What's new?!

Hmmmm, I don't know. I'm finding it harder and harder to think of new things to post about on this blog. Homeschooling is going fine. Julia, Karley and I are learning a lot and getting things done. We have our good days, our better days, and our not so good days. This month is a bit tricky with all going on. Julia will probably finish her next set of phonics workbooks next month as well as the first grade handwriting book. I'm considering adding some grammar and/or vocabulary for the next semester. Julia's reading is really taking off. She does structured reading for me, fun reading for herself, and she reads to her sister.

We are continuing our science learning. We read about a different animal each week and she completes a notebook page or two. This week we are reading about chameleons.

Our history studies are going fine too. We have not done a big, fun project for awhile, but I think she still likes and looks forward to our reading. This week we are learning about ancient China.

I think Julia is enjoying her classes on campus. She had been complaining about her computer class for awhile. I think she gets frustrated with her work, erases, and then finds that she does not have enough time to finish before the class is over. So for several weeks she came home with nearly blank pages. The last week or two she has done better (I told her not to worry about her work so much and now she comes home with papers that actually have work on them).

She complains about PE and hip hop. She thinks that they make her too tired. Yipeee! I love it. I think she does too, but they do work her hard. She is learning a dance (or two?) in hip hop that will be perfomed at the end of the school year. So far I'm not convinced that she is a natural born dancer. She says she has a hard time keeping up with everyone and the music (and it does move quite fast), but I've found that she starts late, always a step or two behind the others. That was until I told her that "5, 6, 7, 8,...." means "on your mark, get set,..." Once she started replacing that for 5, 6, 7, 8 she started her first step in time with the others. Hurray!

So all is well. I guess it feels familiar and ordinary. Nothing new going on right now, no good material to write about, but we are doing fine and plugging along.

Karley is writing!

For a couple of weeks now I have been satisfying Karley's new request of "be my teacher too" with teaching her to write her name. I have small slate boards from Handwriting Without Tears that I used to teach Julia to write. With Karley I started with letter K, then A, R, etc. We haven't actually finished all the letters of her name (she really likes to do Ks over and over again), but yesterday I decided to have her try writing on paper. I gave her a piece of Handwriting Without Tears paper (grey blocks that represent the slate board). I was amazed (Julia too I think), but Karley can WRITE!!! She has always held a crayon or pencil correctly and has shown some good control, but she was able to transfer what she has learned the last couple of weeks on the slate board with chalk to the paper, which is much, much smaller writing. I also discovered that she has a bit of her father in her. She was getting mad at herself when her straight lines were not perfectly straight. She began erasing until I told her that this was practice and that there is no need for erasing when you are practicing. She filled almost all of the paper with careful, controlled and very legible letters. One of two of them I would have thought Julia had written if I had not seen Karley do it. Plus, she started branching out on her own with "new" letters. She asked me how to write an H. I looked at her paper and noticed she had both of the vertical lines already drawn! This girl can write!!!

Dull Week

After having a whole week off last week I am finding it really hard to get back into the swing of things this week. I'm not the only one, the girls feel it too. Maybe it is all the distractions that come with this time of year, I don't know, but it is really hard to be motivated to sit down and get a lot of work done.

Our work for the week:

1. Continue with Book 2 for math (we just started this on Monday)
2. Combining Explode the Code (Julia thinks its boring) with another phonics program that I already have that is less writing and more reading.
3. Continue working on her handwriting.
4. Begin studying about ancient India.
5. Begin our unit on reptiles.
6. I have two parent meetings this week.
7. Julia has both PE and Hip Hop classes.

Sounds kind of boring to me. I guess its time for a field trip!

Magic Leaves

Today the girls and I were headed out for some shopping. I opened the garage door and got Karley buckled in her seat. Julia usually goes to her "thinking spot" during this time and I always have to call after her to come get in the car. Today was no different, but instead of going to her usual thinking spot on the driveway she ran towards the street, looking up at a tree. I called after her to stop and when I asked her what she was doing she replied, "Oh! Do you see that magic leaf up in the tree?" She was so convincing that I found myself trying to pick out the exact leaf (actually, I thought that maybe enough leaves had fallen to reveal an abandoned bird's nest or something by the level of her excitement). It made me think about how magical simple, ordinary things are in the eyes of a child. I hope she never stops seeing magic in her world.

She's READING!

Julia has been reading those early reader books for some time and she is always reading things she sees when we are in the car or things that are laying around the house. She reads books to Karley and books to me, but last night takes the cake. I checked out a book from the school library called The Boxcar Children. The book was published in the 1940s and written by a teacher who decided that there were not many choices of exciting books to read for new readers. There are dozens of books in the series about these four siblings who are orphans and have all these adventures. It sounded like just Julia's thing. So last night at storytime I get the book out and we open it up. I ask Julia if we could alternate paragraphs. She asked what a paragraph was and I showed her in the book. That made her think and she asked me why there were no words at the end of this one paragraph that ended with just one or two words on a line (maybe she is ready for grammar after all). So anyway, we get to reading. At first she wants only the short paragraphs. Then one paragraph leads to another and another and before I know it she has read a whole page (this is a childrens' novel with 6-8 page chapters). But she doesn't stop there, she reads the facing page as well. At the bottom of that page she tells me it is my turn again. So I turn the page and continue, but before I get too far she says it is her turn and she is off and running again, this time she turns the page and keeps going. She's off and running....

