Artist Study

I've learned to keep faith in some of my homeschool materials for more than one year. Even when we haven't used something over the space of a year, sometimes opportunities pop up later.

I bought a deck of cards called Go Fish for Renaissance Artists last year. The intention was to have the kids view art from one particular artist per term and to be able to choose one of these cards as an art postcard to put in their Book of Masterpieces. (I had also bought nice photo albums, one for each, to store pictures of their favorite pieces of art. The Book of Masterpieces idea - and much of our curriculum - comes from Charlotte Mason Help.)

We did do this a few times, with Rafael Sanzio, Norman Rockwell, and Georgia O'Keeffe. Xander never really enjoyed it. In hindsight, maybe he just didn't like the newness of the experience or being required to do it. When we looked at art last week, he had insightful comments to make about the texture of the brushstrokes in the paintings.

Fast forward several months. I got hold of a cheap set of Carmen Sandiego DVDs and Nick proceeded to fall in love with them. Thanks to Carmen Sandiego, he loves talking about Egypt, the Sphinx, George Washington, and the Mona Lisa. He can pick out the Mona Lisa from a book of paintings.

Today, I realized I hadn't gotten out this deck of art cards in a long time. I went through them with Nick really briefly, who loved lots of them. I allowed him to pick his favorites to put in his Book of Masterpieces. Two were by Leonardo da Vinci. Nick and I were both equally excited to see (remember) that the Mona Lisa was one of the cards.

And on the couch, Xander sat looking at Visions of Camelot: Great Illustrations of King Arthur and His Court for his art study. I picked it up this summer thinking he would like it. We are studying medieval times this year, so it will fit in nicely. Now, looking at it again, I realize that N.C. Wyeth is one of the artists featured. I had also picked up a copy of N.C. Wyeth's Pilgrims for him for both art study and history study. We just read about the Pilgrims in our A Child's History of the World.

Now I see we can combine the two books for a more in-depth study of an artist. Serendipity is happening!

December Schooling

I've said this month that we did not get a lot of formal schooling done. We got one week's worth of our daily checklist done during December. However, at the same time, we were doing so many activities that helped the children learn.

The preschool schedule went on as normal. So did the library story time, so both kids got exposure to those activities in December. These activities include time for them to draw, count, cooperate with others, do crafts, sing, watch puppet shows, listen to stories, paint, do sensory activities, and much more.

Science and Nature

Erik took Xander outside on a nature outing. He also got both kids started on science games and kits they received for Christmas. Xander is currently tracking the weather every day with this kit from Grandma Bonnie. Erik made a fake snowman and fake ice cubes with Nick from a snowman kit we received from Aunt Pat. We still have other aspects of the first science kit to explore, an Eco Science Toys set from their "aunt" Ricci, and a really nice butterfly pavilion and kit from Grandma Bonnie to use when our weather is a bit warmer. We will need to send away for the caterpillars and be sure that we can release the butterflies outside when the time comes without their dying from the cold.

We spent a lot of time caring for our guinea pig Sandy, too. He is really growing and appreciates more time spent outside of his cage. The boys are quite good with him, although I would not leave them entirely alone with him when he is out of the cage. Xander has been gradually taking on more responsibilities with his pet. When we first got Sandy, I accepted responsibility for getting the daily care done and keeping the animal alive and healthy. Xander now does these things most of the time:

• fills Sandy's bowl with the right amount of pellets for breakfast and dinner
• holds a garbage bag open for me while I clean out the cage each week
• gives Sandy lap time every other day or so
• reminds me or asks me to have Sandy out of the cage for a while

I still have to monitor water and hay levels in Sandy's cage and refill those containers. Xander tends to forget to check the hay, which should be continually replenished. I clean the cage. I set out the materials for Sandy to play in our wading pool setup and clean up afterward. I am usually the one to remember to feed him before we go out of the house, if necessary. I am the one to weigh him and keep track of that stat. Erik helped me clip Sandy's nails last week, which went well (I was surprised by that).

Nick received shells this year from Santa. He just loves shells, and now he has his own collection.

Music and Singing

We taught/learned and sang Christmas carols all month. We listened to Christmas music almost constantly.

Money and Giving

Xander picked out gifts, paid for them with his own money, tracked his savings and spending and sharing money for that purpose, and helped wrap some gifts. 

