Category Archives: Bloggy Randomness

Exciting happenings at Hope Is the Word this month

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No, I’m not pregnant.  ;-)

A couple of exciting things are happening around these parts this month, though, and I wanted to give all my regular readers early notice so you all can join in the fun.

Reading to Know - Book ClubFirst, I am this month’s hostess of the Reading to Know Book Club, which just means that I chose this month’s title and Carrie’s likely to mention my blog once or twice as she encourages folks to read The Adventures of Tom Sawyer this month and share their thoughts about it by linking up at Reading to Know at the end of May.  I’ll share my thoughts here before then.  (It’s my first time to read it, and I am prepared to be amazed and amused.)  I hope you’ll join us!

The other exciting happening is that I am hosting this month’s Carnival of Children’s Literature here at the end of the month. This is a great blog carnival that unfortunately I usually fail to submit to because I am just so forgetful.  I’m turning over a new leaf with this month’s carnival since I am the hostess, and I do hope that you will join me.  You can read more about the carnival here and about how to submit your entry here.  Visit April’s carnival at A Curious Thing to sample some of the yummy carnival fare.

Have a marvelous May, everyone!

 

An Ecclesiastes 3:2, 7 kind of week

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To say that this has been unusual and difficult week is something of an understatement, but all things considered, we had a really good school week. Monday was a normal day, except for the fact that Louise was a little under the weather. She went to bed on Sunday night with an elevated temperature, so on Monday she took it easy most of the day. Things got interesting on Monday night when the DLM fell and fractured his tibia–the large bone in the lower leg. He was out with Steady Eddie doing a bit of shopping (their usual routine while the girls take turns having dance class) when he fell at a store and twisted his leg. We didn’t know it was fractured until the next morning when the pediatrician’s office opened back up. We spent a good part of the day on Tuesday, then, in doctor’s offices, getting x-rays and having his little leg put into a cast. Through all this, we managed to “do school” thanks to the fact that Steady Eddie had taken off work due to the DLM’s injury.

On Wednesday, Steady Eddie had already planned to go into work a bit late to help me get our day going and get through our regular lessons. This was wonderful–he worked with one girl on math while I did language, writing, reading, etc., and then we’d switch. We got through all the must-dos before lunch! This day was one of those that was a bit off-kilter, though, because we got word mid-morning that the condition of our pastor’s precious wife, who had been battling ovarian cancer for 2 1/2 years, was declining. Steady Eddie left for work, and not too long after he had been there, he called to tell me that Rebecca had passed away.

So. School. Yeah. We did it. It was good, even. But honestly? It didn’t seem all that important. Interesting, but not important. Necessary, but not important.

Here’s the shakedown, keyed to the collage above.

1, 3, 7, & 8.  Math.  Lulu’s RightStart lessons this week involved taking a few assessments (which she was super excited about–these homschooled kids and their lack of test anxiety and boredom ;-) ), working a bit more on subtraction, and then switching gears and diving head-first into multiplication.  I love the way RightStart approaches multiplication!  Lulu had to color the multiples (i.e. color all the squares with a multiple of 2 on them, etc.) on small 100s charts (one for each number), and then she and Steady Eddie held them up to the light and compared the 2s to the 4s, for example.  Neat-o!  We also spent some time on a new-to-us game, Sum Rummy.  I didn’t think it was worth the trouble at first, but then when we got to the end and Lulu had to discover how adding the sums relates to multiplication and then do it, I was sold.  :-) One more fun thing I had Lulu do was take the centimenter cubes and line them up beside the meter stick to confirm how many centimeters are in a meter. Lulu completed lessons 99-101 in RS C this week.

Louise’s lessons this week involved writing equations using the abacus and really working on grasping the concept of tens.

Bonus this week for math:  having dad home to help.

2.  Ever seen a twenty-two month old in a cast?  It’s cute and pitiful, all at the same time.  Being more confined to one place than normal has increased the DLM’s attention-span and he has really played with this toys.

4.  History has been so interesting this week!  SotW volume 2 chapter 16 has us squarely in the Middle Ages, just after the Normal Conquest of England.  We’ve talked about Medieval culture and lifestyles.  Among other things, we did the Play-Doh activity suggested in the SotW Activity Guide to illustrate how English we speak came to be.  I could easily spend weeks on the Middle Ages, just doing fun stuff like this.  In addition to this fun activity, Lulu did a couple of written narrations and made a mini-book about how to become a knight.

