Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Tired Mommy
Exhausted, actually. Would have loved to crawl into bed after reading two chapters of Little House on the Prairie, but all those pears and apples we picked last week won't last forever. Tonight was apple night. I made a batch of apple butter, a gallon+ of applesauce, 2 apple crisps, and 2 apple-pear crisps. Pretty good for one night! Tomorrow night, bli neder, I'll make pear butter, apple-pear sauce, and pear bread. Hoping to finish up a couple batches of peach jam too. The pears are so delicious. They're just perfect right now. It was good to get some things made ahead too, with all the holidays coming up: Rosh Hashanah (2 days), Yom Kippur, Sukkot (6ish days; 2 are non-working days), Shemini Atzeret/Simchat Torah (2 days). Dean has already put in 30 extra hours at work, so he'll be able to take all the holidays as comp time which is really great. More like collapse time. It's a lot with the normal stuff + papa working extra hours + homeschooling + teaching one afternoon per week. Yawn. Time to pack up the applesauce and go to sleep.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Two Great Story Books
We just read two books at snack time today - One Small Place by the Sea and One Small Place in a Tree. They were lyrically written by Barbara Brenner. She has many other story books about the natural world, and we are looking forward to reading them!
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Our Week of Learning, Addendum
I forgot to say we're using the Saxon math curriculum. We're on lesson 97 of 112. I'll probably wait until January to go on to 1st grade math while we strengthen our writing skills (especially numbers!). I'm not sure if I'll continue with Saxon or try something like Calvert or Singapore Math. Saxon comes with a HUGE teacher manual, which is great for someone with no teaching experience. I would be fine with just the student portion of the math book with explanations as needed. Singapore Math is pretty much that so it costs about one fourth of what Saxon costs. I like Saxon, but I'm paying for a lot more than I really need. Anyway... we'll see what happens with that.
We also did another experiment on Friday morning with putting white carnations in glasses of colored water. The petals haven't changed color yet, 48 hours later. You can see tiny bits of color in maybe 3-4 pinhead-sized places on each flower, but that's it. I freshly cut the stems before putting them in the water. Maybe they're basically dead grocery store flowers so they're not sucking up the water as fast as fresh flowers. I don't know. We'll just see what happens.
In the meantime, we're so excited about going crayfish hunting this week!! I'm going to call Metro to see where one of the best spots might be so our trip isn't a bust. We'll bring mason jars and a big clear bucket and some pond nets and some crayfish bait. Should be a blast. With the weather around 90 degrees through Tuesday, it should be fun to get a little wet. I'm so thankful for this extended bit of summer weather. Last year we didn't get it at all. We went BAM into the wet weather and that was it until we emerged many months later. I hope this lasts through September.
Off to the wading pool later this morning! Yay!
We also did another experiment on Friday morning with putting white carnations in glasses of colored water. The petals haven't changed color yet, 48 hours later. You can see tiny bits of color in maybe 3-4 pinhead-sized places on each flower, but that's it. I freshly cut the stems before putting them in the water. Maybe they're basically dead grocery store flowers so they're not sucking up the water as fast as fresh flowers. I don't know. We'll just see what happens.
In the meantime, we're so excited about going crayfish hunting this week!! I'm going to call Metro to see where one of the best spots might be so our trip isn't a bust. We'll bring mason jars and a big clear bucket and some pond nets and some crayfish bait. Should be a blast. With the weather around 90 degrees through Tuesday, it should be fun to get a little wet. I'm so thankful for this extended bit of summer weather. Last year we didn't get it at all. We went BAM into the wet weather and that was it until we emerged many months later. I hope this lasts through September.
Off to the wading pool later this morning! Yay!
Our Week of Learning
WOW. What a week. One minute I would feel like we were accomplishing tons, and the next minute I would feel like it was impossible. :) Overall, the week went really well. We finished nearly everything we had set out to do. Hopefully, we'll tie up a few loose ends tomorrow.
Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday were full learning days (as in a solid 3 hours per day). (Actually, that sounds kind of funny. Every moment is a learning moment, literally. I guess that was the amount of time we spent "book learning"!) Monday was wiped out with Eli's difficult trip to the doctor, followed up by lots of TLC and ice cream. Wednesday was our outing day. Friday was just playing and reading in the morning and shabbat preparations in the afternoon. So, this is what we did:
TEFILLAH (prayer)
Our current morning routine is modah ani, negel vasser, reishit chochmah, tzitzis, torah tziva lanu Moshe, and shema. This has been our routine for quite a while. (TRANSLATION of above: prayer that says we are grateful our soul has been returned to us; morning hand washing; beginning of wisdom...; the brachah for putting on tzitzis; song celebrating Moshe bringing the torah to us from G-d; shema is the central prayer of Judaism - the first part is just 6 words: listen, Israel, Hashem is our lord, hashem is one).
Next week we'll be adding mah tovu. I hope to add a new tefillah to our routine every four to six weeks or so, or whenever the new tefillah is well-integrated. At bedtime we do shema, and this week I will be adding hamalach hagoel (a song that asks for protection from the angels) as a lullaby that I will sing to them.
KRIYAH (Hebrew reading)
We are winding our way through a thorough review of the alef bet letters and their sounds. We are up to samech (about 2/3 of the way through). This should be finished by Rosh Hashanah.
IVRIT (Hebrew - oral)
We are using the book Shalom Ivrit. It will do for now. It's really intended for kids in 3rd or 4th grade or so going to a weekly Hebrew school class. We have our puppets Zevi and Tzemi (Wolfie and Wooly) teaching the lessons. It's pretty fun, especially since we added Tzemi this week. We started learning masculine/feminine verb endings so needed a boy and girl puppet. The focus of the chapter has been on shabbat. In addition to verb endings we're also working on the prepositions in, on, next to, and under and the concepts of avodah (work) and menuchah (rest). It was pretty fun! And the kids can't get enough of Tzemi. She's sweet and young and silly. Zevi is old, a little bit more serious, and a little more tired than Tzemi. :) We also learned the song Yom rishon, avodah.
PARSHA (torah reading of the week)
The first day we read the summary of the parsha in My First Parsha Reader. It gives a good overview of the parsha, and introduces most of the key vocabulary. After that I pick and choose various stories from The Little Midrash Says. This week we focused on: Avshalom's rebellion (as an example of a rebellious son), the mitzvah (commandment) of hashvat aveidah (returning a lost object), and the mitzvah of shooing the mother bird away from her nest before you take her eggs. We just read the stories, no special projects or anything.
