Monday

Margie:
~Spelling lesson – word families of out, ood (two different sounds), ould, and a little apostrophe work. She knew on her own that a possessive “s” needs one. Genius.
~Math – addition and subtraction numbers 1-20.
~SOTW, early Greeks. Read and reviewed the chapter in SOTW. Began Black Ships Before Troy.

Elliott:
~Cut out a court jester hat and wore it around.
~Practiced spelling.

We spent about 2 hours at park day today, as well. Margie found a tree she felt comfortable climbing up and down from.

Friday – Camp Fire

As a part of our Trail to Family and Community emblem which we are working towards this year, today we learned about maps (in the context of using one to find your way around the community). We took the opportunity to have Julie, one of the Camp Fire guides, take us on one of the trails on the northern, more wild, end of Camp Cahito. We had never been there before, and in addition to trying to be more aware of our surroundings in order to make a map, we also incorporated “community” by getting to know Julie better and by getting to know our camp better.

When I asked Julie this week if she could help us out, she told me that the trail is “sort of steep” for part of it. And I think it is more accurate to say, “the entire trail is straight up and down.” And I am only hyperbolizing a little bit. So now my legs are killing me. Ow. I think I should make that hike weekly.

Anyway when we got there, Elliott found a circa 1960’s beginning-reader version of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang which he attached himself to severely for the rest of the day. Once we could get it wrestled from him, my friend read it to the kids while we waited for the last family to arrive.

Once everyone was there, we opened our circle, and I showed them the maps I had made yesterday – one of my house, and one of my neighborhood. I pointed out the key, and the compass rose as well as streets and landmarks. Then I showed them another map I had made – of Camp Cahito – this one unfinished. They helped me figure out where different buildings were and other landmarks they knew.

While on the hike, we walked past the archery area, down some crudely-cut stairs (Elliott said, “They’re pretending to be stairs?”), into a canyon with a lovely view of the 163 (which IS the prettiest freeway in town), ultimately to a small haystack amphitheater. Margie found a tiny animal skull of some sort which her friend, K, commandeered for awhile (which explains why his hand is in the picture and not hers). She declared this her favorite part of the day.

The cool part about the cabin we meet in is that it’s FULL of nature teaching items like molds of animals tracks, taxidermied animals and skulls. So we brought Margie’s skull back to the cabin to compare it to the others. We did not find a match, but we did find some cool other skulls.

Together, we finished the map of Camp Cahito I’d started and we gave it to the people in the office as a gift (and as proof that they have at least one active club). The kids also worked on maps of their own as they felt like it, and they ran around with skulls and books and general happy chaos.

After the meeting, we went to meet up with knitting group. The kids never bother to knit anymore at all. LOL But they had fun on the playground, in the amphitheater at this park and on scooters. All in all, I think I can log a good 3+ hours for PE today.

Thursday

Margie:
~Spelling
~Math
~We read Planet Earth/Inside Out inspired by the story of the volcano on Thera. M wasn’t into it at first, but by the end I feel like she was. And especially when they talked about rocks. Which reminds me that we’ve also looked at a hunk of obsidian I have and talked about the different sorts of rocks that come from lava.
~Finished up some notebooking pages.
~Watched Electric Company and Fetch

Elliott:
~Sat along for spelling and I think actually pick up a fair amount.
~Also sat along for the book about the Earth and enjoyed that as well.
~Soccer
~Played on PBSKids.org

Wednesday

Margie:
~Spelling – she’s doing really well overall. The first few days she LOVED it and then when she realized it was going to be up to 25 words each day instead of, like, 5, she protested and declared she hated it after all. But we seem to be getting into a better routine now. She’s mostly cooperative about it and we get through it fairly quickly. But she is also starting to attempt spelling on her own more and more and she is pointing out words she knows now in various situations.
~Math – subtraction numbers 20-1. She says she likes subtraction, it’s easier.
~Living Math – we’ve been reading about Pythagoras this week. We’ve read stories from Mathematicians are People, Too and What’s Your Angle, Pythagoras? We read directly from the LM curriculum, too. We’ve played with triangles and the geoboards. We talked about Pythagoras as more than a mathematician, too – as a philosopher, as a godman of one of the Mystery Religions, and etc.
~PE – swimming. She has been learning to swim on her back recently.
~More Electric Company and Fetch. Fetch is her favorite show, I think. And it’s funny because for the first time she is becoming aware of what time the shows she likes are on the air and is making time to watch them. But for PBS Kids I totally don’t mind. I am so thankful that it’s not Hannah Montana.