Writing, Handicrafts, and Fine Motor Skills

The boys (mostly Nick) helped me bake cookies and other goodies to give to people. 

Xander signed Christmas cards and is now slowly working on getting thank you notes done. Nick likes "signing" cards too, with my hand over his to write the name. I figure this is good practice for him. They both helped make cards using stamping, tracing, cutting, gluing, painting, and drawing. Xander helped me make popcorn strings to go around the tree with needle and thread. He also did a little bit of X-Acto knife cutting to help me make profile pictures for grandparents. 

Both boys helped me make salad the other night by spinning the salad spinner, peeling a carrot, and cutting the carrot and cheese into slices. Nick got a toddler knife for the purpose and I supervised Xander's first use of a sharp kitchen knife. It was also his first time using the peeler. He did great.

Math

When we went on grocery store outings, there were lots of opportunities for Xander to use math. Sometimes I brought up everyday math problems, but most of the time Xander came up with math questions about which he was genuinely curious.

Reading, Spelling, Manners, and Literature

I read great Christmas books and stories to the kids at the rate of about two per day.

Xander did a lot of reading to himself and reading aloud to his brother. They got some very good and/or cute books for Christmas, including Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Lego Star Wars Character Encyclopedia, Turkey Claus, The Christmas Quiet Book, Richard Scarry's Please and Thank You Book, Ocean Counting: Odd Numbers, Where's That Fish?, I Need My Monster, The Indian in the Cupboard, two books called Dinosaurs, and an Encyclopedia Brown series.

I recommend each and every one of them. The Star Wars Encyclopedia is not a book I would normally praise, but it's the type of book that has our six-year-old reading for about an hour a day. I also would not normally praise I Need My Monster (although it's nicely illustrated) except for the fact that Nick is captivated by it. He really does want these kinds of monsters in his room. The Christmas Quiet Book is beautifully illustrated, and so is Ocean Counting: Odd Numbers. Ocean Counting is a much more beautiful book than the Amazon picture of the cover shows. It's Nick (at 3) who loves this book, but the number concepts and even some of the scientific facts in it are better suited to Xander (at 6). 

I have never read The Indian in the Cupboard, but since starting the first chapter, I can tell it is just as good as people say. I'm also looking forward to reading the Encyclopedia Brown series to Xander because it is a nice, kid-friendly, empowering read for children. The reading level on it is about 3rd grade. I think Xander is capable of reading through the whole book by himself, but it would be too overwhelming at this point due to the number of words per page and the words he might want to ask about, so I will read it to him for now.

Nick got an alphabet pocket chart for Christmas with an animal to go in every pouch based on what letter it starts with. It is bright and cute and I love it for that. Nick likes playing with it. I do wish the letters were printed on the back of each animal, because some of them are hard to figure out, even for adults. I couldn't figure out what the iguana was and which pocket it should go into until I had almost all the other letter pockets filled!

We went to three or four Christmas parties and a visit to great-grandparents that encouraged the use of manners they have been learning. Xander amazed me with his skills, especially because I forgot to remind the children before we went to these events what I expected from them. He was so perfectly polite at his great-grandparents' house that I kind of wondered what had happened to him! At a friend's house where there were lots of children and toys around, he did need a reminder to clear his place and say thank you.

Teaching

Is there anything better than overhearing one of your children teaching another one something that you taught him first? It is one of the best pleasures.

Xander is talking Nick through a drawing technique from Drawing With Children that I had him do last week. Just before this, he helped Nick identify things on the pages of the Usborne First Book of Nature: Birds, Trees, Flowers, Butterflies and Moths. I had wanted to go through that book with him but never found a good time, and he was never interested. But he did go through it at Nick's request.