CHAGIM (holidays)
We read the book Rosh Hashanah with Bina, Benny, and Chaggai, which gives a good overview of the dinim (laws) and minhagim (customs) of the holiday. We learned three Rosh Hashanah songs - Tu, tu kol shofar; L'shana tova tikateivu; and Tapuchim ud'vash. We also did our apple-picking field trip (we eat apples - tapuchim - on Rosh Hashanah). We practiced the traditional Hebrew greetings one uses on Rosh Hashanah too.
TORAH STUDY - Bereishit (Genesis)
We are doing our 2 pasukim per day journey through Bereishit. I've learned a lot and it's a good discipline for me if nothing else! Amirah has picked up many of the vocabulary words. I can read the Hebrew thoroughly now through verse 12. I would guess Amirah understands a good 50% or more of it. We certainly got a lot of new vocabulary words under our belt!
READING (English, that is!)
We are working our way through Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. It has been working really well for us. I had dismissed it in the beginning of my searching for a good reading book because it has some unusual orthography to teach the sounds, but it has actually been very effective. We are now on lesson 33 of 100.
We read Little House in the Big Woods, and tonight we started on Little House on the Prairie. We couldn't get enough! In the coming week I'm hoping to make tin lanterns punched with a design in nail holes to copy something they did in the book. I would also like to make one or two of the things they cooked (johnnycake and maple candy perhaps). I would also like to dip candles. Lots of "would likes". We'll see! There are lots of good ideas that I got from this classroom guide. We read the short bio of LI Wilder that was included. We'll see how many projects we can do in the next couple of weeks, especially with Rosh Hashnah coming. Oh, well. We can always use maple candy on Rosh Hashanah! :)
We also started and finished a Grade 1 Reading Comprehension book. It had 40 or so 1-page stories (mostly non-fiction) with questions to answer. Amirah loved doing it so we zoomed through the book. It even asked a few more abstract questions like "What was the main idea of this story?" and "Why do you think xyz happened?" It was pretty fun.
WRITING
We're using Letters and Numbers for Me, part of the Handwriting Without Tears Program. Amirah is a bit of a reluctant writer (if you can really call someone that at age 5!!). Her small-motor skills are still developing. She was very late to walk and do smaller movements. This program is great because it has a multiple of large-motor ways of learning the letters (see the website for more info). We started over the summer. She has worked on all of her capital letters, but is finding the curves of the lowercase letters much more challenging. We'll probably be working on the book for another two months or so. Anyway, this week we did pages 45-51 (w, t, some words, a, d, g, and a couple of sentences). It's completely up to her how much we do in a sitting, as long as we do at least one page. We typically do 1-3 pages per sitting. When she's just eaten, had a good night's sleep, and has been moving around, she finds the writing a lot easier. I try to do it first after breakfast. She definitely has far less patience for this than anything else, so I'm following her lead completely.
MATH
We got only about half the math done that I had planned, but we all love doing math! All the kids gather round the table at math time and get some of whatever manipulatives we're using. This week we were counting nickels (and counting by 5s). We also re-visited counting dimes (and counting by 10s). And pennies/1s. We did penny, dime, and nickel dances where we put Avi in the middle and danced around him singing in a sing-song (a la Ring Around the Rosie) voice and counting by 1s, 5s, or 10s. We would all fall down when we got to ONE DOLLAR and tickle Avi. Those were a hit. We also worked with tangrams and found various ways to fill in various shapes using the tangram pieces. It was a blast. Amirah could have done that forever had we not run out of tangram sheets. I'm sure I can find more tangram puzzles online somewhere.
MEMORIZATION
We started some memory work. Right now we are working on memorizing "The Swing" by Robert Louis Stevenson. It has 3 verses of 4 lines each.
SCIENCE
Much of this we got on dvd this week, from Planet Earth and How Birds Eat (great footage!!). We supplemented with reading some of our ocean books about the very deep parts of the ocean. We also read about crayfish in our favorite 100-year-old (almost) nature book - Handbook of Nature Study. We've had fun watching the crayfish at Uwajimaya, the Asian grocery store. I'm hoping to manage a field trip to a pond so we can catch one ourselves and observe it for a little while before putting it back. We used to catch them as kids by tying a piece of liver to a string and dipping the string in the water. They don't let go and you plop them into your bucket. I wonder if we can go to any pond and catch them? I'll have to call someone at Metro and find out...
FIELD TRIPS
Sherwood Orchards & Tualatin River Wildlife Refuge. YEAH!
OY! After reading all that I don't see how we could possibly have fit any more in. I felt bad we hadn't done a big art project, or anything in the way of music other than singing a few Rosh Hashanah songs. I see now that we did PLENTY. I don't know if I'll be able to take an hour every Saturday night to type all this up. It should be easier since I won't reference books I've already referenced, etc. I'd say the first week went pretty well. Can't wait for week #2!
Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday were full learning days (as in a solid 3 hours per day). (Actually, that sounds kind of funny. Every moment is a learning moment, literally. I guess that was the amount of time we spent "book learning"!) Monday was wiped out with Eli's difficult trip to the doctor, followed up by lots of TLC and ice cream. Wednesday was our outing day. Friday was just playing and reading in the morning and shabbat preparations in the afternoon. So, this is what we did:
TEFILLAH (prayer)
Our current morning routine is modah ani, negel vasser, reishit chochmah, tzitzis, torah tziva lanu Moshe, and shema. This has been our routine for quite a while. (TRANSLATION of above: prayer that says we are grateful our soul has been returned to us; morning hand washing; beginning of wisdom...; the brachah for putting on tzitzis; song celebrating Moshe bringing the torah to us from G-d; shema is the central prayer of Judaism - the first part is just 6 words: listen, Israel, Hashem is our lord, hashem is one).
Next week we'll be adding mah tovu. I hope to add a new tefillah to our routine every four to six weeks or so, or whenever the new tefillah is well-integrated. At bedtime we do shema, and this week I will be adding hamalach hagoel (a song that asks for protection from the angels) as a lullaby that I will sing to them.
KRIYAH (Hebrew reading)
We are winding our way through a thorough review of the alef bet letters and their sounds. We are up to samech (about 2/3 of the way through). This should be finished by Rosh Hashanah.