I forgot to mention that earlier this week Elliott informed me he was going to look at matches. My first, ingrained response was to say, “No! Matches are only for grownups!” But that kind of thinking really gets no one anywhere – what if he has to learn to use matches in Camp Fire someday? And that sort of talking has only served to make poor Margie terrified of them and of fire. So instead I took the opportunity to sit them both down and demonstrate matches for them – to show Margie how they won’t just bust into flames just sitting there, and to show Elliott that, as long as he is working with an adult, he can explore new things in a safe environment.

Monday and Tuesday

It was so busy yesterday I didn’t get to check in here.

Monday (Margie):
~Read the chapter on Crete and the Minoans in SOTW. We looked up the island of Thera online and saw a satellite photo. We talked a little about Atlantis. We watched a Jim Henson version of Theseus & the Minotaur (of which the Minotaur scared Margie and I must agree: ugliest Muppet ever!).
~Lesson in Math: addition from 10-20, grouping of 10, adding to it.
~Spelling: “in” and “be” words.
~Played online at PBSKids.org

We also went to park day despite the leftover head cold. We needed the fresh air badly.

Tuesday (Margie):
~Reviewed the SOTW chapter, did mapwork and a maze activity of the Minotaur’s labrynth. Began coloring the bull Jumping picture – we related bull jumping to other bull festivals in Spain and Mexico (and probably more).
~Did a copywork quote from Pythagoras.
~Lesson in math: more addition, adding two single-digits to get a double-digit.
~Spelling: “oo” words, “ould” words, “up” words and more.
~Electric Company – as more proof that the world revolves around us, on the Electric Company today they talked about how “oo” has two different sounds. Thank you, PBS.
~PE: softball

The big news is that we had Margie’s IEP today and she is officially graduated from speech services. It was especially nice because her old ST was there and so we got to see her one last time and say goodbye. I had to take the kids with me to this one and that was perfect and they behaved very well (it wasn’t hard since we were only there for maybe 10 minutes LOL).

These last two days Elliott has been doing his usual stuff – spelling things, making letters and pictures out of things (today was the geoboard). He’s been cutting and doing worksheets as well. And always we read books and stories.

Halloween & Samhain & Dias de los Muertos

But, really, these are all facets of the same idea. Samhain (which is usually pronounced “Sow-en” because it’s one of those crazy Celtic words) is a celebration of our ancestors – of the ones we love who have passed away. Ancient people (and some present people, too) believed that this was the time of the year when the veil between the living and the dead was the thinnest. It is also the time of the New Year for those who follow the Wheel of the Year.

‘Tis the season for colds and flus and so 75% of the families we usually gather with on these holidays were sick and the last family did not want anything to do with our cooties (cannot blame them!) so our plans changed. We were, of course, one of the sick families and we decided that trick-or-treating at night in the cold wasn’t the best idea this year so we looked up some local mall events and went to the nearest strip mall. It’s such an odd experience and I found it actually created some interesting photos – the juxtaposition of kids trick-or-treating in a mattress store amuses me to no end. And so I am glad we did it – and if we are ever sick on Halloween again, I will keep it in mind – but I do hope to be back to more traditional paths next year. There is just nothing like sharing something like this with the community and neighborhoods are best. People love where they live, not where they work – it just feels better.

Earlier in the day we had carved our jack o lanterns (and by “we” I mean “me”). I had also baked some gluten free pan de muerto, and pumpkin muffins. So in the evening we just hung around and handed out candy. We listened to the story of Vasalisa in Circle Round and talked about my grandparents through the day. We also went though a lot of kleenex.