Today, school was:

• I read aloud The Nutcracker (an excerpted version) and The Velveteen Rabbit.
• I read aloud two chapters of A Child's History of the World, by V.M. Hillyer. We found relevant places on the world map and relevant pictures on our timeline. (We started this year doing The Story of the World, because we had it. Recently, I bought a copy of A Child's History of the World, and it is fabulous so far. I love the conversational tone and the level of the information. It is not dumbed-down - in fact, it includes important concepts that I don't usually see included in other children's books - but it is delivered in a way that keeps my son listening. He can narrate from it in great detail. At this point, we have fully converted to A Child's History of the World but we are a tiny bit behind in the chapters.)
• A few new, simple spelling words were introduced and written on the chalk board. I got out the index cards of the spelling words he missed on a spelling test a couple of weeks ago. Xander wrote those seven words on a dry-erase board.
• Xander completed two exercises in the Singapore 1A workbook.
• I read aloud two chapters of Paddle to the Sea and we moved our clay Paddle to the right places on the map of the Great Lakes.
• Xander chose the next poem he will memorize ("Time to Rise" by Robert Louis Stevenson) and began the memorization. 
• I taught Xander the beginning of Lesson 5 in Progressive Recorder Method for Young Beginners and he practiced some. Mary Had a Little Lamb is one of the songs he learns in this lesson. He was so excited to see and hear that there was a song he knew that he would be able to play on his own.

Small School Milestones

Today, we went to a kind of a mom's group science outing. It was at a local park. A mom of two young kids who used to teach science had put together materials for the kids to learn about compasses and sundials. Xander was fascinated.

The kids also played on the playground and had lots of fun together. Our playground group friends were all there and so were lots and lots of other kids.

At home, Xander reviewed his memory work (the poem "Summer Afternoon," the songs "Scarborough Fair" and "A Man's A Man for A' That," and a list of Family Rules). He surprised me by reciting the poem all the way through before I could show him his prompt. (We have a dry-erase board consisting of the lines of the poem with the words he's memorized replaced with dashes. It was almost all dashes before today.) I have probably slowed him down more than necessary memorizing the poem, but I wanted this to go smoothly and to show him the value of working on something little by little every week. I told him I was proud of his work, how he had worked on memorizing that poem for so many days, and he said, "Thanks, Mom! You too."

The poem is:

Summer Afternoon

by A.A. Milne

Six brown cows walk down to drink

(All the little fishes blew bubbles at the may-fly).

Splash goes the first as he comes to the brink,

Swish go the tails of the five who follow....

Twelve brown cows bend drinking there

(All the little fishes went waggle-tail, waggle-tail)-- 

Six from the water and six from the air;

Up and down the river darts a blue-black swallow.

We went together through Lesson 4 in Progressive Recorder Method. I played my flute and he played the recorder. Throughout, Nick sat on the couch listening and watching attentively. I think he's our real music aficionado. Actually, Xander taught him a couple of notes on his flutophone yesterday. I can picture Nick being able to play in the recorder book within a year. I don't aim to teach him this year unless it comes naturally, though.

Xander has practiced recorder for more than four weeks, but I wanted to make sure the lessons were all solidified in his mind (and fingers) before moving on to Lesson 5. He knows his notes and can sight-read all the songs through this lesson. I noticed he barely squeaked at all, so his tone has improved greatly as well. He plays the songs very slowly to get the fingerings right, but I am impressed with his knowledge.

Other lessons today: listening to the Nutcracker Suite and examining more Norman Rockwell paintings and discussing them (Freedom from Want, Thanksgiving: Girl Praying, Santa at His Desk).

After this, he earned his Alexander the Great warriors. I gave him a sneak peek at the Ancient World pages that pertain to Alexander. He is so excited working with his new figures.

And by the way, Nick knows the sounds to just about all the letters of the alphabet now! He also put his underwear on all by himself yesterday (a life skill Erik suggested we work on with him). There were some false starts and times I had to help him after he went to the bathroom, but the spark is there. He is excited to learn to do things all by himself.

The Boys' Accomplishments

I've been writing up all the things I've done for Money Saving Mom's online challenge, but Nick and Xander have really been pulling their own weight around here, too.

Yesterday, Xander wiped all the switch plates for me, which was a Money Saving Mom task. I got to mop the kitchen floor while he was doing that.

Nick has been making his own peanut butter honey sandwiches.

They have both been great at doing their Morning Cards, which includes wiping down the counter, sink, and toilet or potty chair in the hall bathroom. I adore walking by and smelling the fresh scent of disinfecting wipes when I haven't used them myself. It's like magic!

Then he celebrated being done with chores by listening to audiobooks

Erik worked from home today. When he was done, I was able to go to the post office and gas station by myself. Errands are much quicker without the kids. He wiped the living room ceiling fan blades for me, because I cannot reach them due to their height.