Always Thinking

This morning at breakfast Julia asked me, "Mom, what comes before zero?" I told her that negative numbers come before zero. She thought about it a minute and then said, "Oh." Like it was no big deal...... We finished the K-1st grade math book today.

Great Pyramid

Here is Julia hard at work creating a model of the Great Pyramid in Egypt. She used Elmer's glue to glue sugar cubes in place. After it dried she painted her structure with acrylic paint. She did point out that sides of her pyramid are not smooth like the Egyptian pyramids. I told her not to worry about it, that it was good enough (I didn't think sugar cubes would stand up to sanding. Frankly I was surprised we were able to use while glue and paint without making a big gooey mess!).

Belle the beauty

Julia thought she wanted to be a ghost all summer until the three of us went to the fabric store and she saw all the beautiful fabrics. All of a sudden it came to her.....she wanted to be Belle for Halloween. Not so much because of the big, fancy gown, but mainly because she wanted a red rose. Good grief! Next year I'm hoping for easier costumes, hopefully using easier fabrics!

Princess Karley!

Yes, I finally finished Karley's costume in time for Halloween. She felt like a princess and smiled from head to toe while she wore her dress. When asked her favorite part of her costume she replied with, "my tiara." Go figure.

Papyrus Scroll

This was a history project that Julia did awhile back. The assignment was to make a "papyrus" scroll using paint and a stiff brush. I had no idea she was going to make her hieroglyphics so large so I had to keep adding sheets of paper. The images that she painted spell out "Julia" from top to bottom. (sorry the photo is blurry)

Our Super Neat Girl

The other morning the three of us were rushing to get out of the house on time (ok, I'm rushing and they are just moving at their own pace). Because the kids' bathroom has just one sink and the two of them constantly fight over it at teeth brushing time ,I usually separate them and one will use the sink in their bathroom and the other will use John's sink (they can reach it because they can stand on the edge of the tub in our bathroom). So Karley is using John's sink and brushing her teeth. I was standing at my sink doing something (I'm finding that I'm getting more forgetful these days). After a few minutes I hear the sink running longer than it should. I look up to find that she is scrubbing the sink with her toothbrush!!! Thank goodness this wasn't the sink she made so dirty just a few short days ago!

Yucky, yucky day!

If you have ever wondered what a "day in the life of Brenna" is like, here is a good one for you. Let me just start out by saying that I'm adding this to the blog not for your benefit, but for mine so that someday I can laugh about this, like I'm sure you will all be doing as you read this. If you have a weak stomach or you are eating, I urge you NOT to read this now. You have been warned......

I woke up today still not feeling great. For three or four days now I feel like I'm on the verge of getting hammered by a nasty cold. I can function, but my head is congested, I'm tired, and generally not feeling great. We get through the morning fine. Julia is listening to me well and we are getting our work done fairly quickly and easily today. We go downstairs for lunch (Here's a first: Julia says she would rather keep doing her handwriting book than eat lunch!). I warm up soup for Julia, make quick mac and cheese for Karley, and I cook a frozen panini sandwich for myself. I finish eating and I'm deep into a cookbook looking for new dinner ideas. When I look up from the book I realize that the girls are "sharing" their lunches with each other and it is getting messy. To redirect them I get up and wash some grapes for them. I go out to get the mail. When I get back there is food EVERYWHERE!!! I tell them to stop, to pick up the mess and get cleaned up. Now they are out of their seats and chasing each other around with messy hands. I tell them again. They are both just wired and not listening to me at all. I don't know if it was frustration or me not feeling well enough to put up the fight, but I tell them both to go outside. I read the mail and look through my cookbook somemore. I can see them out the window. They appear to be playing well together and not causing trouble. I realize that I feel better than before, much less frustrated even though now I'm left picking up mac and cheese and grape stems off the floor. I decide to go outside and give them a 5 minute warning about coming back in the house before I tackle the mess. I go out the door and for some reason something tells me to look at the fountain. THIS IS WHERE IT GETS YUCKY!!!!! For those who have not seen our smallish fountain, I will describe it to the best of my ability. It is maybe 3 or so feet tall and it has three levels, smallest at the top and largest at the bottom. Much of the time it sits with the pump off because the kids think its fun to scoop the water out leaving the pump dry, and Shelby (our dog) has the nasty habit of drinking out of it. So, I look at the fountain (again, I really don't know what made me do this) and at the bottom of the largest and bottom level of the fountain is poop, lots and lots of it!!!! It would have been easy to think that these girls found some dog poop in the yard and for whatever reason put it in the fountain with their sandbox shovels. But, I am Julia's mother, and I know better! I confront the girls who are busy at their play table making bowl upon bowl of "cat soup". Karley says the dogs did it. Julia just smiles. I take her over to the fountain and tell her that I need an explanation for what I see. At first she acts like she sees nothing. Then when I remind her that lying is a serious offense and will cause her to end up in her room she tells me that she did it. Yes, she sat on the edge of the stone fountain with her naked fanny hanging over the edge and pooped in our fountain like it was an outdoor toilet. I asked her why she did this. She responds with something like she had to go real bad and that she didn't have time to make it into the house. By now I've heard and seen enough. I tell both of them to take their shoes off and wash their hands. I tell Julia to go to her room. I follow her up to her room and lock the door to enforce a timeout. I call John to tell him all about my lovely day.