The next day – the first of the Dias de los Muertos – we went up to the cemetery to visit my grandparents, or, as Elliott says, “to say goodbye to our candies,” because we do take our extra candy up there to leave as an offering. We also took some pictures of them and the paper flowers we made. And then we played hide and seek in the cemetery. Because I feel like the people there probably love the laughter of children and there was no one mourning nearby.

It was a nice, quiet holiday for us. Not as fulfilling as when we get to meet with our friends, but we enjoyed it despite the sickness.

Where have we been?

Sick, laying around on the couch.  That’s where.  Hopefully we will have some lovely Samhain & Dias de los Muertos stuff for you this weekend.  Wish us luck and lots of garlic.

Tuesday

Margie:
~Did a lesson in spelling. Some of the words were: beginner, skinny, seeing, agreed, disagreed, we, wee, etc
~Math – addition, sums ending in from 10-20
~Copywork/Memorization – my cell phone # (it seems to make more sense to learn this number before my home one since it is always with me)

Elliott:
~2 worksheets. One he chose from Starfall.com, and the other I pulled from a book I have and which he worked VERY hard on – he kept saying, “Oh, this is making me so tired.” lol

Together we began this year’s work on Dias de los Muertos. We read Festival of Bones, made paper flowers, and created our ofrenda. On it you can see my grandparents (and things that represent them – yarn & needles, gemstones, googly eyes, etc) and my beloved kitty, Snickers. Please excuse the wrinkled cloth. I do not iron. Not even for dead people.

In the afternoon, Margie had PE (first day or baseball… or is it softball?) and E played on the playground. It was cold and windy! Almost like Autumn! Someone had brought a big, friendly dog and Elliott was having fun with him! Up to a point, anyway – he didn’t like the dog running with him – but this is a big deal since normally Elliott is afraid of even the tiniest puppy.

And, speaking of big deals – Margie ate beet greens tonight and declared them “not as bad as she thought”. She now eats kale, brussles sprouts, beet greens and wants to try asparagus and broccoli. I don’t know if this is related to her age, or being gluten-free, but whatever it is, it rocks!

Monday

Long, hard day.

Margie (in her own words):
~”Did all of my math perfectly almost.”
~”Had to copy spelling?”
~”And that thing that we also did – notebooking?”

(In my words):
~Finished up notebooking from last week.
~Did one spelling lesson – she had to copy all the words a second time as a consequence for being rude and wasting my time.
~One math exercise.
~I read to her from the Nature Study book about crows (and those darn crows were a no-show at the park today – WTF?)

We had park day today so we played for about an hour or so before there was an, um, incident, and we had to leave.

Friday

MUCH better day on all counts!

Margie:
~2 exercises in math (to make up for the lack of yesterday). Reviewed numbers 11-20. Again. It sounds very below her level – and it is – but I like the way they do it and build on it from there. Or I’d skip it.
~Spelling lesson. She began with a positive attitude and it went SO smoothly b/c of it. I pointed it out to her and she was able to hang on to it even as she began losing patience. The lesson also led us to talking about contractions, abbreviations, how English is really stupid a lot of the time (I did not word it exactly like this) and the evolution of language.
~We tried to do notebooking pages, but were defeated by technology. Will finish up tomorrow.

Elliott:
~Is simultaneously bored with the worksheets I’ve been giving him, but not willing to stop in the middle of the alphabet. I am toying with the idea of starting Five in a Row with him, but my bank account says, “No more curriculums for awhile now!” And I don’t want to push/start something new if he won’t be into it. Maybe I will just use some of the Kindy workbooks I have? I dunno.

Anyway, this afternoon, we headed out to knitting group. You won’t know that by the pictures which are full of croquet and cupcakes (gluten free!), but it was our friend’s fourth birthday today so the kids partied hard.

In the evening the kids and I ate dinner (third night this week that Margie ate brussels sprouts! On purpose!) and then cuddled in bed together. It was such a nice, nice way to reconnect after yesterday. ♥