Before all that happened, I, of course, got dressed and made my list of daily goals.

Then I wrote down Xander's list for today. It's a lot shorter than normal because it's a special Friday routine. Two of the activities, Nature Walk and Journal and Tea Time, take time to prepare, do, and follow up on, so other activities are not done this day. It's a routine very similar to what Lindafay posted on Charlotte Mason Help.

One thing I added was spelling work. On Monday, Xander saw his spelling words for the week: boy, girl, man, woman, baby. He wrote two of them in sidewalk chalk outside and one of them with Do-a-Dot markers. Later in the week, he wrote one on a small chalk board. Today, I gave him a test. He got boy and man correct and did a good job trying the others. I made index cards of the ones he did not get right and we will look at them next week along with the new words. I was proud of him, mainly because he has inherited my tendencies to anxiety, and we both kept it calm while he tried spelling these words. I gave him encouragement and praise for what he did right and simply showed him the correct spelling when he had not written the correct one.

Recorder practice went well today. He had been wanting to skip it and feeling (I think) a little overwhelmed as the lessons progressed. I let him go back to previous lessons a lot and also let him skip some days. Today he did really well (and I allowed him to play songs he made up with the notes he knows). His dad was very impressed. Xander showed Erik how to play the notes he has learned so far: B, A, G, and C.

We all went to a nice county park for our nature walk. It was a beautiful day, sunny and almost 60 degrees. Erik went disc golfing while the boys and I went for a hike on the trail. We saw rocks, flowers, butterflies, wasps, birds, quartz, and other things, but we were not able to stay quiet to try to find animals. Nick did not want to do that. Then we joined Erik on the disc golf course. Everyone tried their hand at it. Nick did a lot of jogging and throwing and is now in his bed for a nap that will probably be a long one.

Xander took several of these photos 

And I took several

Later, I picked up some supplies we needed, including two new light bulbs for our living room light fixture. I cleaned the other ceiling fans. Oops! I just remembered I never did Nick's, because he was taking his nap while I did this task. Someday soon. :)

I spent 15 minutes or so laying on my bed, reading Elizabeth & Mary and eating a snack.

Last night, we had the most amazing family time. Erik had the idea of lighting a fire in our fireplace and reading Shel Silverstein poems to each other. Before that, we practiced our manners eating Chicago-style hot dogs (okay, I tried, but they weren't perfectly Chicago hot dogs) and french fries. The boys have very good manners! I mean extremely good manners. I have to expect more of them from now on!

Then Erik started the fire and got out the poetry books. Xander presented himself with professionalism and asked for our attention, please. We listened to him playing a song of his own composing (on the spot) on the recorder, using the notes he has learned. Then Nick played some things for us on the flutophone. We each took turns reading poems from Where the Sidewalk Ends. Even Nick took his turns "reading" to us. We ate pieces of a pecan pie that I had picked up at the grocery store.

We also put leaves on our Thankful Tree. We tried turning out all the lights in the house and just watching the fire. The evening ended with the kids watching a little bit of a Pokemon movie before we all went to bed early. We are  now up very early (for Xander and Erik, at least) so we can go to this local 5K. I'm going to take the plunge and run my first one in many years. Oh my gosh, it's been 17 or so years, now that I think about it. I think I'll stop doing the math on that in future.

Day 9 of Money Saving Mom's 4 Weeks Challenge {Simplified}

Great day! Got up a little early and did chores while our youngest son slept in past his normal early wake time. It was fun working around the house because my husband got up early, too, to make food for his work Thanksgiving potluck, so we were working around and with each other. Our oldest son slept in even later while I got almost all my chores done for the day.

Per the 4 Weeks challenge, I got dressed in something I felt pretty good about, made a list of daily goals from my weekly goals list, cleaned the master bathroom, and then mopped the kitchen floor while Xander did the last task entirely by himself: wiping all switch plates in the house. Hurray for learning chores! He is still really good about doing chores without complaining. (He chooses to complain about other things.)

my to-do list

After

After

the shiny kitchen floor which I mopped while Xander was doing the switch plates

Today Feels Like Victory

Today was a busy day, for our standards. Anything I've put in larger print is a task for Money Saving Mom's 4 Weeks to a More Organized Home {Simplified} series.

