Our Week Off / An Extended Field Trip

This was our first week off of the school year.  It was really weird to take a break from school while most other kids are just beginning their school year, and at a time when we weren't in desperate need of a break.  I'm still debating if I should've scheduled us for longer sessions between breaks but I think it may be good in the long run that we haven't reached our breaking point at the end of a session, and that we aren't dreading the beginning of a new session.  I don't know . . . :)

We spent the first part of our week just relaxing and preparing for our trip.  All three kids enjoyed lots of extra playtime with each other and I got a bunch of work around the house done.  We went to co-op, but otherwise did nothing school related. 

I'm starting to teach Luke how to help get our lunches ready the night before co-op.  He did great . .  then we left our lunch bag at home and had to buy pizza! 

I assist in Olivia's room during 3rd hour. 

On Friday morning, we left for Mackinac Island.  We've been doing some Michigan studies in preparation for the trip, so the boys were really excited to go across the Mackinac Bridge and visit the Upper Peninsula.  

After we crossed the bridge, we spent some time throwing rocks and walking along the pier at St. Ignace.  Rock throwing is one of my children's favorite activities.   The pier and lighthouse were beautiful and had lots of little things to learn.



Throwing rocks with Daddy

I really do exist!

She would try to throw a handful of rocks, but kept dropping some.  Aaron picked her up and found she had a hood full of little pebbles!



We learned about boats that used to carry train cars across the Straits of Mackinac.  That would be a hard job!

One of my favorite picture of Ben.

Luke loved laying on the log just looking into the water.

Friday night, we stayed at a hotel in Mackinac City that had an indoor waterpark.  The kids loved it, but we were so busy keeping everyone safe that I didn't take any pictures.

Saturday morning, we left for Mackinac Island.  All three kids were excited to experience their first boat ride.  We were fortunate that we happened to board a boat that looped under the bridge (I believe it only happens a couple times a day).  The bridge looks even bigger when you're down on the water. 

We only planned to spend half the day on the island, so we decided to visit the fort.  We learned about the Battle of Mackinac and watched rifle and canon firings.  We spent a good chunk of time in the Kids Quarters and took lots of pictures (except for Ben who was not in the mood for pictures).

The beautiful view from the top of the fort

Blurry picture of the canon firing

rifle firing



Olivia loved banging on the Morse Code exhibit

Dressed as a soldier  - I think he was trying to look serious.

Luke wanted to take a picture in every one of the openings.  This is the face he made when I told him it was the spot for a little girl.

Learning how to be a soldier

When we were done, we went back to the main streets for lunch and , of course, to buy fudge. 

Watching the fudge making process



One of the fudge makers gave each of the boys half a chunk of fudge for free.  I let them nibble on it for as long as I could handle it!

 

Olivia couldn't handle all the excitement and fell asleep.  She woke up after 20 minutes, murmured "fudge" and promptly passed out again!

After Mackinac, we headed over to Boyne Mountain to meet up with my parents for 2 nights.  We stayed in a villa with a playground, so after dinner we spent some time outside.  The boys love to make up games with my dad.   This week, they invented shuffleboard ball (pretty much shuffleboard, but played with a ball!)





Rope ball - The boys had to try to hit the jump rope with a racquetball.

My dad wanted to wear out the boys, so he suggested climbing one of the skiing hills next to our villa.  I teased the boys that if they made it up the entire mountain, I would give them each $2 for their piggy bank.  I never thought they could actually do it!  The mountain was pretty steep and very big for two little boys.  All of us were panting and sore by the time we made it to the top.  Ben stopped a few times to say, "I don't think I like this," but refused to go back down.  He was completely determined to make it.  On our way, we saw a family of white-tailed deer.  Amazingly, no one broke a limb and we all made it to the top.  The view was amazing.

This picture was taken about halfway up.  It doesn't do justice to the size!



The lights are from our hotel. 

By the time Sunday came along, the kids were exhausted and the weather was cold and rainy.  We went out for lunch, but spent the rest of our day hanging out at the villa watching football and movies, and just hanging out together.  The boys completed most their schoolwork that was scheduled for the car ride home, and Luke and I finished the last book in the "My Father's Dragon" series.

We left for home on Monday morning.  I think everyone is ready to get back into our normal schedule.  Vacation is exhausting!

