School on the Weekend!

Today we'll probably be too busy packing and getting the house in order to get any "school" done. However, we inadvertantly did school this weekend I think:
Saturday we went to the library and checked out a zillion books. 4 or 5 about Utah and Arizona, and a wide variety of miscellaneous books. I ran into a new homeschooling (hs) friend who asked how I limit or oversee the books the kids check out. Basically, when we're doing a unit study on something, I preorder those online from the library, and then the kids check out whatever they want. I steer them away from dumb paperback series, but experience has taught Elli to look for classics, Caldecott award winners, historical fiction and fantasy. We're still kind of just happy that Grace reads, so, whatever she wants to check out is usually fine. She usually just goes to the O section and grabs as many Magic Treehouse series books she can find. Saturday we found some of the non-fiction research guides that correspond with the series and she is thrilled. Other than that, they have their own totebags and they have to carry their own books. On the trip, they will each have a travel backpack to carry their nature journal/explorer kits, as well as any bears, games, or books they want. That's IT. We're not bringing the whole overflowing "library crate". We must have at least 50 checked out right now.
So besides reading all weekend, we also learned how to can peaches and make 2 kinds of peach pie. (Home Ec and Math.) Elli was in charge of the syrup and doing the math with estimating how much we'd need for 9 qt jars and 8 half-pint jars of fruit. First she doubled the recipe, then she tripled the recipe, then did just a regular batch and that was finally enough syrup. So how many qts of peaches did we can? And how many pints is that? half pints? This time together also gave Elli the opportunity to share her life plan with me. It was fun to spend that time together.
She also worked on her presentation boards for Grace's room redecoration project. We're the designers, and Grace is the client. Elli has two main ideas so she'll present them both and see which direction we should take. (On'tday elltay Racegay: agicmay reehousetay oomray -or- aratekay uppypay oomray....)
Grace didn't do any math or reading this weekend but technically we're not starting school until after Labor Day anyway, so it's all good. She just played and played with Scheich animals, read 2 MTH books and a desert picture book. We finished Charlotte's Web together, watched Babe, and compared the two stories....Today she wants to watch Charlotte's Web so she can compare the book to the movie. Right. She just loves to watch movies.
So does that sound like sound like we homeschooled? We will actually get out textbooks and start math, Latin, and grammar again. Soon. Let's see where we are by the end of September.
Oh- we also discussed the possibility of hosting another exchange student. This one is from Denmark and is an accomplished ballet dancer. Hmm. Could be fun.

Lessons in Generosity Today....

Last night I was relating to a friend how homeschooling just really seemed to help bond my two darling children together...when all of a sudden loud shrieks arose, and then wailing. Cleaning the kitchen together was never my idea of fun as a kid and apparently it isn't my kids' either. They were so mean to each other, but mostly selfish, that after talking it over with Martin we decided to have a character lesson. The kids were told they would need to find a way to work together in the morning doing something generous...and that was it for the time being.
I thought things were great this morning when one brought me a breakfast burrito they had made together. Wonderful! Unfortunately it was freezing cold, so I asked if she could please heat it up for a few seconds in the microwave first. She brought it back to her sister and rudely announced the problem, which was rebutted with "IF YOU WEREN'T SO SLOW, IT WOULDN'T BE COLD!"
After we ate, I got out the "Growing Seasons for Little Characters" book. I read a story and object lesson about "Unselfish Choices". It was based on Genesis 13 or 14 from the Bible, when Abraham lets Lot pick which land, and Lot picks the green, leaving Abraham with the desert. Lesson being that God blesses Abraham whereas Lot runs into problems later. We read some more, had discussion and made up a silly fill-in-the-blank story about a family. Then we played a silly dress up game. I had 2 articles of clothing from each member of the family out on the sofa. They drew names and acted out the person, with all their personality and characteristics. Interesting discussion afterwards: the girls noticed mom and dad were diligent and helpful, whereas the 2 kids were lazy and selfish. Hmm...Their words. They were humbled and wrote a page about what they learned about being generous with their actions.
Unfortunately, later this same day, one of them completely missed an opportunity to display generosity. So there are consequences- the one who was generous this afternoon was blessed (which did not go unnoticed). They both have priveleges to earn back as a result of last night and this morning, and I think they're trying to be more generous with their actions....I hope so. I don't expect them to play and work together perfectly all the time but when even they recognized a pattern of not being generous to one another.....
But hey! That's home ec, teamwork, reading, writing, character trait, and drama that we accomplished through this. We had mental math practice at the store later...I think we're good for the day.

Interesting Dog Science fact

We were concerned about our lab/retriever and took her to the vet thinking she had some kind of earmite or something that was giving her bumps in her ears. But she also had something funky going on with one of her feet. And her tummy sometimes gets a bumpy rash.
Turns out it's allergies. Dogs show allergies through their eyes, ears, and...skin? If they bite at their paws, it's grass. If they bite at the base of their tail, it's fleas. Otherwise it could be food related but that's rare. Apparently it's not uncommon for labs to have grass allergies. (Or was it retrievers?)
Well this is what we learned today anyway. So Muff had her cortisone for doggies shot which will last anywhere from a few months to a year.
Grace will need to write this down in her science journal for her unit study on dogs....maybe we should research and confirm some facts before recording. But then we're off to P.E. at the pool!

Unofficially, school has started!

We've already planned out our year, telling the kids that school doesn't officially start until the day after Labor Day. Isn't that when the first day of school always was? So officially, we are following a traditional school year from the days when I was a kid. Day after Labor Day until Friday, June 9.
Unofficially, however, we've already started schooling. In fact, I'm not sure we ever stopped. This summer the kids (1st and 6th grades) have read over 100 books each, continued some music lessons, sports (karate, dance, swimming), history (reviewed Ancient Egypt via book The Golden Goblet), have tutored ESL to our Japanese exchange student, reviewed and added to a unit study on Japanese language and culture, scrapbooked, participated in the care and showing of animals at the fair....It's rather weak in the math department, but even that was somewhat explored as Elli went through the fair premium book to see how much money she could make in each department.
Yesterday we read about deserts and made "scrapbook folders" out of file folders and scrapbook supplies. Since we are going on a road field-trip to Utah and Arizona, the girls each made one for the trip. It's a little bit more fun than the spiral notebook "travel log" I orginally had in mind. They plan to gather a bunch of information about each state to fill the mini-books (via words and pictures) within the folder. Check out this website for sample ideas (it's what inspired us): www.portfolder.com. We also made one together about the fall of Rome and the Rise of the Early Church, since that's our first unit we're studying in History.
I've also snuck in assessments for Latin and Spelling to see what they've retained over the summer and our easy "no-school" schedule. I'm not looking forward to getting them back into "Math", but their new textbooks seem more interesting than the dreaded redundant approach found in Saxon Math. Nothing kills a kid's interest in a subject more than boring repetition of stuff she already knows, especially when it's spoonfed into tiny bites of information. Here in our little family homeschool, we have a broad-to-specific approach to learning. I think I've finally found a math program that supports this approach. (Making Math Meaningful: www.cornerstonecurriculum.com )