John is apparently eating lunch at the time, but nevertheless, he cracks up. I'm sure those around him in whatever fast food place he was at were giving him strange looks. I tell him that I'm sure it sounds funny, but if he were home he would not be laughing. He stops laughing and whole heartedly agrees. So after a minute or two telling him about the ordeal I go downstairs to look for Karley.

I hear the bathroom sink running. This is a good sign I think. My little girl is so good at being neat and doing as she is told. When I get to where I can see her though I notice that she is washing her shoe in the bathroom sink! There is water all over the countertop and the floor. She is using the hand towel to wash her shoe. "No, no, no," I say. "We don't wash our shoes in the sink!" Karley is a bit upset and says, "But Mommy, I was trying to wash the dog poop off!" Now I am near enough to her that my nose tells me that her shoe is not the only source of the poop problem. I take off her other shoe, her socks, and her pants and we go upstairs to clean up her bottom. As those of you who have been through this stage before remember, almost 3-year old poopy diapers are NOT fun and this was was no exception. Ok, now that she is clean and I read her a short story and leave her in her room for quiet time, it is time to deal with Julia. I tell her how gross it is, how Shelby drinks out of there and can get sick, etc, etc. None of this bothers Julia at all. So I tell her that she is going to have a quiet rest (she usually does not have these anymore) without a story and that she cannot play in the backyard the rest of the week. She says she doesn't care. I'm sure many of you are thinking that I should have made her clean up her mess. I considered this, and although it would probably be the best way to teach her that the fountain does not flush, nor that it has a drain, I just wasn't feeling up to dealing with her going "fishing" and making a gross job even grosser.

I come downstairs. I tell myself that I'm going to quickly clean up the lunch mess, clean up the kitchen, and then clean up the bathroom mess so that I can get a much deserved break and take a short nap and/or write this blog post. I guess I forgot to say that the best thing that happened so far today was that I called John back and told him that my low point of the day was even lower than I first thought. He doesn't like my suggestions for how to clean up the mess outside, so he tells me not to worry about it, that he would clean it when he got home. Gotta love that guy!

So I cleaned up the food mess in the dining room, cleaned up the kitchen dishes, and I'm all set to tackle the bathroom. I first go to toss Karley's shoes outside. I take a look at them and I can see some dirt or mud or something in the tread, but it really wasn't a big deal. I figure that my clean freak girl was overreacting. Next I go to scrub the sink. I see a piece of bark caught up with the drain plug. I take my finger and go to scrape it out so that I can then scrub the sink. The only problem is that the "bark" squishes under the pressure of my finger. Yuck! There is dog poop caught up in the sink in the drain thingy!!!! I try to get the drain thingy to come out but it just doesn't, so I run a bunch of water and hope for the best. Luckliy the sink doesn't back up. I scour the sink and I spray diluted bleach around the counter. I take the dirty hand towel to the laundry room and go to MY bathroom and wash and wash my hands.

Now I look at the clock and realize that it is past 3pm, past the time that I wanted Julia's quiet time to go and that we still have math and history to do before we call it a day.

There you go, a day in the life......

We are 1/4 done?!

I just looked at the school calendar and realized that today marks the end of the first quarter of school. Wow! Time has gone by fast! We are still doing well. We have been working on many projects and working swiftly through our basics. Julia is 3/4 of the way through her math book, she has completed her Kindergarten handwriting book, and she has completed the first two level books in the phonics series. This week we have been celebrating our milestones and done a few more fun projects for history. Next week we will start attacking the next level handwriting and phonics. Julia and I both think that she will be able to complete this math book and probably half of the next book by the end of the school year.

Fog Willow Farm

The next day after our pumpkin patch fieldtrip we went on another fieldtrip with Karley's preschool. This was more of a farm. The girls got to help make a mini bale of hay, milk a "cow", and groom the mini pony (it was real). We had a fun time in the rain, but it was another very tiring day!

PACT's fieldtrip to the pumpkin patch

Last Thursday I took the girls to the pumpkin patch fieldtrip for Julia's school. They saw a blacksmith's demonstration and listened to the owner (farmer) of the property talk about the pumpin life cycle and how plants are important to us all in terms of food. Then the kids got a train ride and a chance to play in and around a half dozen "tepees". After this they picked their own pumpkins out of the field and then played on the hay bales. It was a fun, exhausting day for all of us.