I went running before Erik left for work. Breakfast was served, the Money Saving Mom challenge post from yesterday was posted, email was checked, Bible section was read, and similar things were accomplished. I ordered a $0.99 copy of Money Saving Mom's new ebook Celebrating and Savoring a Simple Christmas. I made a list of goals for today.

I took a shower and got dressed. Although I don't want to spend too much time thinking about clothing and fashion right now, I went ahead and asked for the free copy of Frumps to Pumps from Sarah Mae that Crystal keeps mentioning. I could use some help, so I will be reading that at some point.

The kids did their Morning Cards and got all ready just in time to go to the doctor. Xander ran over his foot with a tricycle on Sunday and it is still red and swollen and painful. Both boys were well-behaved and entertaining (in their own ways) during the doctor visit.

After the doctor, we had time to make it to preschool story time at the library and also to pick out books and magazines and DVDs.

Then lunch and some cleaning. I did the 4 Weeks task of cleaning out my messiest drawer. Actually, my clothes drawers are all pretty neat, so I chose a rolling shelf unit in the closet that is used to hold my knitting projects.

Before

The rolling cart has only three shelves. I had six projects out and underway. Since this phase of life is not a good time for me to finish a lot of knitting projects, I decided to cut my losses and whittle projects down to three, to fit the shelves. First, I discontinued the robot I was knitting for Nick. He had no interest in the picture of the finished product and liked what I had done so far. Two little pieces can fit over his fingertips and one is a long thin tube that was supposed to be the robot's antenna. I gave Nick the three little pieces and cut that project out of my life. Nick calls the pieces robots anyway. Win win.

Next, I decided to go ahead and send my friend the baby hat I finished without waiting for some mythical day when I would finally finish the booties. If I have time to finish the booties, I can always send those later. This makes me feel a little uncomfortable, but if I don't send something soon, her baby will be too big to wear any of it.

The remaining yarn from my ditched projects went into the appropriate places. I have a bin for acrylic yarn and a drawer that holds wool yarn and cotton yarn along with my knitting books.

I kept my 1) very portable Mother Bear project, 2) mindless bathroom hand towel project for TV nights, and 3) mustang and cowboy project that I said I would make for Xander.

After

I just have one straggler that I think maybe I should finish. All I have to do is finish picking up stitches to make a chain border around a pot holder. (Or something like that; the reason it's taking me so long is I've never done this type of border before and I'm hesitant.)

Back to our regularly scheduled day.

We then did homeschooling and preparing dishes for having a family over to dinner tonight.

Then some more cleaning, including cleaning our guinea pig's cage. Xander and I also wiped down all the door knobs in the house with disinfecting wipes. I did the remote and iPod Touch and cell phone for good measure, too. I had taught Xander how to do this task just last week, so it was good timing to practice it again.

Will be back later!

How We Spent Columbus Day

Note: This was written on Columbus Day and not published until now.

We met friends at a big wooden playscape yesterday morning. It was in a cute town about half an hour away. The kids played there for about an hour and a half. Later in the afternoon, at home, they played outside for about an hour. I was happy with their outside play time and so were they.

My friend, the mother of the boys' friends, had crocheted a little robot for Nick. Nick loooooooves it. Robots are a topic of interest to him right now and he does like to play with stuffed animals, so it's a good match. He has been feeding, reading to, and caring for his little robot. The best I can tell, the robot's name is Plackman. Or something like that.

When we got home from the playground, I fed the kids and put Nick down for nap. I began to read aloud school books to Xander. He was about to doze off as I finished, so I let him nap instead of doing the other things like math activities, practicing the recorder, and writing.

As far as Columbus Day goes, we had previously read the account of Christopher Columbus's discoveries in This Country of Ours. We had checked his route on the map. We had also read Pocahontas by the D'Aulaires because I wanted to introduce another perspective of the discovery of the Americas - when people had already been living there for a very long time. At Xander's age, I think the appropriate thing to do is to give kid-friendly Native American perspectives rather than going into detail about the atrocities and deaths that occurred as a result of the meeting of European explorers and native Americans. He does need to know about Columbus as part of his history studies.

At dinner, Erik asked Xander a question about Christopher Columbus and Xander gave him a detailed account of what he had learned. He answered all of Erik's questions to Erik's satisfaction. It is really nice for me to see this because I don't always get the detailed answers Erik gets.

