasback focussed on his past birthdays, specifically cakes.  I was the opposite of her...I started Samuel with store-bought cakes and then made the foray into homemade.  His fifth birthday is in July and we haven't settled on a theme yet, but that will dictate whether I try it again this year. 

Here is his first birthday trying cake and icing for the first time.  Really this was the first time he had anything sweet that was not a fruit.

One of his favorite toys he got at his first birthday was his Little People Farm, so I decided on a farm theme and added similar farm animal toys to the bakery cake.

The next year he wanted a Cars birthday, like the movie, except that this was the summer the movie came out and I couldn't find a bakery with a Cars theme cake.  So I went online and found this cute race track cake which I thought looked easy enough and then I added Cars diecast cars that I bought at Toys R Us.  It wasn't that easy, but everyone thought it was cool that I even tried it and Samuel was still young enough not to be embarrassed by my efforts.

Last year, we tried the Mystery Machine and it was fun.  I also made cupcakes and tried a tie-dye effect with the icing but it just looked like rainbow colored spider webs.  I can't take credit for this idea either, it came from another web search.

So here's our birthday flashback, and check back near the end of July to find out what we did for Number 5!

READING

Because Samuel is so young to begin reading, I am wanting to guide his progress without a formal phonics program, but I also want to make sure he doesn't get into some bad habits.  So I am always on the search for some good beginning readers at the library, but many of them are just a little too hard and I think he has pretty much gone through all those I could find.

So I was really excited last week when we were at Half-Price Books and S asked for "Ten Apples Up On Top" by Dr. Seuss and I opened it and realized it was the perfect level!  It is awful long for a beginning reader to read in one sitting, but he happily plugged along reading a few pages a day until he finished the whole thing.  He was so proud to read that whole book.  So, now I am looking at other Dr. Seuss books that would be at the right level.

WRITING

He practiced writing quite a bit with his Mother's Day cards.  I have noticed that while he is now staying on the same line and his letters are more evenly spaced, they are all the same size (the top of each letter are even with each other, as well as the bottom of each letter) and he does not have any space between words.  So that will be the next thing I "gently guide" him.  One day I needed to do some work on the computer and he did not want to be away from me.  So I set up the child size table and chair next to the desk and printed a few work sheets.  One of them was to practice printing R's which are one of his hard letters.

LITERATURE and POETRY

1. We continued to read Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle and finished it.  Samuel didn't comment too much about it, except to say the Radish Cure is his favorite, but he always asked for it as part of his bed-time reading. 
2. We read "The Little House" by Virginia Lee Burton.  This is a really good story of a little house in the country who watches the passing of seasons and eventually the city growing out and up around her until she is overshadowed by the big city.  Don't worry it has a happy ending and Samuel loved this one. 
3. We are still reading from Jack Prelutsky's "Something Big Has Been Here" for poetry. 
4. I had checked out Winnie-the-Pooh a few weeks ago and this week we read two stories from it.

We read lots more, but nothing else I really felt qualified as "good literature", although I believe that quantity is, while not as important as quality, definitely good, at least in terms of amount of time spent in the act of enjoying a book.

NATURE

On Wednesday after supper we took a walk around our neighborhood that turned into a nature walk.  We watched two worms squiggle around on the sidewalk (it rained most of the day).  We found two caterpillars and decided we should check back on that area over the next several days to see if we can find chrysallises chrysali cocoons and later butterflies.  We noticed that even the evergreens get spring leaves (they are a much lighter green and softer).  And he pulled a weed wildflower with the roots still attached so we are experimenting with replanting it at our house.  My theory is that being pulled from the ground was too big a shock and it will die.

We also finished reading "Porcupines" by Sandra Markle from the Prey series.

MUSIC APPRECIATION (a stretch, but still...)

He rode the free horse ride at Kroger and it played the William Tell Overture.  I told him what it was called, we noticed that the music made us think of horses galloping, which is probably why the makers used this music.  I even told him about the Lone Ranger and that good classical music never gets old.

P.E.

He is doing amazingly well in his swim lessons.  I think having an adult, not his mommy, giving his lessons is just what he needed.  No way would he put his face in the water for me, but for a woman he met only 9 weeks ago...sure!  Next week he graduates from the Rosie Redfish I class and he has already asked to keep going with the Rosie Redfish II class.  His goal is to make Rainbow Fish, which is swim team ready for next summer. We'll see how that goes.

BIBLE

We finished The Beginner's Bible!  I ordered Keys for Kids and I hope it come soon so we can begin.

I also signed up for a free trial of Clever Island.  I hope the link works.  Once I signed up, the cookies take me directly to the login page instead of the free trial page.  This lasts for 15 days and I'm not sure how much it costs after that.  The games supposedly reinforce all the basic school subjects (reading, math, science, arts, social studies).  S has played a few games and one of them had a little money math in it and after a quick explanation from me, he was good to go.  I started him on the easy level, but there are 3 total levels.  I'll give a more detailed review after our free trial is up.