Goin' On A Tortoise Hunt

Yes, that is John up to his waist in Myrtle's den trying to reach her and bring her out to hibernate. In all the years that we have had her/him there has been a gradual slowdown prior to hibernation. This year he/she just went and did it all at once. Desert tortoises are supposed to live in a much drier enivronment, so it is necessary for us to hibernate him/her in a box in the garage. John ended up taking the blocks off the face of the retaining wall and more or less digging to get our tortoise out. I'm happy to say that he/she is safely in her winter home in the garage. (Note: Myrtle was the name we gave our tortoise when she was just a baby. In the last year or so she has become old enough (i.e. large enough) to determine the sex. Myrtle is acutally a HE, but after over a year of trying to come up with a masculine name we gave up and still call him Myrtle. Any suggestions are welcome!)

Artists Create Landscapes???

This was Julia's oil pastel from a week or two ago. The assignment was to draw a landscape, but this is what she came up with. She says that it is of herself and Karley dining under palm trees sitting in fancy chairs at a fancy table. They have fruit on their table: an apple, a banana, and grapes. They are on the beach on a hot, sunny day. Not sure why they don't have clothes on!!! Oh, she just read this over my shoulder and she says the reason they do not have clothes on is because she can't draw clothes...phew!

More Busy Days

I know another week and a half has passed since I've posted anything. This time of year just has a way of sneaking up on me and devouring all my "free time." John says that I take very large bites. Maybe he is right. Our schooling is going fine. Because there was a non school day last week (we did school anyway) we are about a day and a half ahead of schedule. That means if someone gets sick or if we feel like we need a break we won't be behind.

I have been busy sewing not one, but two princess gowns for Halloween. Julia decided to be Belle from Beauty and the Beast. Her costume is a really pretty yellow, poufy thing. It is almost complete, but I realized that I need to make another trip to the fabric store. Somehow I didn't come home with enough fabric to make the pouf. I started Karley's pink gown with fancy gold trim yesterday. So far it is coming out ok. The pink fabric is a cheap satin (which means the iron doesn't like it) and it has glitter woven in it. I'm finding that the glitter heats up and sticks to anything, including a press cloth, so it is really, really hard to do ANY pressing on her gown.

grumble, grumble

Last Saturday we enrolled the girls at Tricks again. They both had a lot of fun. Karley is old enough now to be in the big girl class without parent participation. She did great and didn't seem to notice that she was on her own. Actually, even though they are technically in separate classes, both classes warm up together and occupy the same area of the gym at the same time.

This week John leaves for his meeting in Phoenix for a few days.....right smack dap in the middle of our anniversary. At the end of the week we have two field trips scheduled. PACT's pumpkin patch trip is on Thursday and the preschool pumpkin patch trip is Friday.

Tomorrow I'm supposed to work in Julia's class for the first time. I'm not yet sure if I'm going to or not. Karley came down with a cold yesterday.

And then there is a very important 3rd birthday that I'm trying to plan. I'm beginning to feel like there just aren't enough hours in the day. And soon we will even lose another hour.....

Brown-Eyed Girl

Something new happened today. Karley has always kept herself busy when Julia and I "do school." But today was different. She was cranky, and nothing really seemed to make her happy (note: this photo was taken yesterday, not today). By the time we finished up (shortly before noon) Karley was downstairs by herself on the floor crying. I asked her what was wrong and what I was able to get out of her was this:

she was angry with me because I had taken her playmate away from her.

Now this is one angle to homeschooling that I had not considered. I'm hoping she doesn't feel this way too long. I try to include her with her own "school work," but so far she has not been interested.

Well, six weeks down and still going fairly well....more next week.

Cave Wall Painting

Julia and I each made "cave wall" paintings using crumpled up brown paper bags and paint. Julia's picture is the bottom one. She says the animal on the left is a horse, in the center is a mother deer with her fawn, and the creature on the far right is a mammoth coming straight out of the page. In my cave wall painting I show a father teaching his son how to hunt his first mammoth. Our work is proudly displayed on the wall!

Today we made a model of the Nile River. It is a roasting pan with potting soil, a foil-lined river, and we planted seed along the "banks" of the river. We flooded the Nile (which it used to do each year....not sure if it still does that now...I doubt it...modern people tend not to like floods) and we will continue to add water (and flood the banks) to see how our "crops" grow. Not sure about the success of this one. When I say "flooded" I mean FLOODED by a 5 year old!!!

Apple Hill....again

Glad I was sitting on the uphill side of the car!

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!

Roller Skating!

PACT's back-to-school social event was held last week. Rollerskating at John's former preteen hangout, Roller King in Roseville. Our girls had been excited about it for a week and kept asking me if it was easier than ice skating which they tried last winter at Northstar. We told them that yes, it is easier but still takes a little getting used to. Julia and Karley skated holding on tightly to one of us around and around the rink several times. Both of them fell and both of them got to a point where they were frustrated and I was beginning to think that this whole thing was a mistake. But after a little break and a little ice cream, Karley said she was ready to roll. So she and I go out again and this time she is doing great! She is so much stronger and more confident. She even pulls away from my hand to go meet a new friend and skate with her. Within moments Julia finds these two new friends skating together and holding hands so she make a bee-line over there. Another girl, who is also in computer class, sees Julia heading for Karley and her new friend and she joins in too. Before you know it there is a girl clique formed at the roller rink! It was amazing, like they had just aged 10 years. The four girls (soon to become five girls) acted like they were long lost friends and headed off to go play air hockey. They played and played until the last song warning was announced and then they got back out there and skated. It was a great night!