IVRIT (Hebrew - oral)
We are using the book Shalom Ivrit. It will do for now. It's really intended for kids in 3rd or 4th grade or so going to a weekly Hebrew school class. We have our puppets Zevi and Tzemi (Wolfie and Wooly) teaching the lessons. It's pretty fun, especially since we added Tzemi this week. We started learning masculine/feminine verb endings so needed a boy and girl puppet. The focus of the chapter has been on shabbat. In addition to verb endings we're also working on the prepositions in, on, next to, and under and the concepts of avodah (work) and menuchah (rest). It was pretty fun! And the kids can't get enough of Tzemi. She's sweet and young and silly. Zevi is old, a little bit more serious, and a little more tired than Tzemi. :) We also learned the song Yom rishon, avodah.
PARSHA (torah reading of the week)
The first day we read the summary of the parsha in My First Parsha Reader. It gives a good overview of the parsha, and introduces most of the key vocabulary. After that I pick and choose various stories from The Little Midrash Says. This week we focused on: Avshalom's rebellion (as an example of a rebellious son), the mitzvah (commandment) of hashvat aveidah (returning a lost object), and the mitzvah of shooing the mother bird away from her nest before you take her eggs. We just read the stories, no special projects or anything.
CHAGIM (holidays)
We read the book Rosh Hashanah with Bina, Benny, and Chaggai, which gives a good overview of the dinim (laws) and minhagim (customs) of the holiday. We learned three Rosh Hashanah songs - Tu, tu kol shofar; L'shana tova tikateivu; and Tapuchim ud'vash. We also did our apple-picking field trip (we eat apples - tapuchim - on Rosh Hashanah). We practiced the traditional Hebrew greetings one uses on Rosh Hashanah too.
TORAH STUDY - Bereishit (Genesis)
We are doing our 2 pasukim per day journey through Bereishit. I've learned a lot and it's a good discipline for me if nothing else! Amirah has picked up many of the vocabulary words. I can read the Hebrew thoroughly now through verse 12. I would guess Amirah understands a good 50% or more of it. We certainly got a lot of new vocabulary words under our belt!
READING (English, that is!)
We are working our way through Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. It has been working really well for us. I had dismissed it in the beginning of my searching for a good reading book because it has some unusual orthography to teach the sounds, but it has actually been very effective. We are now on lesson 33 of 100.
We read Little House in the Big Woods, and tonight we started on Little House on the Prairie. We couldn't get enough! In the coming week I'm hoping to make tin lanterns punched with a design in nail holes to copy something they did in the book. I would also like to make one or two of the things they cooked (johnnycake and maple candy perhaps). I would also like to dip candles. Lots of "would likes". We'll see! There are lots of good ideas that I got from this classroom guide. We read the short bio of LI Wilder that was included. We'll see how many projects we can do in the next couple of weeks, especially with Rosh Hashnah coming. Oh, well. We can always use maple candy on Rosh Hashanah! :)
We also started and finished a Grade 1 Reading Comprehension book. It had 40 or so 1-page stories (mostly non-fiction) with questions to answer. Amirah loved doing it so we zoomed through the book. It even asked a few more abstract questions like "What was the main idea of this story?" and "Why do you think xyz happened?" It was pretty fun.
WRITING
We're using Letters and Numbers for Me, part of the Handwriting Without Tears Program. Amirah is a bit of a reluctant writer (if you can really call someone that at age 5!!). Her small-motor skills are still developing. She was very late to walk and do smaller movements. This program is great because it has a multiple of large-motor ways of learning the letters (see the website for more info). We started over the summer. She has worked on all of her capital letters, but is finding the curves of the lowercase letters much more challenging. We'll probably be working on the book for another two months or so. Anyway, this week we did pages 45-51 (w, t, some words, a, d, g, and a couple of sentences). It's completely up to her how much we do in a sitting, as long as we do at least one page. We typically do 1-3 pages per sitting. When she's just eaten, had a good night's sleep, and has been moving around, she finds the writing a lot easier. I try to do it first after breakfast. She definitely has far less patience for this than anything else, so I'm following her lead completely.
MATH
We got only about half the math done that I had planned, but we all love doing math! All the kids gather round the table at math time and get some of whatever manipulatives we're using. This week we were counting nickels (and counting by 5s). We also re-visited counting dimes (and counting by 10s). And pennies/1s. We did penny, dime, and nickel dances where we put Avi in the middle and danced around him singing in a sing-song (a la Ring Around the Rosie) voice and counting by 1s, 5s, or 10s. We would all fall down when we got to ONE DOLLAR and tickle Avi. Those were a hit. We also worked with tangrams and found various ways to fill in various shapes using the tangram pieces. It was a blast. Amirah could have done that forever had we not run out of tangram sheets. I'm sure I can find more tangram puzzles online somewhere.
MEMORIZATION
We started some memory work. Right now we are working on memorizing "The Swing" by Robert Louis Stevenson. It has 3 verses of 4 lines each.
SCIENCE
Much of this we got on dvd this week, from Planet Earth and How Birds Eat (great footage!!). We supplemented with reading some of our ocean books about the very deep parts of the ocean. We also read about crayfish in our favorite 100-year-old (almost) nature book - Handbook of Nature Study. We've had fun watching the crayfish at Uwajimaya, the Asian grocery store. I'm hoping to manage a field trip to a pond so we can catch one ourselves and observe it for a little while before putting it back. We used to catch them as kids by tying a piece of liver to a string and dipping the string in the water. They don't let go and you plop them into your bucket. I wonder if we can go to any pond and catch them? I'll have to call someone at Metro and find out...
FIELD TRIPS
Sherwood Orchards & Tualatin River Wildlife Refuge. YEAH!
OY! After reading all that I don't see how we could possibly have fit any more in. I felt bad we hadn't done a big art project, or anything in the way of music other than singing a few Rosh Hashanah songs. I see now that we did PLENTY. I don't know if I'll be able to take an hour every Saturday night to type all this up. It should be easier since I won't reference books I've already referenced, etc. I'd say the first week went pretty well. Can't wait for week #2!
Friday, September 12, 2008
The Menu
I'm completely exhausted and grinning ear-to-ear. What a wonderful week this has been. I haven't quite tallied everything up yet, but I think I actually nearly accomplished all the learning I set out to accomplish with them. There's a little more Jewish studies to do which we will finish on shabbat, and we'll have to do a math lesson on Sunday, but I think that's it. I'm very happy. And so are they! Bli neder, I'll write down everything we did over the weekend, as much for my own records as anything else.
Now for the all-important (pretty basic, but I'm okay with that!!!!!!) menu:
Challah
Shuba (lox, beets, potatoes, onions, carrots, and mayonnaise - thanks AGAIN EE!)