Week 6-End of Session 1

This was a very different week with many changes to our schedule. We juggled taking off Labor Day, starting co-op, and a field trip.  Even with all of our extras, we managed to finish school by Friday night and are now officially on our first break.  We're trying out a six weeks on / one week off schedule this year.  I'm hoping that taking the week break will give us time to take some day trips, put the house back together and enjoy one of the last weeks of summer.  It feels very weird to take a week off as most children are starting back to school, so I have to keep reminding myself that we started back in July!

 

Science -

We've been reading about trees this week in science, so we also took time to watch videos about Sequoia National Park.  Did you know that the bark on Redwood trees is actually fireproof?  The pine cones from the tree actually need the heat from fire to open and spread their seeds.  We also checked out other national park videos and the boys now have a list of all of the western USA vacation spots they want to hit when everyone is older.

This picture wasn't staged at all.  I love Luke's look of concentration!
 

Handwriting/LA
We went back to Draw Write Now this week after taking a break from it.  Luke worked very diligently on his writing and his picture and was incredibly proud of his work.  He also worked on his story and was proud to use his new writing tool - commas.  I love story writing because it provides great opportunities to learn and apply what he learns from his studies.

I love that the background to his turkey drawing includes a volcano and a waterfall!

Math
We finished the basic addition section of the math book, but I really don't have any exciting pictures or stories of workbook time!  We did work on math in the kitchen, though.  I am working on making sure that I allow the boys to help cook in whatever ways are possible.  Luke is getting better with reading the measuring cup and was starting to recognize thirds on the side of the cup. 

Our cute taste-tester

We try to practice counting money occasionally, so we pulled out the piggy bank and started counting.  Luke is allowed to keep the change after we pay for something (coins only!) if he can count the coins correctly on his own.  He was so proud to have earned over $12 throughout the summer, so we went to the store to do some shopping.  After about 30 minutes walking around Target, we discovered he has a little of his mama in him, because he couldn't bear to spend it and decided to save up for a bigger purchase.  It is amazing how much more conscious of prices a child becomes when the money is coming from his own piggy bank!

In the midst of a big decision

Spelling
We started spelling practice this week.  I delayed it because his phonics book has a strong spelling emphasis, so he is pretty good at sounding out words.  Our spelling list is starting off with sight words that also have tricky spellings like "was" and "has".  We spent time working on his spelling list outside and on the computer (which he loved).

Chalk time spelling

Notice the upside-down stool due to our active toddler!

Michigan Studies
We're vacationing in northern Michigan later this month, so we took a trip to the library for some resources.  We came home with a giant pile of books which meant a quiet evening of lounging on the couches! The books were a hit and we ended up watching History Channel videos on the building of the Mackinac Bridge.  When we were finished, they created a "game" called Mackinac Bridge in our living room.  (As a side note, they learned much more just the fact that you can buy fudge on Mackinac Island!)

 

 Ben School
Besides listening in on Luke's studies, Ben worked on the letter "F" this week.  He loves doing his poke page and Bingo marker activities, but his favorite is always making his letter of the week character.

F is for fox

Letter F bingo markers

He also enjoyed working on his Africa puzzle, so that he could get better at the boys' favorite dinner game - "Guess the Country"(seriously, they request it - weird, huh?).  One person names a continent and everyone else has to guess the secret country.   Ben usually has to get ideas from us, so I think he wants to be more independent. 

Co-op
We started our co-op this week and everyone loved their classes.  I walked by Luke's gym class and saw him doing push-ups!  He was really proud to come home with a bag of "gold" from his history class, too.  Benjamin thought Preschool was great and settled right into his class.  Olivia made a collage and played with the Toddler group.  Everyone came home exhausted!

Field Trip!
Luke and I went on a field trip with our new co-op friends.  We're really enjoying meeting people who have become our friends so quickly and easily!  We completed half a day of school before we left because I was expecting more playing than learning on our trip, however, the boys really had a great time observing great craftsmanship.  They watched glass-blowing for almost twenty minutes and were completely enamored.  They rode in Model T cars, horse-drawn carriages, and the carousel.  The boys had a great time and learned so much!

Glass blowing

Model T!

We finished the day with ice cream!

Fun Family Pictures

Labor Day was so much fun!  We spent the day at the park with family.  Luke found a container of worms left by a fisherman and had a great time observing them as they made their way under ground.  After a day in the sun, everyone was completely exhausted and enjoyed a nice, long nap.