I'm Back!

Well, after a long week and a half I have my computer back! Hurray!!! We have been doing well and staying busy of course. Don't worry, I have many stories to share (with photos!), but I'll save that for when these two are in bed and the house is quiet. I can't believe we are about to wrap up our 6th week tomorrow. The time is going by quickly and Julia's skills are improving. I'm noticing big changes with her reading, writing, and math skills. She is enjoying our history lessons and our science reading and notebook pages. When we get time we squeeze art in there too, but unfortunately we have missed it some weeks between trying to get the "basics" done and fitting in the classes on campus (not to mention homework for her Kindergarten class).

So, bear with me.....more homeschooling stories ahead........

Computer Woes

Well, my "new" computer needs servicing. It seems that the DVD drive that has been so tempermental from the beginning is actually defective and the Toshiba tech support woman didn't even want to try to fix it over the phone. This means of course that I have to take it in to an authorized dealer for servicing. It is still under warranty (just 27 days left!) so I kind of have to do what they want, I guess. The bad thing is that their authorized dealers are in either southern Cal or the Bay Area. I guess we are still just a cow town here. Of course, that also means that they won't cover the cost of shipping to or from the dealer. So I'm looking at shipping off my precious computer to some faceless company to replace the drive. My other option is to drive all the way to Concord to drop it off and then drive back a week or so later to pick it up. None of these options sound good, and it will likely mean I will be without my trusty computer for a week or two. I'm sure I'll have many stories to share once I get it back. Wish me luck!

Karley Christine

I don't know if its just that she is in preschool now or what, but Karley sure seems grown up these days. I bet she has grown a bunch the last few months. She is harder to carry around, not because she weighs so much more, but because her legs are getting so long! Of course, she doesn't really need to be carried anymore, but I guess I do it because I still can. I know my baby is growing up and one day, before I know it I won't be able to carry her around (and someday she won't let me!).

Karley started out as such a mystery. Even determining whether or not I was pregnant with her was a bit tricky. But now it seems impossible that there was ever life without her. She is sweet, smart, funny, and has a beautiful smile. I still think of her as my "breath of fresh air" when my day hasn't gone so well with her sister. Can you tell this was one of those days????

What do archaeologists do?

I was reading the rest of our first chapter in our history book, Story of the World. This chapter is an introduction and it has two parts: What is History? and What is archaeology? Today I read the archaeology part and asked a couple of review questions. Julia was sitting on the couch beside me and Karley was eating her apple, off to the side. I asked the first question, "What do archaeologists do?". As Julia is pondering her response Karley chimes in with, "They eat!" Gotta love that girl!

Cool Science

(spider before the big catch)

Yesterday I was walking down the sidewalk on my way back home from a neighbor's house. As I approached our nextdoor neighbor's house I noticed a HUGE spiderweb with a HUGE spider in it. It was a cool looking spider and a very impressive web. I went in the house and told Julia that I had something to show her. I grabbed the camera and Karley decided to come with us. We looked at the big spider and talked about the large web. Next, I asked the girls if they thought the spider was going to catch anything in the web.

(injecting venom and beginning to wrap meal)

Then....BAM....a bee flies into the web!!!! Just that fast! The spider quickly made its way to the trapped bee and injected its venom into it (this we learned from reading about spiders as part of Julia's Charlotte's Web lapbook we are currently working on). Then the spider spun web and very quickly wrapped up the bee. It was lightening speed! I've seen bugs caught in webs before, but I don't think I have ever seen one in action like this. The girls saw the whole thing. I had my camera. It was like it was just meant to be with us there to witness the whole thing. We could not have asked for better timing. And then after the spider wrapped its dinner up into a small ball of web, it did a quick patch job on the web and then went to the center and rested (it even looked tired!). The whole thing was really pretty amazing. And so much more interesting than reading about it in a book.

(meal safely wrapped up...yum)

What is a new scrapbook-loving, homeschooling mom to do?

Scrapbook cool binder cover pages, of course! Here are photos of Julia's Life Science binder (Kindergarten and 1st grade) and History binder (Kindergarten through 4th grade). I hade a lot of fun with them and this week we are adding both science and history to our already busy days. Twice a week we will work on history and twice a week we will work on science (mom reading, Julia narrating back, coloring pages, map work, special projects, etc) and add pages to the notebooks. These areas should be more interesting and fun than strictly working on reading skills, writing skills, and math skills. Oh yeah! And one afternoon a week we will continue with our art lessons...probably Friday afternoons. Whew!

Hip Hop, Apple Hill, End of Week #3

I guess it is a bit early to be counting down the weeks. Let's just say that this past week has not gone as well as the first two. It is going to take awhile to get used to having the "disruptions" created by Julia's classes on campus.

