Thanks very much to our membership at the Science Center, we get free admission to the New Children’s Museum this month and took advantage of that yesterday. I love children’s museums in general, but this one really is pretty fabulous. The kids had a blast. And so did I.

We got so very busy last week that I never got the chance to come here and update again. We continued to talk about Thanksgiving from various perspectives. We read more on it and summarized part of the story in a notebooking page. We also read Molly’s Pilgrim which is one of my favorite Thanksgiving stories. We continued reading Black Ships Before Troy, finished up the math review, did some spelling and both kids watched more Fetch and Electric Company. Margie went to swimming lessons on Wednesday, on Thursday we went to the puppet theater in Balboa Park (Elliott was having none of it), and on Friday we had Camp Fire (meeting titled, “Our Medicine Cabinet”).

Tuesday night was a big step for all of us – Alex and I went to a concert (They Might Be Giants) and grandma stayed with the kids and put them to bed. This was the first time we ever did such a thing and it seemed to have gone over well.

Wednesday morning we visited our friends, Bethany and Annalie, who had invited a bunch of moms & kids over for a vanilla-making party. The kids played, did crafts, tried catching kitties (that would be my son), and, of course, making vanilla. You can see the photos here, at Bethany’s photostream.

Margie:
~Spelling
~Math (Review)
~American Thanksgiving Story. Here is a fantastic link with several free resources. Because I can never keep things simple we started with a quick overview of human migration and how, when people came over the bering strait, they essentially decontaminated themselves since bacteria and illness could not survive the extreme cold. This created a race free of disease which, of course later led to the decimation of the native population when Europeans showed up. It’s rather essential to the story because it was due to the loss of so many people that the Wampanoag were weakened and made the political decision to “befriend” the Separatists. We talked a bit out native peoples of the area (the Wampanoag and the Narragansett, in particular) and then went on to read 1621; A New Look at Thanksgiving which is an excellent book for kids on the facts surrounding the Separatists, not the traditional myth usually taught in our culture. I am pretty sure it was Claire that recommended that book because she is, after all, the Goddess of books. We talked about the different perspectives the people may have had – how the Separatists might have viewed things and how the Wampanoag might have seen the same situations. Even if I tried to keep it balanced, those Separatists pretty much dug themselves a deep hole.
~Electric Company.
~She was inspired by the talk of Thanksgiving so she made placemats for us – the traditional turkey handprint.

Elliott:
~Spelled lots of words with blocks. Words like: Disney, DVD, Pixar, and Fast Play. lol
~Read stories.

We also went to park day. Margie practiced climbing more trees, Elliott played some new version of “Pirates” complete with sharks and escape pods on the ship.

I never got back to catching up last week. We got busy and overwhelmed with things. A quick catchup…

Margie:
~Spelling (Thursday only)
~Math (Thursday only)
~Black Ships Before Troy (daily). Among other things we talked about, we listened to the story of two men fighting who came to respect each other for their skill and left the battle as friends, rather than enemies. We talked about how modern war does not afford us many opportunities like that – we are so far from our enemies, we don’t ever get the chance to relate to them.
~The theme at church this month is “Generosity” and the kids listened to two stories: A Chair for my Mother and Smoky Night.
~We took her pennies to the bank and turned them into dollars ($25!) and then to the mall where she chose to buy herself a new Webkinz she’s been wanting. She counted out her money and paid by herself.
~Fetch and Electric Company & playing online.

Elliott:
~The usual unschooling. This week, he donned a yellow cape (playsilk) and ran around the house as Word Girl.
~Soccer class – last of the session.
~PBSKids on TV and online.

Margie:
~Spelling – she knows how to spell “could” now and is finally attempting to write longer notes on her own (before it was 3-5 words tops) even if she does not spell everything right – it’s all phonetic. This spelling program is doing for her what I had hoped and expected from the start of the year. That “clicking” I was waiting for. This program is perfect for her.
~Math
~SOTW – used her encyclopedia to find some cool sites online.
~PE – swimming
~Living Math – Today we used pi to find the circumference of various circles we found around the house. I guess I really don’t have more to say on that except that both kids enjoyed it. Also here is a photo of the supplies we used:

Elliott:
~Read and was read to (Aesop’s Fables, among other things).
~Spelled.
~Played Cute Math on my iPhone.
~Used the calculator himself (with guidance) and LOVED that you can spell “Hello” with it. Was disappointed you cannot spell anything you want.
~He and I are having some friction lately. This is a time of grown for him, and he is resisting. In my opinion, he is very much in his own world on many levels, and I have been instinctively trying to draw him out into our world more. Today we had a hard moment, but it was very productive in this sense – I feel like it was very worth it, and made a very real difference in how much he comprehends.

Margie:
~Spelling (same words, plus “an” words)
~Math (arithmetic)
~Living Math – This week we began studying Archimedes. We read about him from Mathematicians Are People, Too and looked at some illustrations about his work in The Joy of Mathematics.
~Read more in Black Ships Before Troy
~PE – Softball
~Electric Company & Fetch
~Science/Math – did an experiment in buoyancy. The book recommended we use clay to create boats of different shapes and sizes, which we would then load with pennies until they sank and we would try to see which shapes held more. As it turns out, my clay was all dried up. (WTF?) We tried Play Doh, but it didn’t like water AT ALL. So we used aluminum foil instead. Thumbs up.

Elliott:
~Read books with Mom & Dad
~Helped decoupage jars for “piggy” banks.
~Played on the playground for 90 minutes (and did not throw wood chips at all!)
~Watched PBS kids Go

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.

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.

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

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.