5.  I’ve had extra help this week, too.  Steady Eddie had an out-of-town meeting on Thursday, so my parents took pity on me and my poor, handicapped toddler and came to help us.  :-)   My dad came by mid-morning and played with the DLM while the girls and I did lessons. Then, that afternoon, my mom came over and got the DLM down for a nap (no small feat, since sleeping in a cast is not high on his list of favorites) while the girls and I finished up lessons.  We had gotten a very late start that morning, so all this help was very welcomed.

6.  I decided to do something I’ve never done before this week–use the computer to help give me a little bit of “breathing space” to do lessons with Louise.  Well, it didn’t exactly work out this way this first time, but I hope it will in the future.  I made Lulu a spelling list in Spelling City from her AAS words, and she took a test on the computer.  Of course, this was only after we had gone through the whole step and all its instruction, and even practiced spelling the words using the tiles and on paper.  I’m a bit ambivalent about doing this because a.) I want to postpone computer-dependence for my kids as long as possible and b.) since Lulu can’t type properly yet, I don’t want to reinforce bad habits.  Thoughts on this, anyone?  Lulu completed AAS level 2 steps 11 and 12 this week.

9.  Bonus science lesson with dad:  looking at brother’s x-ray and talking about and identifying bones.

Here’s what else we accomplished:

  • We actually did our memory work two or three times this week.  Louise is also working hard on Awana verses.
  • The girls did four days’ worth of handwriting practice.
  • Lulu completed lessons 87-90, mostly reviewing the parts of speech, in FLL 2.
  •  Writing is getting more challenging; WWE 2 week 28 had Lulu dictating two sentences at a time, in addition to narrating from a lengthy passage.
  • Lulu’s assigned reading this week was All-of-a-Kind Family by Sydney Taylor.  She did a book report on it (like this, only not as thorough this time).  She’s also working on reading If You Lived in the Days of the Knights, which we’ll continue next week.
  • Louise completed lessons 147-150 in OPGtTR and read several chapters from her chapter book (Shadow of the Wolf) with me.  On Thursday she sat and read three I Can Read books aloud with Mamaw.  She has turned into a reading machine.
  • Actually, we’re all pretty fond of reading.

 

On Thursday night the girls spent the night with Nana, who was on spring break this week.  On Friday I took the DLM to the last baby storytime at the library for this school year, and then we had lunch with Steady Eddie at my favorite “girl food” restaurant (which Steady Eddie actually likes but mainly indulges me in).  I worked a bit on schoolish stuff and printing pictures for my Project Life album, and then it was time to get ready to go to church for the funeral celebration service for Rebecca.  What a week.

Rebecca was forty-three years old, the high school sweet-heart and only love of her husband of twenty years, a mother to two girls, a pastor’s wife, a daughter, a sister, a sister-in-law, a friend, and a genuinely joyful person.  Her service last night was beautiful.  We laughed, we cried, and we worshiped Jesus.  Her husband, our pastor, spoke at the end about God’s grace and about how blessed he felt to be her husband.  He also lead the congregation (a packed house) in worship in song (he’s an accomplished musician and songwriter), and he played a song he wrote during her sickness.  Wow.  What a service, and what a reunion it will be for all of us when we get Home.

Today while I’m at work, Steady Eddie will be finishing up some schoolish stuff with the girls–science (they’re talking about shadows and being human sundials, if the sunshine cooperates), math, and a bit of history.

You know, this week has been hard (and jumbled, as this very disorganized post is evidence of), but attending that service last night in honor of Rebecca, believe it or not, ended it on a high note.  I’ve never felt God’s faithfulness more than I did last night.  To see our pastor lead us all in worship and thanksgiving to God, grieving for his wife and yet still buoyed up by the hope of heaven, was wonderful.

And so I’m ending this wrap-up with thanksgiving, too.  So many, many blessings this week:

  • That if the DLM had to break his leg, it happened this week. If it had happened last week, Steady Eddie would’ve been out of town and we wouldn’t have had as much help because Nana would’ve been working.  If it had happened much later, it would’ve been hot (and therefore more uncomfortable in the cast) and our summer plans of lots of outdoor fun would’ve been hindered.
  • That Rebecca’s life and her family have touched our life.  Her faith and trust and joy were such a testimony of God’s goodness.  Her legacy will live on.
  • That we only have three more weeks before we take our summer break from our normal school routine.  I’m ready for some down time!
  • That I only work one more weekend before being off for the summer!
  • That the DLM only has to wear his cast for 3 weeks.
  • That the DLM doesn’t seem to be in any pain.