Chicken soup
Roast chicken
Mixed roasted vegetables
Green salad
Rice
Corn
Hazelnut Tart
And for lunch:
SUSHI! Yeah! And salad and miso soup!
We've got salmon, avocado, cucumber, krab, sweet gourd, sweet egg omelet, and spinach. We'll make that into all kinds of yummy combinations.
And I think all day Dean and I will just take turns taking naps. We're both exhausted (in a good way!). He's at this moment giving a big lecture at OHSU and there's been a big conference there and fall classes are starting at the end of the month (on Rosh Hashanah, of all things). The prep work for the beginning of fall term is the craziest time of year. He sure works hard on behalf of all of us. His complete devotion to all things family is hugely appreciated.
Shabbat shalom, everyone!
And here's a little prayer that MH will find out today that he passed the bar exam! Please, hashem!
Now for the all-important (pretty basic, but I'm okay with that!!!!!!) menu:
Challah
Shuba (lox, beets, potatoes, onions, carrots, and mayonnaise - thanks AGAIN EE!)
Chicken soup
Roast chicken
Mixed roasted vegetables
Green salad
Rice
Corn
Hazelnut Tart
And for lunch:
SUSHI! Yeah! And salad and miso soup!
We've got salmon, avocado, cucumber, krab, sweet gourd, sweet egg omelet, and spinach. We'll make that into all kinds of yummy combinations.
And I think all day Dean and I will just take turns taking naps. We're both exhausted (in a good way!). He's at this moment giving a big lecture at OHSU and there's been a big conference there and fall classes are starting at the end of the month (on Rosh Hashanah, of all things). The prep work for the beginning of fall term is the craziest time of year. He sure works hard on behalf of all of us. His complete devotion to all things family is hugely appreciated.
Shabbat shalom, everyone!
And here's a little prayer that MH will find out today that he passed the bar exam! Please, hashem!
Another Good Day
Today we did 3 hours of fairly intensive learning, since Tuesday was wiped out by Eli's fairly traumatic visit to the doctor requiring post-visit mama snuggles and rest and lots of Baskin Robbins ice cream (he got a very infected blister; the (student) doctor did TWO SHOTS of lidocaine and I really don't think he had a clue what he was doing; the needle bent and blood was spurting out everywhere; I think it would have been WAY less painful/traumatic if he had just puncture the blister and cleaned it out... OY). Wednesday was our two field trips. So.... we did double doses of everything today.
Hebrew was lots of fun. We had Zevi the wolf who teaches most of our class, and today he was joined by a new friend Tzemi the lamb (tzemer is wool in Hebrew). Tzemi was very afraid of Zevi at first but by the end of class they were very good friends and Tzemi made shabbat dinner for Zevi, but they did NOT have lamb. It was a vegetarian shabbat. Verb endings in Hebrew change for male and female speakers, so we needed to add a female teacher to our cast of characters, hence Tzemi. It was very cute. Tomorrow Zevi is going to tell Tzemi all about Rosh Hashanah.
We did lots of kriyah (reading), and several torah stories. This weeks parsha has many laws (mitzvot) in it. We focused mostly on returning lost objects and shooing a mother bird away from the nest before you take the eggs. We also learned some of the dinim and minchagim (laws and customs) for Rosh Hashanah. Pretty fun! Then we did 3 reading lessons in a row (we usually do one), and 1-1/2 handwriting lessons. We'll catch up in math tomorrow. Then we all went to a new-to-us water feature park in West Linn. Had a good time getting nice and wet.
Then tonight I went to a co-op meeting with some other homeschooling families. I'm pretty tired, so I won't go into it all now except to say that it was FANTASTIC and there was an African-American yiddishe mama there, and we were both so thrilled to meet each other. Her kids are teenagers, but it will still be lots of fun. The group of women there was incredible. Wonderful support to each other and I really connected with the group. It usually takes me 2 or 3 times of being part of a group I like before I really feel into it and connected, but this happened pretty much right away. They were just all really nice women. I think Amirah will enjoy it because nice women always have nice kids. :)
We'll be joining the co-op on Wednesdays. This will be our schedule:
10:45-11:30, 4H (cooking, needlecrafts, animals, plants, science, archery, really a rioutous amount of almost anything you'd like to work on; all of Amirah's favorite things)
11:30-12:15, physical education
1:00-2:30, historical math (check out Living Math; they'll be starting with lesson 13 - Fibonacci - and moving on to Da Vinci)
2:30-4:00, physics
Hopefully it won't be too much for her. I would have just signed her up for the afternoon classes, but we've been really wanting to join 4H and there's nothing wrong with some time to run around. Best part is, we'll only pay for what it costs to rent the building space. The science and math classes have teachers that will be paid, but the cost is a very reasonable $20 per month per class.
So... it's pretty exciting. We'll miss 3 of the October days due to Jewish holidays, so that's too bad, but after that we should have clear sailing, BE"H.
Uh oh. Better make that shabbat menu. Better be an easy one. This homeschoolin' mama is just a little busy lately!!! But what an absolute joy! :)
Hebrew was lots of fun. We had Zevi the wolf who teaches most of our class, and today he was joined by a new friend Tzemi the lamb (tzemer is wool in Hebrew). Tzemi was very afraid of Zevi at first but by the end of class they were very good friends and Tzemi made shabbat dinner for Zevi, but they did NOT have lamb. It was a vegetarian shabbat. Verb endings in Hebrew change for male and female speakers, so we needed to add a female teacher to our cast of characters, hence Tzemi. It was very cute. Tomorrow Zevi is going to tell Tzemi all about Rosh Hashanah.
We did lots of kriyah (reading), and several torah stories. This weeks parsha has many laws (mitzvot) in it. We focused mostly on returning lost objects and shooing a mother bird away from the nest before you take the eggs. We also learned some of the dinim and minchagim (laws and customs) for Rosh Hashanah. Pretty fun! Then we did 3 reading lessons in a row (we usually do one), and 1-1/2 handwriting lessons. We'll catch up in math tomorrow. Then we all went to a new-to-us water feature park in West Linn. Had a good time getting nice and wet.
