Mother’s Day Hike

We went to Torrey Pines on Mother’s Day and hiked all the way down to the beach and Flat Rock. The kids observed a lizard, identified local plants, and poked around a tide pool. It was a beautiful day!

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Friday – Camp Fire

Today we finished up our badge about music. We had missed a meeting sometime during the winter so I combined the last two music meetings into one. The first activity was to make a story using sound effects; I used Green Eggs and Ham and the sounds of the train, car, tree, goat, etc. After that the kids listened to different pieces of music and had to move and then draw how the music made them feel. While Elliott decided that all music makes him feel “crazy” some of the other kids offered up great descriptive words like soft, fun, and swirly.

After the meeting we went to knitting group where the kids carved stamps. We have officially evolved from knitting to all fibers to just plain craftiness in general. We hope to start letterboxing soon.

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Monday

Margie spent much of the day going through her idea books – things like The Daring Book for Girls – and doing or talking about projects in them. One thing she did was make a volcano out of baking soda and vinegar. The tin foil around the cup was to make it look more mountainy (technical term), I think. She did this nearly entirely by herself.

Margie and I (and perhaps soon Elliott, too) collect pressed pennies. It’s fun, interactive, educational and one of the cheapest souvenirs you can find. I’ve heard that pennies made before 1982 are better for pressing because they are solid copper instead of the zinc center they have now (which often leaves silver smears when pressed, making the image harder to see). Many years ago, I saw a documentary on the creation of the Sacajawea dollar, and how they had to make it the same weight so that machines would recognize it as a dollar coin. This led me to believe the newer pennies must have been required to weigh the same as the older ones, but clearly, I was wrong; the older pennies weigh a lot more, as you can see below. We put 20 of each into each side of a balance scale and the copper ones are hands-down heavier. I guess they aren’t used in machines so it’s not necessary. This whole paragraph is making me feel kind of stupid, actually, since I’m sure it’s not big news that copper is heavier than zinc, but it’s a fact that hadn’t made its way into my brain until now.

We skipped swimming for one more week. Despite the fact that the kids are no longer contagious, I felt the chlorine would be a bit much for all the scabs on her body, so we’re giving her one more week to heal before we go back.

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Friday – Camp Fire

Today we played some games which is a part of the Trail to the Future (unclear on the connection, but whatever). Since it’s spring break week, we met away from Camp Cahito due to their day camp program. Instead we made use of a lovely flat and quiet area in Balboa Park. We played Red Light, Green Light; had some egg races; and then I taught them how to play Sardines (which was a difficult concept for some of them for some reason). I think everyone had a lot of fun (I did!) and at the end of the meeting everyone earned a medal. No pictures today, sorry.

In the afternoon we went to knitting group and then picked up our CSA produce on the way home where Elliott happily ate two carrots and Margie cheered for kale.

Next week – spring break!

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Wednesday

Margie was REALLY negative today. I just crawled into my brain and sang happy songs and tried my best to ignore it all. Then, she went into her room to do her math and came out about 30 minutes later (it was a long review she chose to do all at once) perfectly happy and content. Go figure.

While she was in there, I created my own little project – Roman money. I took pennies, nickels, and dimes, added a sticky square, and wrote the corresponding Roman numeral on it. When she came out, we had a Roman feast with chickpea pancakes (recipe from SOTW), olives, and figs. We “bought” the food and had to figure out how much to pay. (Later, Margie wrote her own Roman numerals in a project she was working on.)

Margie didn’t like any of the food, but this DID inspire her to create her own lunch of bananas, sliced and topped with peanut butter, sprinkled with raisins (we figured the raisins were probably Romanish).

In the afternoon, she had an acupuncture appointment and did FABULOUSLY. Yay!

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Tuesday

So far I am really liking this science curriculum. This week’s unit is about cells and today we looked at the structure of a chicken egg, including a cell on the yolk. It was really very cool – we ALL learned a lot and the kids were both totally into it. Here they are looking closely at the shell which, we learned, is porous.

In The Story of the World today, we read about Roman Gladiators. It was a bloody chapter (naturally). I can’t help but get the feeling there is some underlying anti-Roman resentment there (probably also rather natural). There have absolutely been other instances of evil being done by the various cultures we’ve studied and, yet, I don’t think I have ever felt anything so hostile in other examples in this book. For the record, I am NOT doubting the validity of the statements. I do, though, feel that this chapter (so far) stands alone in its gore and is less balanced than other stories shared in this book.