On to another subject. It is too early to make an evaluation of the wisdom of getting Xander's tonsils and adenoids out, but here are my thoughts so far:

1. Snoring has ceased. Completely.

2. He was starting to sleep better and longer, and to be more cooperative and cheerful as a result, before he had the procedure. The difference was homeschooling and thus not getting up early. (He usually gets up at 8:00. If he were going to the school he went to last year, he would have to get up at 6:30.) I can't tell if he is sleeping any better after getting his tonsils and adenoids out because he had already shown such an improvement a couple of months ago.

3. There has not been time to test if he gets sick easily or not after the procedure. Normally, at this point in the year, he would have had strep throat one time. According to the ENT doctor, there is almost no chance he will get strep throat again.
Update: At this point in the year (in November, when I'm actually publishing this post), he would normally have gotten strep twice. Still hasn't gotten it. :)

4. He still has a higher-than-usual voice as a side effect of the procedure. It has not been a month yet, which is the amount of time that some children experience this side effect.
Update: His voice still seems higher to me, but not as high as right after the procedure. It has been over a month.

Book Time

Note: I drafted this post the week of Halloween and never published it.

We got off track yesterday for a fun reason. Yesterday was the Halloween party at preschool. The kids both had fun playing, eating, playing again, and reading at the preschool academy.

By the time we got home, it was time to serve them a (sugar-free) lunch. This is our usual Monday routine. Preschool activities somehow wear them both out to the point that they are not fit for anything but lunch when we get home. School for Xander starts later on Mondays.

Xander said he was tired and wanted a nap before school. I allowed this. When he got up, we attempted to go to the park to do school while Nick (supposedly) would play. Didn't work. Xander loved the idea and would have done fine listening while climbing around me on a large rock, but Nick didn't want to play at all without Xander running around with him.

Still, we were finally able to complete school by dinner time. Xander nervously admitted to me that he had done something bad at nap time. He had actually read books the whole time and hadn't fallen asleep.

I couldn't help but wonder if his truthfulness was in part due to a book we read this week, Cookies: Bite-Size Life Lessons, written by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and illustrated by Jane Dyer. I officially love this book. Both text and illustrations are fantastic. Let me tell you what is on the Honest and Courageous pages:

"HONEST means, I have to tell you something. The butterfly didn't really take the cookie - I took the cookie.

COURAGEOUS means, It was not easy for me to tell you that I took the cookie, but I took a deep breath...and made the words come out."

Throughout this picture book, other lessons in courtesy are taught in terms of cookies: cookie-sharing, cookie-hoarding, cookie-envy, even cookie-open-mindedness. It is short but precious. Best of all, I got to read a book to both boys about manners, courtesy, morals, whatever you want to call them, while they looked on and laughed. It was not a chore or a burden on their feelings like some other morality books.

As much as I love the text, the illustrations are just as beautiful, life-like, and whimsical. Love them!

So, back to Xander's admission. I praised him for his courage in telling me. Later, I told him I did not want him to do that again to try to avoid school, but I was glad he had told me what really happened. I told him Mom and Dad could help him with any problem if he would tell us the truth.

Another book note. I have been impressed by How the Scots Invented the Modern World: The True Story of How Western Europe's Poorest Nation Created Our World & Everything in It, by Arthur Herman. Now, I have a beef with the not-to-be-taken-literally title, but everything else about this book is great. It covers the time period from about 1680 to about 1980, although the material is much more thorough from 1700 to almost 1900. I am on the last chapter.

I just read how Benjamin Rush helped found the American Philosophical Society and "supplied" its motto: "Knowledge is of little use, when confined to mere speculation." I think this is a good motto for me to keep in mind. I know myself, and I admit my internal life can be more active than my external life.

Update: I finished the Scots book and really liked it.

What They Did Yesterday

So I've been posting about my goals and my 4 Weeks to a More Organized Home progress. This post is about the boys.

I am tampering with our schooling schedule to see if I can find something that works better for us. What we are doing this week is a little different from the daily checklists from Charlotte Mason Help, although most of it is based on those checklists. We are still doing at least ten things per day, but they are distributed differently. I am trying out having him do some type of Spanish, life skill, recorder practice, and math each day. That leaves about six items from the regular checklists. I am also experimenting with doing it in the early afternoon, without taking a break. (By this point in the day, we have done chores, play time, some meals, and sometimes outside play time.) This method takes us less time per day but we have been continuing school over the weekend and may not take as many Grace Weeks.