Then tonight I went to a co-op meeting with some other homeschooling families. I'm pretty tired, so I won't go into it all now except to say that it was FANTASTIC and there was an African-American yiddishe mama there, and we were both so thrilled to meet each other. Her kids are teenagers, but it will still be lots of fun. The group of women there was incredible. Wonderful support to each other and I really connected with the group. It usually takes me 2 or 3 times of being part of a group I like before I really feel into it and connected, but this happened pretty much right away. They were just all really nice women. I think Amirah will enjoy it because nice women always have nice kids. :)
We'll be joining the co-op on Wednesdays. This will be our schedule:
10:45-11:30, 4H (cooking, needlecrafts, animals, plants, science, archery, really a rioutous amount of almost anything you'd like to work on; all of Amirah's favorite things)
11:30-12:15, physical education
1:00-2:30, historical math (check out Living Math; they'll be starting with lesson 13 - Fibonacci - and moving on to Da Vinci)
2:30-4:00, physics
Hopefully it won't be too much for her. I would have just signed her up for the afternoon classes, but we've been really wanting to join 4H and there's nothing wrong with some time to run around. Best part is, we'll only pay for what it costs to rent the building space. The science and math classes have teachers that will be paid, but the cost is a very reasonable $20 per month per class.
So... it's pretty exciting. We'll miss 3 of the October days due to Jewish holidays, so that's too bad, but after that we should have clear sailing, BE"H.
Uh oh. Better make that shabbat menu. Better be an easy one. This homeschoolin' mama is just a little busy lately!!! But what an absolute joy! :)
Thursday, September 11, 2008
A Great Day
Today we went to Sherwood Orchards in the morning and picked apples, pears, and Italian plums - nearly 100 pounds! We met two other families, so it was a nice group of us. It was a beautiful orchard, and I was wishing we had really gotten out there to pick cherries earlier in the summer. Next summer! There are six racks of apples on the fruit drier right now. We picked Gravenstein apples, which make great applesauce. I'll probably turn the bulk of those into applesauce and can it as soon as I get more quart-size canning jars. I might make one small batch of apple butter, but I'm probably the only one who would end up eating it. I'm not sure yet if I'll make pear-applesauce too, or just can the pears plain. For now, they'll hang out in the spare refrigerator. I also have a recipe for pear-ginger conserve, but every time I've made a jam that wasn't just straight-ahead strawberry, apricot, plum, etc., it's turned out to be nothing special. The plums I'll probably dry into prunes after setting aside a bunch for eating fresh. The plums are incredibly delicious. Anyway... we had lots of fun, and the fruit was very low on the branches so Eli and Amirah could pick their own fruit. Raizel loved all the fruit-tasting and Avi hung out happily in the Ergo. We all had a good time, and enjoyed a picnic lunch when we were done.
On the way there we had passed a sign for the Tualatin River Wildlife Refuge. We'd never been there before, so we decided to stop. They have a beautiful new visitor center. We went inside and talked to two wonderful, enthusiastic volunteers who told us all about the animals and birds we might see and where the trails went and what the children might enjoy. They were so friendly. So we did a 2-mile round-trip walk and oohed and ahhed practically the whole time. We saw a truly astonishing variety of insects, habitats, and birds. When we reached the Tualatin River we looked around some more, then doubled back. We got home at 4:00, tired and dirty, but what a great time we had!
Then I quickly improvised dinner and it turned out great - ground buffalo sauteed with onions and mushrooms, then mixed with brown rice and barbecue sauce. It was YUMMY. Dessert was the pears I got on Sauvie Island last weekend. Ah, summer.
Tomorrow we're going to focus on our regular school stuff, with hopefully time leftover for a trip to a nice cool wading pool or fountain. I love the flexibility that comes with our independent learning, especially since I more or less want to do it year round. I don't stress out when the kids get fussy and learning doesn't seem to want to happen. We can pack it all in and walk around the block. Eventually, we should get done in a month what we need to get done in a month.
In other news, Avi can now climb the stairs! We put up the baby gate at the bottom, which presents new challenges with having to pitch The Middles (Eli and Raizel) over the gate coming and going. Not sure how to make that easier... I'm pretty sure Avi also said his second (third?) word - "NO!" :) How rich all this is.
On the way there we had passed a sign for the Tualatin River Wildlife Refuge. We'd never been there before, so we decided to stop. They have a beautiful new visitor center. We went inside and talked to two wonderful, enthusiastic volunteers who told us all about the animals and birds we might see and where the trails went and what the children might enjoy. They were so friendly. So we did a 2-mile round-trip walk and oohed and ahhed practically the whole time. We saw a truly astonishing variety of insects, habitats, and birds. When we reached the Tualatin River we looked around some more, then doubled back. We got home at 4:00, tired and dirty, but what a great time we had!
Then I quickly improvised dinner and it turned out great - ground buffalo sauteed with onions and mushrooms, then mixed with brown rice and barbecue sauce. It was YUMMY. Dessert was the pears I got on Sauvie Island last weekend. Ah, summer.Tomorrow we're going to focus on our regular school stuff, with hopefully time leftover for a trip to a nice cool wading pool or fountain. I love the flexibility that comes with our independent learning, especially since I more or less want to do it year round. I don't stress out when the kids get fussy and learning doesn't seem to want to happen. We can pack it all in and walk around the block. Eventually, we should get done in a month what we need to get done in a month.
In other news, Avi can now climb the stairs! We put up the baby gate at the bottom, which presents new challenges with having to pitch The Middles (Eli and Raizel) over the gate coming and going. Not sure how to make that easier... I'm pretty sure Avi also said his second (third?) word - "NO!" :) How rich all this is.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Our Vacation, Days 3–4
Avi at the lake (on Day 2). He is one happy little guy!
Amirah eating breakfast - salami, eggs, and orange juice. Yummy!
Eli and Raizel's all-time favorite game - Ring Around the Minivan. Those two are hilarious. Several times a day Eli says in his sweetest little boy voice, "Raizel, you want to come upstairs and play with me?" And there they go.
They had installed swings and a play structure at the park there since we were there last. Great place to play! This is crazy-hair girl. By Day 3 it was so full of dirt, twigs, pebbles, and marshmallow that it was pretty hopeless. We had a lot of untangling to do when we got home.
Day 3 was, er, interesting. I had google maps directions to what was supposed to be a great beach for beachcombing - lots of agate, jasper, and petrified wood. Sounded great! The directions were a little, well, downright odd! We took this beautiful road up into the hills that looked out on multiple valleys. Partway there we made a little stop and when we were outside of the car we got to see a bear several hundred yards away - and with a ravine between us - walk around a clearcut area. Everyone was pretty excited! The directions told us to take various slight lefts and rights on this road and that road, but the lefts and rights must have been nothing but curves and driveways because that's all we saw! We figured we'd just be happy with a bear sighting, or we'd actually get to the beach. Finally, we did! It was awfully windy. When we got there there was a huge group of pelicans standing where a creek ran into the ocean. As we neared they took off. I've never seen so many pelicans all at once!