Our first week of May began with the Kentucky Derby Festival Pegasus Parade.  I had not been since the 8th grade and my dad had not been since before I was born.  Samuel of course had never been.  We had a great time, although S's favorite part was the "pooper scoopers" who follow the horses.  Each team had a fun costume and really played up to the crowds who all cheered when they "did their duty".  Even on our fun day, I had to sneak learning in there by asking S to tell me the names of different instruments in the marching bands!

Everyone in my family except for me was getting over their illness.  I could not even read out loud for very long, so that suffered a little, but not a whole lot.  The benefit to me not reading was that S read more.  We only have one book left in Sonlight's Fun Tales series of 26 booklets which focus on the short vowel sounds. 

Even when I couldn't read for long, I would read one or two poems from the Jack Prelutsky anthology we have from the library (Something Big Had Been Here).  Other books I have read are:

1. Four chapters from Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle by Betty MacDonald.  I remember this book from my own elementary days.  Samuel is getting a kick out of all the bad things the kids do and then how they get tricked into being good children again.
2. We began one chapter from Winnie-the Pooh by A. A. Milne.  I'll finish it up tomorrow.
3. Tom Thumb (Grimm) retold by Eric Carle in  "Eric Carle's Treasury of Classic Stories for Children".  In the notes of this book, these statements - "In the lively retellings of the classic stories in this volume, Eric Carle has followed the long oral tradition, retaining the essentials of the tales, but making such alterations as he felt were called for.  In general he has kept to the plots of the sotries faithfully, but in some he has eliminated long descriptive passages that he felt were obstacles to young people just beginning to have some mastery of reading."  Not being familiar with any originals myself, the ones I have skimmed over seem good to me.
4. The House of Maple Street by Bonnie Pryor.  This is a delightful tale of the history of the land and people who came before the house on Maple Street was built, starting with an Indian tribe and description of the land, followed by pioneers travelling west to those who eventually settled the area.
5. We are still following up on our Vulture Experience back in February!  The author of the book we found at the library after that is Sandra Markle and she had 6 total books on different Scavengers which we finished in March.  Then I noticed she also wrote books about Prey animals and Predator animals and S said he had to read all of them!  We began the first of the prey books this week, entitled "Porcupines".  Each book follows one animal (in this case a make porcupine) and follows it through a season, touching on what it eats, how it defends itself, how it finds food, mating, birthing, parenting,  interacting with others of it's species.  It's really like a story filled with facts. 

We also made a trip to the zoo on Friday.  We were only planning on visiting the gift shop to buy these little animals Samuel likes to collect (he had "worked" extras jobs for me and his grandparents to earn a whopping $12 which bought him 4 animals) and a present for Hubby's birthday.  But then we heard the announcement that the elephants were going to be "exercising" at 11 and since it was 10:30, we headed that way (we have a one-year old elephant and you just can't miss anything that Scotty is going to do!).  Well, of course, we had to visit the lemurs, giraffes, hyrax, elephant shrew, spiny mouse, bongos and lions on the way.  We also noticed that the Addaxes had two new babies that we hadn't heard about - so cute!  So we actually ended up staying at the zoo for about an hour instead of the 15 minutes I had planned.  I didn't really mind since it was a beautiful morning (that afternoon it rained buckets on those attending the Oaks horse races, including my parents, brother and SIL).

One other opportunity I found was in a crying jag S was having.  If he is tired or not feeling well and gets the smallest bump or negative attention (read "fussing" from me), he will start crying and can't stop.  I have held him for up to 30 minutes while he cries it out.  And I have tried distracting, singing, leaving the room, you name it.  Nothing works to stop the crying until he is ready to stop.  So this time I tried some word problems.  I asked him simple things like if I had two apples and he had two apples how many do we have alltogether (he can talk through his cries, he just can't stop).  Then I used silly examples like if he had ten baby bears and I took away five.  Then I asked if he could count backwards from 20.  I knew he could do it from 10, but didn't think he could from 20.  He couldn't, but I kept him at it and his little brain was reall working to figure out the next (previous) number until he got to 10 and then he just flew down the number line.  By that time he had stopped crying and he was surprised as he realized this.  So I told him to try that technique the next time he couldn't stop crying.  Maybe it will work again, who knows, but he still got some math practice out of it!