This is still an experiment. We'll see what we end up with by the end of the year.

Xander:

• played with his brother 
• played outside
• rested
• played Playmobil
• helped me by correctly doing his Morning Cards (including chores)
• helped me by wiping down baseboards and grout in the kitchen (wiping the grout was his idea)
• watched a little bit of Sesame Street Old School, Volume 1, to help me test whether the DVDs still worked (because I'm trading in DVDs to Amazon)
• behaved beautifully on errands to Walgreens, the grocery store, and the post office
• listened to me read aloud from The Hobbit
• recited the pledges
• listened to me read aloud from Paddle to the Sea, two chapters, and updated Paddle's location on the map
• practiced his memorization of "Summer Afternoon" by A.A. Milne
• listened to Beth Manners's Fun Spanish for Kids (I'm not sure I'm a fan)
• practiced Math facts with Xtra Math
• played a couple of Electric Company math games on pbskids.org
• watched Lego Star Wars videos
• went through one page of Everyday Number Stories with me, with the help of our plate and pennies game
• talked about the election a little bit over our dinner and patriotic desserts
• played knights
• watched the election results come in with Erik and me

Nick:

• played with his brother
• played a little bit outside
• did his Morning Cards correctly (with my help)
• watched a little bit of Sesame Street Old School, Volume 1, to help me test whether the DVDs still worked (because I'm trading in DVDs to Amazon)
• behaved beautifully on errands to Walgreens, the grocery store, and the post office
• played dinosaurs and figures
• played Rainbow Fish Lotto
• had independent playtime
• napped
• played with the magnetic alphabet game we borrowed from the preschool program
• ate all his dinner

I tried to read to Nick, but he said the books I pulled out were scary. (Green Eggs and Ham, Panda Bear Panda Bear What Do You See?) When he was hungry, I asked if he wanted strawberries. He said no, they were scary. "They're red."

Okay, buddy.

Our First Grace Week

This is the beginning of our first Grace Week, per Lindafay's practice.

learning about evergreens on our last nature walk

we found a couple of mushrooms

and these flowers, Engelmann's Daisies, I think

Xander's first nature journal drawing of the daisies

We went to Nick's preschool first thing after breakfast. That was a wild and woolly session, during which the teacher carved a jack-o-lantern right in front of us, polling the kids as to which shape to use for each part of the face. Picture a group of ten three-year-olds having to stay near their mothers so as not to get in the way of the carving knife, while intermittently standing up when the shape they wanted to vote for was called, while also ignoring the misbehavior of children around them. Nick did fine because during the group portion he becomes a bit overstimulated and sits quietly on my lap.

At home, we ate lunch and made plans. Nick went to his independent playtime (his request is always the same, to play with dinosaurs, figures, cars, and trains) and I helped Xander brainstorm activities for his self-directed schooling this week. This is the final list for the week:

• finish Skyrim drawing (based on a computer game Erik plays, started at the preschool playroom)
• Leapster Star Wars Jedi Math
• help cook dinner for Tuesday night - we are having an old classmate of his and her family over for dinner
• play outside
• play ancient Egyptian soldiers (he bought that Playmobil set with his saved allowance)
• the Build-a-Saurus game we borrowed from the program that does Nick's preschool
• read a book to Nick
• go to preschool story time at the library
• the Oh Noah! site from PBS that teaches Spanish
• do puzzles
• draw a picture to send to cousin Bailey
• make a fall art picture using a hole punch and fall-colored construction paper, found on Pinterest
• number worksheets I found on Pinterest
• this weekend, go to the annual Fable Fest put on by the library 

He said he did not want to practice recorder this week, but I may lay it out on the coffee table one day just to see if he picks it up.

reading together last night

happy homeschooler

I have my own list of things to tackle, like blog posts, computer work, house cleaning, finishing How the Scots Invented the Modern World, knitting a lot, making food ahead for our dinner guests, running at least three times, cleaning the dining room chairs, collecting acorns, finishing fall decor, and such.

I made dirt 'n worms, Xander's idea