We walked around the beach for a while. Found a few interesting rocks, but nothing that I thought was agate. On the other hand, maybe I don't really know what agates look like! I thought they'd be little geode-y like rocks. In any case, it was lots of fun all the same. Then we headed back to our little lake after eating lunch in the car. Another night of dinner and campfire after that. Very nice. We had lots of fun watching all the bats come out at dusk.
Our last day, we pretty much just packed up, then went off to the meadows where the elk are. Learned a lot at the elk-watching stations. Then we ate lunch next to the bucolic Umpqua River. Got home at 5:40, just in time to hear that our meat order had arrived and needed to be picked up by 6:00 (!). Good thing I played the messages as soon as we walked in the door. I usually look at the mail first. :) It was a nice little vacation, the last of the calm days for a while.
Dean is getting crazy busy at work, working long days 6 days per week. The new term starts on Rosh Hashanah too. There are seven Jewish holidays in September/October which really makes for a crazy time, especially if you're on an academic schedule like Dean is! I started teaching one of my sets of students today (three brothers) which added to the acrobatics. Now we just need to add in swimming classes, homeschool co-op on Wednesdays (I hope - there's an interesting group where Amirah may take 4H, physics, and a special math class; I'll learn more at a Thursday night meeting), teaching my other 2 students, and all the holidays - Rosh Hashanah (Happy New Year), Yom Kippur (Happy Repenting), Sukkot (harvest festival; eat outside in a sukkah all week... our family's favorite holiday - pictures to come!) and Shemini Atzeret/Simchat Torah (finish reading the 5 books of the torah, dance around a lot, then start reading the 5 books of torah). I think once everything is rolling it won't seem so frenetic. We usually keep things pretty simple around here, so I'm hoping it doesn't feel like too much. But we can always adjust! We're just in Kindergarten, after all. :)
Amirah eating breakfast - salami, eggs, and orange juice. Yummy!
Eli and Raizel's all-time favorite game - Ring Around the Minivan. Those two are hilarious. Several times a day Eli says in his sweetest little boy voice, "Raizel, you want to come upstairs and play with me?" And there they go.
They had installed swings and a play structure at the park there since we were there last. Great place to play! This is crazy-hair girl. By Day 3 it was so full of dirt, twigs, pebbles, and marshmallow that it was pretty hopeless. We had a lot of untangling to do when we got home.
Day 3 was, er, interesting. I had google maps directions to what was supposed to be a great beach for beachcombing - lots of agate, jasper, and petrified wood. Sounded great! The directions were a little, well, downright odd! We took this beautiful road up into the hills that looked out on multiple valleys. Partway there we made a little stop and when we were outside of the car we got to see a bear several hundred yards away - and with a ravine between us - walk around a clearcut area. Everyone was pretty excited! The directions told us to take various slight lefts and rights on this road and that road, but the lefts and rights must have been nothing but curves and driveways because that's all we saw! We figured we'd just be happy with a bear sighting, or we'd actually get to the beach. Finally, we did! It was awfully windy. When we got there there was a huge group of pelicans standing where a creek ran into the ocean. As we neared they took off. I've never seen so many pelicans all at once!
We walked around the beach for a while. Found a few interesting rocks, but nothing that I thought was agate. On the other hand, maybe I don't really know what agates look like! I thought they'd be little geode-y like rocks. In any case, it was lots of fun all the same. Then we headed back to our little lake after eating lunch in the car. Another night of dinner and campfire after that. Very nice. We had lots of fun watching all the bats come out at dusk.Our last day, we pretty much just packed up, then went off to the meadows where the elk are. Learned a lot at the elk-watching stations. Then we ate lunch next to the bucolic Umpqua River. Got home at 5:40, just in time to hear that our meat order had arrived and needed to be picked up by 6:00 (!). Good thing I played the messages as soon as we walked in the door. I usually look at the mail first. :) It was a nice little vacation, the last of the calm days for a while.
Dean is getting crazy busy at work, working long days 6 days per week. The new term starts on Rosh Hashanah too. There are seven Jewish holidays in September/October which really makes for a crazy time, especially if you're on an academic schedule like Dean is! I started teaching one of my sets of students today (three brothers) which added to the acrobatics. Now we just need to add in swimming classes, homeschool co-op on Wednesdays (I hope - there's an interesting group where Amirah may take 4H, physics, and a special math class; I'll learn more at a Thursday night meeting), teaching my other 2 students, and all the holidays - Rosh Hashanah (Happy New Year), Yom Kippur (Happy Repenting), Sukkot (harvest festival; eat outside in a sukkah all week... our family's favorite holiday - pictures to come!) and Shemini Atzeret/Simchat Torah (finish reading the 5 books of the torah, dance around a lot, then start reading the 5 books of torah). I think once everything is rolling it won't seem so frenetic. We usually keep things pretty simple around here, so I'm hoping it doesn't feel like too much. But we can always adjust! We're just in Kindergarten, after all. :)
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Quote of the Week
Amirah: Wouldn't it be nice if there were a kind of butterfly that could feed on sweat? Then the butterfly could live in our house and feed off of papa every time he exercised.
Monday, September 8, 2008
Our Vacation, Days 1-2
When we arrived we immediately realized that we had had Yurt F the last time we were at Tugman State Park. It was really funny to realize that out of the 16 yurts that are there we had been assigned the same one again!
The first day we pretty much got there, hung around the yurtsite, made dinner and a fire, then went to bed. The next morning we headed out to Sunset Bay State Beach. It was fantastic! We got there at low tide so we could explore the easily accessible tidepools, then we spent the afternoon at the little sandy beach next to the tide pools. The waves were one foot high and the water was nice and warm. We hadn't expected to go swimming, but we improvised pretty well!
One reason we really like Tugman State Park is that it has a nice little lake walking distance from the campground called Eel Lake. There's a nice little sandy beach with shallow water that is perfect for the kids to float around in and swim. We went there in the afternoons.
Well that was Day 2. Then back to the yurt for dinner and another campfire. Everyone slept great. Hooray! Avi wanted nothing to do with his portacrib, however, so he ended up happily sleeping curled up right next to mama.
To be continued...