I have realized that S(4.75 yo) has already met or surpassed the goals I had for him for this school year that I called K4.  I called it K4 rather than preschool because of a couple of reasons:

1. He wanted to learn to read
2. He wanted me to read chapter books
3. He had already achieved almost all of the skills listed on the World Book Curriculum Standards for Preschool

So I am taking an extended "summer session" lasting from May through August.  I will continue to read good literature that I can find in our library from lists and recommendations I find from other homeschoolers using the Beechick, Mason, and/or Classical philosophies.  We will work on expanding our nature study, art and music appreciation.  I have ordered Keys for Kids and am hoping that will work for our Bible study and devotional.  He is taking swim lessons, attending a 3 day a week camp for 4 weeks, Zoo camp for 1 week (mornings only) and we are going on one week long vacation in June and a possible shorter trip in August.  I will choose good books for his book basket, but I will also let him have a say in what he wants to read.  I will have him practice his letters and numbers once a week and reading 3 or 4 times a week.

In my head it didn't sound like much, but now that I'm writing it down, it sounds like a lot.  Mostly I just want to have learning available, but let him lead the way.  I want him to have plenty of free play, but I want to be ready to take advantage of the opportunities where we find them.  I will attempt to blog weekly about what opportunities we found during the previous week.

I had serious Spring Fever, plus we had some illnesses (bad sniffles and coughs) these last couple of weeks.  But I had really loose goals for the month anyway.  I think we did pretty good.  I spent a little time looking at some letter of the week pages S4 did for an alphabet book we started in the fall and finished putting together today.  They included coloring, cutting, pasting, and writing the letters.  Even though it didn't really seem like he was making a lot of progress as we went along, this look-back has really proven me (happily) wrong.  Anyway, here is my record chart for April:

April 2008    

Bible - Beginner’s Bible	NT – Net Full of Fish, Jesus Goes To Heaven, The Holy Spirit Comes, The First Church
Memory	Children, Obey your parents in the Lord. The Lord is my Shepherd… Worship the Lord with gladness.
Phonics	Fun Tales #21 “Ken’s Bugs”, #22 “Ben’s Dog”, #23 “Ned’s Pets” First-Start Easy Readers, “Home for a Puppy”, “Pete’s Parakeet”, “Bedtime Story”, “Tree House Fun” and “Easter Bunny’s Lost Egg”
Printing	Practice letters through making cards
Literature/Poetry	5 Pooh Stories by A. A. Milne The Lighthouse Family: The Storm The Lighthouse Family: The Whale The Lighthouse Family: The Eagle The Lighthouse Family:  The Turtle Ogden Nash’s Zoo Begin collection by Jack Prelutsky – “Something Big Has Been Here”
Math	“Earth Day-Hooray” by Murphy (Place Value) Hetty’s One Hundred Hats One Hundred Hungry Ants “The Best Vacation Ever” by Murphy (Collecting Data)
Science	I Love Our Earth, by Martin and Sampson My Spring Robin by Anne Rockwell “Starting Life Ladybug” by Claire Llewellyn Green Hours #5, #6
History/Geography	Looking at world and US maps
Art/Music	Finger Painting Horseshoe and American Falls, Niagara, painted by Frederick Edwin Church Sleeping Gypsy and Exotic Landscape, painted by Henri Rousseau
Other	Swim Lessons

Did we turn off our TV?  No.  But we did all do some thinking about what we were watching and how often the TV was on.  For myself and Samuel when I was home with him, there was no automatic turning on the TV and just having that background noise for show after show.  For myself, I also did not just sit in front of the TV clicking the remote looking for something to watch.  Even for Hubby, several times I asked if anyone was watching the TV and he said "no" and turned it off.  Once when I came in from running errands alone, they both teased me and said, "hurry turn off the TV...Mommy's home".

I definitely think this is an experiment that I will continue to do maybe once every couple of months or when I think TV is getting out of hand.

I have been intrigued by this concept for years...people who never or rarely watch TV...people who don't even own a TV???  I grew up with multiple TVs in the house; currently the TV is rarely turned off when Hubby is home. 

When S was about 6 months old, we started to monitor what we were watching when he was in the room (no more gory CSI scenes).  But instead of turning off the TV, we turned to Baby Einstein DVDs and Playhouse Disney.  Now with channels like PBS Sprout and Noggin on 24 hours a day, it's amazing how often we have the TV on.  Hubby has even gotten S watching the "old" cartoons on Boomerang.  Well, this year, Mama has had enough!  Or has she?

I must say this is harder than I thought.  I started with marking it on the calendar...this makes it real.  Every time S saw it on the calendar, he whined about it though, so I wasn't really sure if I could pull it off.  I didn't really think I would get Hubby's support on this. Well, Monday rolled around and I didn't even mention it.  Usually, I get breakfast and let him eat and watch TV while I get ready...most days it is 1 to 1 1/2 hours first thing in the morning.  Then Hubby takes over at lunch time for a couple hours and mostly the TV is on, although sometimes they go to the zoo.  I may let him watch 1 or 2 shows in the late afternoon.  When you add all this up, it is obvious this is way too much TV.  And I am a lot worse because I watch 2 - 3 hours after he goes to bed.  Why am I wasting my life like this?!