Week 5

This week turned out to be a text in flexibility.  We had a few events scheduled during the day on Monday and Friday, so we did school on Sunday night and then an extra lesson or two of various subjects on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.  It actually worked out really well and reminded me of the benefit of flexibility we have with homeschooling.  By Thursday afternoon, everything was finished and we were able to have the freedom to enjoy ourselves for the holiday weekend.

Literature/Language Arts
We read "My Father's Dragon" this week and it was a gigantic hit.  Luke and I both loved the story and I have a feeling we'll be reading it again.  We actually ended up finishing it in half of the allotted time on our Sonlight schedule, so now we are substantially ahead. (We were already a week ahead in the first place because we had already read the very first book on the schedule.)  A friend mentioned that there are two more related books, so I think I'll track them down. 

Luke is continuing to work on his story for handwriting practice.  Writing time has also been really beneficial for language arts and spelling.  Although, I know that inventive spelling is good for beginning writers, Luke prefers to have every word spelled correctly.  I have him sound out words and guide him from there.  By using the words in his writing, he seems to remember many of them pretty well.  He's been learning about spacing his words, using periods at the ends of his sentences, using commas and apostrophes, and when to capitalize words as we edit his work.

 

 

 

Math
We were back to regular math work this week which brought on a few complaints (Luke seemed to think M&M math was more fun for some reason . .  .).   Luke learned about number lines, so we created a kid-size number line on our front sidewalk.  All three kids enjoyed running up and down together.

Science 
We continued our seeds/plants lessons this week.  Our bean plants are starting to take off and we transplanted them into individual pots.  They'll be the subject of a few studies next week, so we have to take good care of them.

Transplanting our bean plants

Bible
We've been working through a story Bible at night, but our "school" portion of Bible is memorizing a verse each week.  The verses each begin with a different letter of the alphabet, so this week we learned our "E" verse - Even a child is known by his actions, whether his deeds are pure and right.  Proverbs 20:11.  I found a YouTube song with the verse and Luke memorized it fairly quickly.  We talked often about what it means and used it as a reminder many times throughout the week.

Ben School
Ben is continuing to work on his numbers and alphabet.  He really likes the activities we've done and requests to do them often, but I need to develop more in my arsenal for when he tires of poke pages and counting. 

Counting out base ten blocks

Math is even more fun with Cheerios!

We added the letter "E" and the word "in" to Ben's preschool wall.

Olivia observing Ben with his poke page

Family Think Tank

His favorite activities are when he gets to be part of Luke's school.  I wrote a second copy of Luke's copywork this week for Ben to trace and he was glowing with pride. 

Unexpected Learning
By working hard throughout the week, we were able to have all of our work done before we went to the zoo.  I'm really making an effort to teach the boys how important it is to finish their work before beginning the fun stuff.  At the zoo, Luke worked on his navigational skills.  He was really excited to put our weekly map reading practice (every Friday we use Evan-Moor Geography books) to work.   I think he enjoyed navigating just as much as seeing the animals!

Showing Ben how to get to the lions

The map never left his hand!

Just for Fun
Here are a few extra pictures (and a video) of our week.

Olivia is ready for church!

Orange Banana Smoothies

Smoothies!

Luke read a naptime story to his siblings and cousin.

Week 4

As far as school goes, this week seems like it was pretty calm.  We didn't have any big exciting events or projects, but really just did our thing.  Schoolwork has become part of our daily routine and I'm noticing more acceptance and less grumbling (for the most part). 

Literature - Along with our poetry readings from the Llama, Llama book, we've been reading "Apple and the Arrow".  We have an older version of Sonlight and this book isn't included in the updated Core A, but it was a huge success with Luke.  It is the story of William Tell as told through the eyes of his son, Walter.  I had only heard the story of Tell shooting the apple off of his son's head, but the majority of this book explains the whole legend of how he led the people of Switzerland to revolt against the tyranny of the king of Austria.  Some of the ideas were over Luke's head, but he still enjoyed the story.  We actually finished it in half the allotted time because he just had to finish the chapter.  When we finished the book, we listened to the William Tell Overture on YouTube.  (Did you know the song played in cartoons when a character is waking up in the morning is actually part of that song?)  Next week, we will be reading "My Father's Dragon" which I have heard from many people is one of their kids' favorite books.