The first day we pretty much got there, hung around the yurtsite, made dinner and a fire, then went to bed. The next morning we headed out to Sunset Bay State Beach. It was fantastic! We got there at low tide so we could explore the easily accessible tidepools, then we spent the afternoon at the little sandy beach next to the tide pools. The waves were one foot high and the water was nice and warm. We hadn't expected to go swimming, but we improvised pretty well!
One reason we really like Tugman State Park is that it has a nice little lake walking distance from the campground called Eel Lake. There's a nice little sandy beach with shallow water that is perfect for the kids to float around in and swim. We went there in the afternoons.
Well that was Day 2. Then back to the yurt for dinner and another campfire. Everyone slept great. Hooray! Avi wanted nothing to do with his portacrib, however, so he ended up happily sleeping curled up right next to mama.To be continued...
Report on Buffalo Brisket
The brisket we had Friday night was like chewing gum, but away we chewed. I had cooked a four-pound brisket for 2-1/2 hours at 275. This had always worked fine for beef brisket in the past (except I did it at 300; I read buffalo should be lower because of the much lower fat content). Well, back into the oven it went cold from the fridge as the oven heated up. It was in there for another 2-1/2 hours at 300. That made it come out pretty well. It probably could have used one more hour to be optimal. It was chewable, but not falling apart chewable. The broth was fantastic; better than beef broth. We had great French dip sandwiches on Sunday. On Wednesday I'm going to cut it up and soak it in our homemade bbq sauce and then cook it another hour or so and make it into bbq buffalo sandwiches. It was pretty good. We have three other briskets that are more like 7 pounds each. I can probably cut those in half since the 4-pound brisket will easily make three dinners for us. Yum!
Avi's First Word
It's official... Avi's first word is MAMA! He's the only one of all my kids for whom "mama" was the first word. Dean heard him use it in context tonight and finally believed me. :) It was very cute. He said "papa" shortly after I heard him say "mama" a few days ago, but Dean hasn't heard it and I haven't heard it in a few days, so that one is not quite official yet. Stay tuned!
Crunchy Cons
That's what my husband and I are. This fits us much better than Republicrats. We read aloud much of Rod Dreher's book of the same title while driving to and from our camping vacation last week, and we found that we agreed with 90%+ of what he was saying.
The book has chapters on: What are Crunchy Cons?, Consumerism, Food, Home, Education (very pro-homeschooling), The Environment, Religion (including an interview with a crunchy con orthodox Jewish woman), and Waiting for Benedict.
So what is a crunchy con?
Well, a crunchy con is a conservative but not a modern-day-straight-ahead Republican Party kind of conservative. The four most important areas of life for a crunchy con are religion, nature (but not in a pantheistic way!), aesthetics, and family. Basically, religion and family are THE point in life and everything else - our careers, what we buy, what we do in our free time - goes to serve that mission.
It's a good book, and outlines what we believe is a very good life for our family. We were just so excited to find out this was actually an idea out there that someone had labeled! So, for now we'll stop calling ourselves Republicrats, especially since we now seem to have almost nothing in common with EITHER political party given recent politics. We are happy little crunchy cons. :)
The book has chapters on: What are Crunchy Cons?, Consumerism, Food, Home, Education (very pro-homeschooling), The Environment, Religion (including an interview with a crunchy con orthodox Jewish woman), and Waiting for Benedict.
So what is a crunchy con?
Well, a crunchy con is a conservative but not a modern-day-straight-ahead Republican Party kind of conservative. The four most important areas of life for a crunchy con are religion, nature (but not in a pantheistic way!), aesthetics, and family. Basically, religion and family are THE point in life and everything else - our careers, what we buy, what we do in our free time - goes to serve that mission.
It's a good book, and outlines what we believe is a very good life for our family. We were just so excited to find out this was actually an idea out there that someone had labeled! So, for now we'll stop calling ourselves Republicrats, especially since we now seem to have almost nothing in common with EITHER political party given recent politics. We are happy little crunchy cons. :)
Journey through Bereishit
Right after havdalah (the ritual marking the end of shabbat), we read the first 2 verses of Bereishit (Genesis) in Hebrew and English. We are embarking on a two-verse-per-day journey through the five books of the torah. We're relishing the Hebrew words, acting some of them out, repeating them, listening to me read them, listening to a recording of them, chanting the torah with the traditional taamim (the musical marks that are written under the words). It's just 10 minutes per day, but what a blast. We talk about the meaning and the questions, like how can there be light if there's no sun yet? Each verse I'll pick one or two words to really focus on. There are some really juicy ones in the torah because in Hebrew a word is never just a word.
Each day I'll review what came earlier in the week until we build up to 10 verses. Then each day I'll drop the earliest 2 verses so that each day we're reviewing the last 8 verses and learning 2 new verses. It will take 2-3 months to get through the parsha (torah portion) this way, but we should really know it (and I'll have improved my vocabulary immensely along the way!). I want to really get more and more of the oral vocabulary into their brains so it when it comes time to actually read torah in first grade the words will be very familiar to them. I really hope we're able to keep this up. I'm hoping for at least 5 days per week, but if we make 7 all the better.
Each day I'll review what came earlier in the week until we build up to 10 verses. Then each day I'll drop the earliest 2 verses so that each day we're reviewing the last 8 verses and learning 2 new verses. It will take 2-3 months to get through the parsha (torah portion) this way, but we should really know it (and I'll have improved my vocabulary immensely along the way!). I want to really get more and more of the oral vocabulary into their brains so it when it comes time to actually read torah in first grade the words will be very familiar to them. I really hope we're able to keep this up. I'm hoping for at least 5 days per week, but if we make 7 all the better.
Readaloud
Our current readaloud book is...
Little House in the Big Woods, with the original Garth Williams illustrations, thank you very much. (The publisher has recently re-issued these books with PHOTOGRAPHS instead of one of my favorite illustrator's pictures. Blasphemy!)
I loved this series when I was little, and loved watching the tv series too. I even remember which episode I had to miss because I was naughty one Monday night shortly before the 8:00 airing time. I don't know what I did, but I sure remember the pain of missing that episode where Nelly teases the fat boy at school. I'm pretty sure that's the only episode I ever missed.
We're having a lot of fun reading the book. It would be great to read many of them from the series, but we'll see how far we go before we need a change of pace. The language is very nice, the images are rich, the peek into a historical era is delightful, and the characters are absolutely timeless. We are all enjoying it.