Today was supposed to be a fun fieldtrip to Apple Hill, but Julia has a way of making things go not as planned. I was hoping she would play the "big girl" role among all these preschoolers, but she was probably the only one to have timeouts during the fieldtrip, and much of the time she spent up ahead with the tour guide and far away from me. Needless to say we came home early and the girls are up in their rooms taking much deserved naps.

Yesterday, however, was a fun day. Julia had her Hip Hop class and it was so fun to watch. She was smiling from ear to ear the whole time and MOVING the whole time. After it was over she was so tired she couldn't even get herself in the car. As I was buckling Karley in, I looked over to find Julia with her feet on the ground and her head resting in her carseat. She was beat. And for one of the first nights ever she went to bed without complaining and with her door closed. Too bad Hip Hop is only once a week!

Good Find

I found this link on one of the Yahoo groups I'm on. Very cute.


http://video.stumbleupon.com/#p=ab28k5yac4

Busy Days!

It has been a couple of very busy days in our house. Yesterday Julia had both her Kindergarten class and her Computer class (Karley also had preschool). After 2 and a half years of Julia worrying about Kindergarten, we got through the day without a hitch, and more importantly, without tears. Today Julia had her P.E. class. We also got through without problems, despite the fact the teacher is male. I think these classes will be a great way for her to do her own "networking." She makes friends so easily and quickly. It amazes us that she is actually OUR daughter sometimes. Tomorrow is Hip Hop. I'm trying to convience her that even though it is a dance class, a pink ballet leotard with tulle skirt is really not necessary.

Friday I think we are still heading to Apple Hill for Karley's preschool fieldtrip. I have several new projects for Julia to start and some things I would like her to finish before we start the new things, but I figure this is Kindergarten afterall....I might as well take advantage of all the fieldtrips I can. There will surely be days when I will wish we could take a trip to Apple Hill!

On-site Classes

The class sign-up procedure at Natomas Charter School goes like this:

1. You can choose up to 7 classes.
2. Classes are given a grade range, say K-3
3. If more children than the alloted number sign-up for a given class, the class is filled by a lottery system.
4. No news is good news. If you don't hear back from them all is well and they enrolled your child in all the classes you requested.


Well, I thought we were in the clear, but I received a phone call yesterday saying that Julia did not make the Spanish class. I was told that she was on the wait-list and that it was possible that she would make it into the class afterall. I asked where on the wait-list she was. Dead-last I was told (actually just three kids on the wait list). We had indicated that Julia would like to take the Computer class if Spanish was full and I asked if it was still an option. I was told, yes, that class was not full. So I told the woman that I would discuss this with Julia and get back to her.

I go downstairs to tell Julia. It was late afternoon and she was deeply involved with her TV program. I told her that what I had to say was important. That I needed a decision from her and that she would not be able to change her mind later. I explained the situation and she said she wanted to wait for Spanish. I ask, "Are you sure?" She says, "Yes" and goes back to her show. So I head upstairs and when I get halfway she says, "WAIT! I think I want to take the computer class." I tell her that she can't change her mind she needs to decide and then that is it. She says, "I know I want to take the computer class. Besides, Grammy can always teach me Spanish."

As it turned out 3 of her 4 chosen classes were filled by lottery: Kindergarten class (which she made), Spanish, and Hip Hop (which she also made). Kind of interesting that the only class on her prefered list that did not need a lottery to fill was PE. So after the Monday holiday she starts her Kindergarten class in the morning (somehow, someway I have to get both kids to their classes, miles apart, at the same time.....) and Computers. Wednesday afternoons she will have PE and Thursday afternoons she will have Hip Hop. This should be interesting....

Is the Honeymoon Over???

The last couple of days have gone more the way I thought most homeschooling days would go. Julia has been more like the Julia we all know. She is less agreeable and she is doing things in the morning that set the tone for the rest of the day. Today it was waking up way too early and then proceeding to make a HUGE mess in the bathroom. Its really hard to "forget" her earlier "mistakes" and be easy going and encouraging the rest of the morning. Her work has also been a bit rushed and sloppy. I'm wondering if this has anything to do with how hot it has been and the fact that we have not been going for our morning walks/bike rides/park playtime. Anyhow, she did take a math review test and scored a 96% (although I'm not assigning grades to her). We have also finished all the capital letters and the numbers in her handwriting book. Her reading skills are improving and she is reading more, and liking it. We have been putting quarters in our wall quarter map. I've been surprised by how many states she remembers. She knows California because she knows it is where we live. She knows that her cousins, Emma and Andrew, live in Oregon. For some reason she knows that Washington is north of Oregon. That Sam Beaver in Trumpet of the Swan spends his summers in Montana. She knows that E.B. White lived on a farm in Maine. She knows that her cousins, Isaac, Grace and Hayden live in New York now. She knows that her cousins Austin and Kielyn live in Florida. And then she remembers that Daddy went to Georgia last year on a business trip. She just seems to have her way of knowing and remembering many, many states (more than I've listed here).

Karley's school has a field trip to Apple Hill next Friday. I told Julia today that if she works hard so that we feel we can afford to take a morning off next Friday that we can go on the field trip. Always good to have a little leverage....