After lunch, we headed to the park and arrived about 45 minutes before PE began so we could play with the kites the kids got in their Ostara baskets.

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Wednesday

Storytime this morning. The older child opted to enjoy the stories today. Only… They only read one story. And skipped parts of it at that. WTF? Fail, Library, fail.

Since we didn’t get to lessons in the morning due to errands, we did them this afternoon instead. Living Math (Roman Numerals), grammar, spelling, Singapore math, and Science. Today we did the second lab – a plot study. We went out in the back yard and roped off one-meter-square area and looked closely at what life we could find within the area. Once we exhausted that area, we looked around the rest of the yard. We found pill bugs, grasses, seeds, dead leaves and twigs, and signs that other living things had been there such a bird poo and spiderwebs (for ONCE no widow sightings – KNOCK WOOD). We wrote down all our findings and sketched them, too.

During much of the rest of the day, the kids played a St. Patrick’s Day hide and seek game which involved hiding green and gold sequins around the house. Yoda was also involved somehow, but I’m unclear on the details. And Elliott was, at times, looking for a leopard instead of a leprechaun. It was SO sweet how they played this together, though. In other St. Patrick’s news we listened to some of my Celtic music (including Flogging Molly, of course), watched Riverdance and enjoyed a nice, Jewish-American dinner of corned beef.

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Monday

This week our lessons focus on:
Ancient History – Rome, Alexandrian Mathematicians
Math – Addition & Subtraction up to 40.
Spelling – “ow” words (slow, show, blow, etc).
Science – Life science intro.
Language Arts –
PE – Swim, volleyball

Today we started out with Rome, the story of Romulus and Remus and the Etruscians. We read and reviewed the chapter in SOTW.

In spelling, I am taking a new approach. Well, sort of. We’re using our Scrabble Apple tiles to spell, then we say & spell the words aloud, then we write them. It’s a bit more work, but seems like what other spelling programs do.

We’re starting a new science curriculum today and we read the intro and did the first lab – Elliott joined us as well. I realize Margie can tell that a bicycle and a rock are not alive, but I like the way this set things up for future scientific experiments. Once that was done, I put on this video. Sesame Street always comes through. Or they used to.

After lessons, we put away the winter decorations and put up Spring in preparation for Ostara this weekend. I have enjoyed our cold and rainy winter, but I am ready for Spring now.

Later, we’ll go to Margie’s swimming lesson.

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Tuesday, Wednesday

Tuesday

On Tuesday, aside from the usual lessons, we went to a local duck pond to observe and sketch the ducks. Both kids were into this and Elliott did a remarkable job. Margie added notes about what colors each part should be. We talked about the bills and feet of the ducks, and the coloring (Mallards). The book said we should compare them to hens, but the best we could do were seagulls. There were coots, too, but they were being snobby and didn’t come near. (Sorry, iPhone pictures will have to do.)

After that we headed to PE where M played dodge ball.

Wednesday

Wednesday was stupid. In so many, many ways. M’s been dealing with a rash and today it flared up horribly. I became nervous and scheduled an appointment with her doctor for the same day (I had to push for this *sigh*). In the mean time, we were running around trying to find E’s clothes for the upcoming wedding and the tire light came on in the van for the second time that week so we also had to run by Discount Tire for them to check it (something is either wrong with the tires or the van *sigh*). After M was diagnosed with eczema, we made a quick stop at Whole Foods since it was close and it’s not easy to get there often, and then swung by my beloved acupuncturist’s office for her to prescribe Margie some ointment and herbs. We didn’t get home until nearly bedtime. I was, in a word, tired.

Aside from all that we did get our usual lessons done and also, finally, watched The Sound of Music.  And so we talked a bit (again) about WWII, the facts and fiction in the real Von Trapps and the movie versions, some European History and geography, religion and Catholicism, and how movies of this era were created to be fantastic shows, not necessarily anything logical.

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Monday

~Alexander the Great, read and review in SOTW
~Grammar – narration of The Lion and the Mouse
~Math – tens & ones
~Spelling – et words
~Journaling – today it was rather like poetry
~PE – scootering and swimming

Alex left for work today only to discover that it was closed and he didn’t have to work after all. It was a nice surprise so after he ran some errands, we spent some time at the park. (Pics to come… maybe) M is mad for her scooter recently. She’s gaining confidence and can ride with both feet up now and can also use the brake. At swimming she practiced for an upcoming test. (Videos to come… probably)

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