Little House in the Big Woods, with the original Garth Williams illustrations, thank you very much. (The publisher has recently re-issued these books with PHOTOGRAPHS instead of one of my favorite illustrator's pictures. Blasphemy!)I loved this series when I was little, and loved watching the tv series too. I even remember which episode I had to miss because I was naughty one Monday night shortly before the 8:00 airing time. I don't know what I did, but I sure remember the pain of missing that episode where Nelly teases the fat boy at school. I'm pretty sure that's the only episode I ever missed.
We're having a lot of fun reading the book. It would be great to read many of them from the series, but we'll see how far we go before we need a change of pace. The language is very nice, the images are rich, the peek into a historical era is delightful, and the characters are absolutely timeless. We are all enjoying it.
Homeschool Statistics
Just thought these were interesting statistics, courtesy of the National Center for Education Statistics at the US Department of Education.
Number of homeschoolers in the US: 1.1 million (2.2% of the student population)
Most important reason for homeschooling:
31%: concern about the environment of other schools
30%: to provide religious or moral instruction
16%: dissatisfaction with the academic instruction available at other schools
(The other families cited a variety of other reasons.)
The statistic Rachel Grady gave in the documentary "Jesus Camp" that "75% of homeschooled children are from evangelical Christian families" put up red flags for me. She does not cite her source, and it is plainly false. Homeschoolers are as diverse as the population itself. With the Department of Education detailed study stating that 30% of families homeschool to provide religious or moral instruction, how can her statistic possibly be true? An evangelical would certainly state religion/moral instruction as their primary reason, as it is for this Orthodox Jewish family.
Anyway, it's certainly an interesting world.
Number of homeschoolers in the US: 1.1 million (2.2% of the student population)
Most important reason for homeschooling:
31%: concern about the environment of other schools
30%: to provide religious or moral instruction
16%: dissatisfaction with the academic instruction available at other schools
(The other families cited a variety of other reasons.)
The statistic Rachel Grady gave in the documentary "Jesus Camp" that "75% of homeschooled children are from evangelical Christian families" put up red flags for me. She does not cite her source, and it is plainly false. Homeschoolers are as diverse as the population itself. With the Department of Education detailed study stating that 30% of families homeschool to provide religious or moral instruction, how can her statistic possibly be true? An evangelical would certainly state religion/moral instruction as their primary reason, as it is for this Orthodox Jewish family.
Anyway, it's certainly an interesting world.
Learning at Home
We are having a really marvelous time learning at home (and out and about!). I'll keep notes throughout the week of what we've been learning and post them weekly (bli neder, without a vow!!), partly as a record for myself, partly to share with friends and family what this wonderful rhythm of homeschooling is like, and partly to give other homeschooling friends some (hopefully) good ideas. Many families come up with a homeschooling "mission statement" to define what exactly it is they are doing this for. I'm going to think about that for a while. There are so many, many reasons we have decided to homeschool and I will distill it into something pithy, I hope. In the meantime, reading, writing, math, and Jewish studies are off to a rollicking start. :)
Family Movie Night
Most every Sunday evening here is Family Movie Night. During the week while papa exercises they watch a 30- to 45-minute "protein" movie, usually either about science or something Jewish. Then on Friday afternoon after lunch they can watch a treat movie (their choice from what we have here in our library, or from the library) while I cook and cook and cook. On Sunday evening our family movie is either a treat or protein movie. That's the extent of our tv watching.
Tonight Amirah picked a protein movie that she's been very excited about for a couple of weeks. It's called The Blue Planet: Seas of Life, produced by BBC. There are 5 dvds in this series, and we watched the one with "Open Ocean" and "The Deep." It was incredible. I HIGHLY recommend this dvd. Even my fish biologist husband learned many new things while watching this. We're looking forward to requesting additional dvds in this series from the library!
Tonight Amirah picked a protein movie that she's been very excited about for a couple of weeks. It's called The Blue Planet: Seas of Life, produced by BBC. There are 5 dvds in this series, and we watched the one with "Open Ocean" and "The Deep." It was incredible. I HIGHLY recommend this dvd. Even my fish biologist husband learned many new things while watching this. We're looking forward to requesting additional dvds in this series from the library!
Friday, September 5, 2008
The Menu
Here 'tis:
Challah
Chicken noodle soup
Buffalo brisket
Caesar salad
Spinach artichoke, um, casserole (?)
Roasted carrots
Baked potatoes w/tofu sour cream
Apple pie (thanks for all the apples, RF!)
And for lunch:
Buffalo shepherd's pie
(Finally got our meat order in. It's been a couple of months since we had any red meat for shabbat, or any other night for that matter. Trying buffalo brisket for the first time... here's hoping!)
Challah
Chicken noodle soup
Buffalo brisket
Caesar salad
Spinach artichoke, um, casserole (?)
Roasted carrots
Baked potatoes w/tofu sour cream
Apple pie (thanks for all the apples, RF!)
And for lunch:
Buffalo shepherd's pie
(Finally got our meat order in. It's been a couple of months since we had any red meat for shabbat, or any other night for that matter. Trying buffalo brisket for the first time... here's hoping!)
Our Vacation, In Brief
We just got back yesterday from a 4-day yurt camping trip, and did we have a great first week of kindergarten!!!!! :) We studied stars, clouds, elk, swallows, water spiders (the kind that live underwater in a bubble), geese, map-reading, rocks, tidepools, swimming, cooking, math (with card games), habitats, bears (from a safe distance, but not on purpose!), and tides. Much more too, I'm sure.
Kind of funny to call it the first week of kindergarten, though, since I'm not really sure we have a clear delineation between one year and the next as homeschoolers. It's all learning, and we've been doing it together since the day she was born. Pictures to come, god-willing.
And, by the way, did you know elk only need 2-1/2 to 4 hours of sleep per 24 hours? I got this idea to look up the sleep needs of 12 other animals, plus babies, children, and adults, then put them in order of how much sleep they need, then learn a little about why their sleep needs are different. I think we'll do this for a science project in the coming week.
What a great time we're having.
Kind of funny to call it the first week of kindergarten, though, since I'm not really sure we have a clear delineation between one year and the next as homeschoolers. It's all learning, and we've been doing it together since the day she was born. Pictures to come, god-willing.
And, by the way, did you know elk only need 2-1/2 to 4 hours of sleep per 24 hours? I got this idea to look up the sleep needs of 12 other animals, plus babies, children, and adults, then put them in order of how much sleep they need, then learn a little about why their sleep needs are different. I think we'll do this for a science project in the coming week.
What a great time we're having.
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