Art Lesson: Artists Imagine

So this afternoon Julia and I worked on her second art lesson from our book, Artistic Pursuits. This lesson talked about artists using things they know and that are familiar to them and incorporating their imagination when making a picture. The assignment was to make a painting using water color crayons. This was our first time using water color crayons, and they are really pretty cool. First you draw your picture with a drawing pencil, then color it in using the crayons, and finally use a paint brush and water to let the colors swirl and mix. It was cool watching the pigment become liquified and fill in all the white gaps of her coloring.

So she was to pick something that was familiar to her. Of course that meant that she wanted to do a tabby cat. The book suggested going for a walk around the neighborhood to get some ideas. We were not able to do this since Karely was "napping" in her room. So I suggested that maybe she could think about the park down the street. She thought it was a great idea, but of course, she managed to squeeze that cat in there too! Here are some photos of our art time.

This is how it looked before adding the water with the brush. I am told Karley is on the yellow slide, Julia is on the swing, and the tabby cat is waiting at the bottom of the slide. Not sure why she made the skin color so dark for herself and her sister, but in all fairness there was no good flesh color, her choices were either brown or orange.

Hard at work.....

The finished product! Julia is quite pleased with herself! I am too!

The Outside of Julia's Bedroom Door...

The inside of Julia's room......

Great First Week

Well, here we are at the end of our first week. I have to say that so far I am presently surprised. Mildly surprised at how bright Julia is....this I have known from the day she was born it seems. Happily surprised that Karley is so far able to keep herself busy and not need too much interaction for good 30-45 minute chunks of time. And so far I am most surprised that I am able to keep my own sanity!!! Today I realized that I was being a little less patient. How many times does one really need to say, "sit in your chair" or "stop fidgeting" or "please open your eyes when you are writing?" But we are at the end of our week and tomorrow I go to my "real job." Sunday will probably be spent catching up on shopping and cleaning up the house and then we will be at it all over again next week. So far, so good.

Julia's First Art Lesson

So, here is the budding artist hard at work on her first art lesson. We read a few pages in her art book about artists composing their work, looked at a print and talked about its composition, and then she was all set to break out her new art supplies and compose her own picture. The assignment was to draw about something she likes. It suggested drawing something that she had seen earlier that day or the previous day. She could not think of what to draw so she fell back on drawing what she liked. Of course, that means she drew a cat.

Karley's First Day at Creative Kids Preschool!

So, here is Karley before her first day of big girl preschool. She is going to Creative Kids Preschool (the preschool that Julia graduated from last June) Tuesday and Thursday mornings. I was afraid that she might be nervous about going, but as you can see she and Frogalina were all smiles! She got through the 3 hour period just fine with no tears I'm told. Her teachers told me today that she is quiet (we all know that), but that once she gets going she has a lot to say (this we also know). They also told me what a great dancer she is! Dancing at preschool on her first day?!? Guess she is not as shy as we thought!

Our First Week

So here we are on our first day. I wanted a photo of all three of us, but I never took the time to figure out if our new camera has a timer or how to use it. So, I took a photo of the girls together and I let each of them take turns taking photos of their sister and I. As you can imagine, there are many, many images with heads chopped off, or of the floor, or of mom's rear end trying to get back in place before the junior photographer gets trigger happy. So these are probably the best photos of Day 1.

I have to say now that we are four days into it, things are going better than I had hoped for...so far. Julia is paying close attention. Karley is a dream little sister who entertains herself quietly and well for long stretches of time. I have only had to put my foot down with Julia over something (i.e. "Julia, I want you to open your eyes when you are practicing your handwriting." "Oh mom!" she says) a handful of times. Our lesson time is intense time, but we are not arguing during that time. She is more attentive and respectful than other periods of the day. She is going through mostly review stuff, but I can see such a big improvement from when we first went through these lessons, months ago. She doesn't need time to "get it". Its already there. Julia tells me that homeschooling is easier than she thought it would be. I told her that I was happy to hear that, but that we would be adding in some things. "Like what," she says. "Well, like history and some science, but we will add one new thing at a time" I tell her. She comes back with, "Oh mom, can't we just do it all?"

So overall, I feel relieved. I feel like we spend a good amount of time on math, phonics, and handwriting each day. In addition she reads to me, I read to her, and she works on art and/or craft stuff each day (much of the time it is during her free time and she does her own thing). Even with all this though, I am still working really hard for us to meet our weekly minimum amount of time. Our time spent is real, solid chunks of time which I do not believe you can duplicate in a larger environment. I can also really see how well this learning style fits her. Even with Karley as well behaved and quiet as she is, anytime Karley speaks Julia is distracted from what she is doing. She has to stop and turn around and see what is going on. I can't imagine her in a room with 20 other students. She would be all over the place! Anyway, so far so good.....

The Eve of Homeschooling

Here it is; the night before we officially begin. Here is how the room looks now. We still have some other pieces of furniture to add, but this will do it for now. Eventually I want another bookcase or cabinet to store our art supplies in, a CD tower, a couple of filing/storage cabinets, and a couple of lower cabinets on the other side of the room to store educational games and toys. Julia is still excited, but nervous about taking classes on campus. I know that virtually all Kindergarteners feel this way, so I'm not worried about it. I anticipate most of the time the girls, or at least Julia, will sit at this larger table with me. For messy things and craft projects they will use their faithful, broken in bug table.