So anyway, Monday, I didn't mention TV, I didn't automatically turn it on for him and I played the distraction game a bit.  He never noticed.  I asked my mom to do the same on Monday afternoon (her day with him).  She said she finally let him watch one show on Noggin around 4:00.  Then nothing for the rest of the day.  I also watched no TV.  Monday is the day Hubby doesn't get to see either of us, so I don't know what he did.

Today was a lot harder.  I am suffering from a seasonal allergy/sinus/cough/headache thing and really did not have the energy this morning so I told S he could watch 2 shows we already had recorded...Magic School Bus and a new Wonder Pets they were advertising for Monday night that HE had put on the calendar.   I went back to bed at lunch time and I know I heard the TV on, but I'm not arguing about it.  I also let S stay up to watch American Idol with me since he took a nap this afternoon.  Tonight we both agreed Sayesha Mercado was the best even though we usually don't pick her as the best singer of the night.  Jason Castro was the worst for both of us too, but our other rankings differed. (On a side note, I mentioned that after the winner is chosen, all of the top ten idols go around the country singing concerts in different cities.  He wanted to know if they were coming here...I may have to use distraction as I am not prepared to take him to a concert at age 5)

So I don't know how tomorrow will go.  I'm still really sick and making sure I meet my minimukm responsibilities is about all I have energy for.  But I still really want to try to make this experiment work.

How many of us slow down with the formal stuff once the weather turns warm and the colors of spring brighten our days?  I know we sure do.  I was looking at my monthly record of what we have done vs. what I planned to do, it is sorely lacking.  But surely learning occurs in everyday life as much as in books and lessons.  I really believe that.  And it's much easier to sit inside reading during the 3H days we have around here in the summer.  That's "Hazy Hot and Humid" to those of you in cooler or drier climates.  These are the days when the air is so thick you could cut it with a butter knife and breathing becomes difficult just sitting in the shade, let alone trying to be active.

So we are enjoying our spring, learning about the changes in nature and reading a little bit.  My mother-in-law has been ill in the hospital, so we've also made some cards to cheer her up.   And when S(4.5) gets in the craft mode, nothing will stop him.  I like that now he is creative enough to come up with his own crafts just from the materials we have on hand, as opposed to me coming up with the craft ideas and buying the materials to make them and doing a lot of prep work.  The other day he made an octopus with a paper plate, eight pipe cleaners, and two googly eyes.

Slow down, stop and smell the roses, remember what a wonderful world God made for us, and take the time to praise and thank Him.

I think too often in our busy world, parents just don't have the time to take advantage of many opportunies to teach their kids.  I think it is my responsibility (and joy) as a parent to walk the fine line between exposing my son to educational opportunities and overhwhelming him; and between taking advantage of the opportunities that life offers and forcing or pushing too hard.  This post is about a couple of recent opportunities to teach a lesson and encourage an interest.

The first one happened on the way to the library (again...see this post).  With the recent pretty weather, we were driving with the windows down when suddenly I heard a piercing scream from the back seat.  I'm driving and can't turn around to see so I'm frantically trying to get S4.5 to calm down enough to tell me.  There was a bug on his pants leg (he identified it as some kind of beetle, but of course, I can't confirm that), so I calmly talk about how bugs are part of nature and most of them don't want to or can't hurt you and suggest we look for some books at the library to learn more about different kinds of insects.  By this time the bug was gone and being reminded that we were headed to the library cheered him right up.  We found three age appropriate books and are spending some time with them this week.  He's still afraid of bugs though.  I always thought all boys loved bugs.

The second one happened at my parents' house.  My mom has started putting up all her Derby (the Kentucky Derby for those in Louisville is like Mardi Gras in New Orleans)  themed decorations.  One of them was a ceramic race horse.  Samuel was playing with it (against previous orders) and it broke.  I decided to begin a lesson in apologizing that, frankly, many adults in our world today could use.  First I made him apologize for breaking the rule and the horse (this took a lot of tears and a time-out in another room with me explaining that everybody makes mistakes and that it's ok to make mistakes but that when we do, we need to make things right).  The first step was apologize.  He finally did it and we headed home. 

Today I checked and they were able to glue it back together since it was just one clean break.  If they had not, I planned on taking S and $4 of his hard-earned money he's been saving for something special (he only needed one more dollar at this point) to a local gift store specializing in everything Kentucky and having him pick out a replacement.  Now I know he wouldn't be able to buy anything with $4 and I planned on picking up the rest of the tab, but at least he would feel some of the consequences.  I was actually hoping this would be the case so the lesson would be re-enforced.  Well, it's fixed, so now I'm on the search for a horse race or hot-air balloon or pegasus related craft he can make for them.  I figure they would like that and he would still have to work at "making it right".