Math - This week, we took a break from using the math books and devoted time to memorizing number bonds (addition facts) up to 10.  The highlight of our math week was playing M&M math.  Aaron set out ten M&M's and then took some away while Luke closed his eyes (or rather, while I covered his eyes because someone has a tendency to peek).  If Luke could figure out how many M&M's were gone, he got to eat the ones in Aaron's hand.  If he got the answer wrong, Aaron ate them.  By the time they were done, Luke was on a sugar high, but felt more confident in remembering how to make ten.

Language Arts/Handwriting - These two areas were someone combined this week.  Luke is working on writing a story, so his handwriting practice has consisted of writing neatly.  He enjoys coming up with his story line and I enjoy the lack of complaining about writing practice. 

One of our language arts activities this week was to practice categorizing.  On this particular morning, I asked the boys to clean their room before we started school.  I went into the room and they had dumped out every single toy they owned onto the floor so that they could organize them.  I started to open my mouth to tell them to hurry up so that we could start the language arts activity when I realized they were already practicing the skill in real life!  They separated each group of toys into separate containers by type of toy. (I had to hold my tongue when I saw that two of the containers were paper bags.  If they were going to organize, I was going to let them.)  There were containers for sports toys, stuffed animals, superheroes, army guys, and a few more.  They were really proud of themselves, and I was proud that they stuck with their project and showed a great deal of initiative. 

They even vacuumed out their toy box - totally their idea!

Life Skills - I don't plan on counting typical household activities as school unless the kids are actually learning how to do something new.  This week, I taught Luke how to make grilled cheese sandwiches.  We used every safety precaution I could think of and watched him like a hawk!  He buttered all of the slices and assembled them with cheese before turning on the grill and wore oven mitts on his little hands when he flipped them and when he removed them from the griddle.  Ironically, he ended up making a peanut butter and jelly for himself because he wasn't in the mood for grilled cheese, but everyone else enjoyed them.

 Science - This week we started to discuss seeds.  For our weekly project, we started growing plants from dried kidney beans.  I couldn't believe how quickly they grew.  Within 24 hours, we had our first sprouts.  Hopefully, the other beans do as well as this one.  We are scheduled to do several projects in the next 2 weeks with our new plants.

Ben School - Benjamin worked on the letter "D" this week.  He did his usual activities, plus I found a cool website that showed how to make letters out of pattern blocks.  They were designed to be printed out, but in order to conserve our colored ink, I just displayed it on the computer screen.  He needed a little bit of help, but once he got the hang of it, he loved assembling his letters. 

Ben has also been using base ten blocks (and M&M's today!) to practice his numbers.  I write a sheet in pencil that is divided into squares with numbers in each square.  Ben traces each line and each number and then counts out the number of objects into the square.  It isn't anything fancy, but he loves to trace and count, plus it keeps little hands occupied for a little while!

Unexpected Learning
This seems to be our year for discovering bugs.  This week, the boys came running into the house screaming about a big yellow fuzzy bug.  It turned out to be an American Dagger Moth.  It was the weirdest looking caterpillar I'd ever seen.  We researched and learned that they like maple leaves, so I showed them a picture and we found some in my grandparents' backyard.  We also were at a baseball game and found the maple leaf on the Canadian flag.  The moth ended up forming a cocoon within days of finding it, so now we wait!



This cocoon was much, much different from the Swallowtail chrysalis
 we observed at the beginning of the summer.

We also worked at our church/co-op clean-up.  It is amazing how much stuff can accumulate in one building.  The boys both worked up a sweat helping out at the clean-up.  I was really impressed by some of the older boys who took them under their wing and encouraged the little guys to work hard and stay focused.  I think it'll be a great year!

Luke and Ben helped move a stack of foam tiles from the second floor to the first floor. 

A Few Family Pics

Dinner at the Rainforest Café - A big treat and an unexpected long drive!

Picking out rocks with Yogi to throw into the river.

Baseball game!  Luke and I went down to the field
before the game to look around.

Baseball game with Nana and Yogi!

Aaron's mom (Momo) came for a visit this week. 

Olivia went on a big girl swing for the first time!  She was very proud.

Cousins!

Luke asked to take a picture with me.