I think we are ready to go. I have a game plan for tomorrow. Actually it is an idea of what I would like to do and in order of priority, but I'm trying to keep things loose and allow for meltdowns, tantrums, or diversions because we are having a good time. I expect this to be a hectic week since Karley will be starting preschool on Tuesday (going both Tuesday and Thursday) and I am going to give it my best effort to make an aerobics class twice a week (also Tuesday and Thursday mornings).


Yesterday we received a copy of the class schedule. There are quite a few different possibilities, but right now we are considering the Kindergarten class (lots of writing), P.E., computer skills, Spanish, and Hip Hop dance class. I think we will sign up for no more than 4 classes, so it will probably come down to either computers or Spanish. Julia can use all the excercise she can get!

Anyway, good night! Wish us luck!!!!

Fall Curriculum

So after much thought and deliberation I have come up with our curriculum, at least for awhile. We will continue (and actually start over ) our math with ShillerMath, Book 1. I anticipate that Julia will fly through the first 100 lessons or so that we have done previously, but it should be a good review for her. Next we will continue with Explode the Code for phonics. She has done some of this in the past, and we will probably just talk about what she has already done and then go from there. We are starting with Book 1 (although she is reading beyond this level now, so it should go quickly). After Book 1 we will continue with Book 1 1/2 (review of Book 1) and Books 2 and 2 1/2. I'm not sure how long this will take. I think the work is not too hard for her, but she has resisted phonics instruction in the past (she just wants to do it, i.e. READ.....but only when SHE wants to). We will also continue using Handwriting Without Tears. For some reason we did all but a few of the capital letters last year so we will review those and then start in on lowercase. Julia really enjoys writing, she does not, however, enjoy holding her pencil the correct way. We will also begin an art program called Artisitic Pursuits. It is part art instruction, part art appreciation, and part hands-on art fun. I expect that this will be her favorite lesson of the week. As far as lapbooks go we plan to do about one per month. She is currently doing one on Charlotte's Web. Those in the works include Spiders (she is obsessed with Charlotte these days), The Girl in the Ragcoat (based on a children's book with a similar title), Turkey Time, and a fun Christmas one.

Karley is currently working on an Ants Go Marching lapbook, with Wheels on the Bus, 5 Little Pumpkins, Turkey Time, and Christmas on the way.

My plan is that after we get all of this worked into our daily lives then we will start adding in Science and some History too. Whew!

Hang On....Here We Go!

Well, this has definitely been an eventful week. Monday started with a New Family Orientation at the school. Although I have spent quite a bit of time there already, I left there with my head spinning with details about field trips, classes, etc. The next day Julia and I met with our advisor, Shari, for the first time. We also came home with most of our books and materials. Yesterday (Wednesday) I took the girls to the Outlet Mall and we shopped for some new shoes and school clothes. Today we took a break and met Sarah and her girls at Fairytale Town to celebrate our birthdays. This weekend we plan to have one more fun family outing and then on Monday we start school!!!! Its really cute how excited Julia is about all this. John hung a whiteboard on the wall for me and on Sunday I saw that it said "8 DAYS LEFT! (smiley face) IM YEY ASKTDID JULIA". For those who need an interpretation it says "8 DAYS LEFT! (smiley face) I'M VERY EXCITED. JULIA" I sure hope she doesn't feel letdown after the first day or week. When I ask her what she is expecting she tells me that she is expecting a "celebration." Good grief! Wish me luck!

Karley's Frog Lapbook

As you can see, Karley has been hard at work on her 5 Speckled Frog lapbook. Like her sister, Karley is really enjoying lapbooking. I find that it does take more of my time because I have to sit right with her and help her cut or encourage her to color, but she seems to enjoy the activities and seems real happy when it comes all together at the end. My thought was to complete one lapbook for each girl each month, but for August both girls have a longer, more complicated project and since I have been so busy, we have not accomplished much on them yet. Perhaps we will do one for the months of August and September since school starts real soon.

Our "School Room", AKA "The Loft"

So here it is as it currently stands! We have put a lot of work into the room and there is still quite a bit to do as you can see. So far we have moved everything out of the room, painted, installed crown moulding, added new light fixtures, and started bringing in new furniture. Now I'm in the process of organizing our things and moving them into the room. As you can see I have my work cut out for me, and I only have a few days left! Tonight we are off to IKEA for tables! More photos to come....

Blogging Again!

Ok, this blog thing is really getting to me. I have tried so many different blogging sites and I seem to get frustrated that they either don't let me do what I want to do or they are just too cumbersome to manage. So, here I go again starting yet another blog. Hopefully this one will work out. I may just start off here on the 10th day of August, 2007, just 10 days before school starts. I had wanted to move older posts over to here, but I'm finding that it just isn't going to happen. So, here we go with a fresh start! Welcome to our newest blog!