If you’ve read this far, thank you.  I think this is the most nitty-gritty week we’ve had, and yet, it has been a good week.  We’ve learned a lot this week.

**Bonus points for anyone who can explain the reference in the title!  :-)

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April nature notes

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We’ve taken several opportunities this month to get outside and intentionally observe and enjoy nature.  In addition to our dogwood tree study, we also focused on that harbinger of spring, the robin, one Fun Friday this month.  On that particular day we went to the library and had a picnic at the park with Steady Eddie.  Since this park is right across the street from the library, we walked, and Mr. Robin obliged us by perching beautifully in one of the trees on the library lawn.  Of course, we took a moment to really look at the bird and notice as much about its colorings and markings as we could before it flew off.

At the park we enjoyed watching the antics of a squirrel that loved our dropped (and tossed!) Goldfish crackers.  I even watched a tiny little bird (I wish I were better at bird i.d.!) try to make off with one of the crackers, but the Goldfish was just too big!  Steady Eddie even tried to photograph down inside the hole in the tree trunk, thinking this might be the squirrel’s home.  (Nature study has definitely become a family affair! :-) )

When we got home I uploaded our pictures and enlarged Mr. Robin and printed it out.

Using the knowledge I gleaned from The Handbook of Nature Study, we once again talked about the colors and markings of the robin.  Then I handed the girls a robin picture to color from the Notebooking Treasury North American birds collection. (My affiliate link here.)  I instructed the girls to do a good job of coloring the robin as true-to-life as possible.  Using the picture for their model, they colored and listened to an mp-3 recording of chapter five of The Burgess Bird Book (as suggested by Barb in her robin study post).  I also had them write down something they learned from the story at the bottom of their coloring page.  Sometimes being patient with an assignment like this is tough for one of my girls, so I’m particularly proud of the attention to detail here.

Something else we did this month was simply go for a walk around our neighborhood and observe signs of spring.  When we got home, I wrote our observations on the list Barb always provides in her newsletter.

Last week, in lieu of some other formal nature study, we simply went on a photo scavenger hunt using the list from Go Explore Nature’s Get Outside Photo Scavenger Hunt list.  I handed the camera over to the girls (which thrilled them to no end!) and we took turns going down the list (skipping items we couldn’t find, etc.) until the camera battery died a very sudden death.  I thought the girls did a lovely job in their photographing of #3 (sky) and #6 (flower).  That little maple tree is my contribution.  Isn’t the deep purple lovely?

This month we also planted a butterfly bush, the beginning of our very own butterfly garden.  The single biggest contributor to our enjoyment of nature, though, are our bird feeders.  Seeing our familiar friends at our feeders daily really makes us stop and appreciate nature.  I hope I can share some of the photos I’ve taken the past couple of months soon.  (Most of them are frequent visitors, so you can see them here.)  Steady Eddie and the girls surprised me Saturday with a new bird feeder station for our backyard.  I’ll share a picture of it soon.  My enthusiasm for bird watching has definitely been contagious.  :-)

 

Sickness, solo parenting, math games, and King Alfred bread

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(I’m trying out a new collage format this week.  I’m not sure I love it, but I thought I’d go with it and see if it grows on me.  I think I prefer my line-’em-up-straight format better.  :-) )

1.  This week we played a lot of math games:  Addition Corners, Find the Remainders (subtraction with four digit numbers), Dot Card Memory (evens/odds), Swim to Ten (mental addition of one-digit numbers).  Part of this is due to the fact that Lulu came down with a sore throat last Sunday afternoon, and she was still puny Monday and Tuesday.  Math games were about the only thing that perked her up.  ;-)   Still, though, we managed to get through lessons 97 and 98 in RS C, which entailed finding perimeters in centimeters and adding mentally.  Both of these tasks were fairly easy for Lulu.  Louise continues to make progress in RS B.  This week we completed lessons 18-20 in which evens/odds and EQUATIONS were introduced.  Oh, and we played a lot of games.

2. The other thing that perked Lulu up was lots and lots (and lots) of American Girl audiobooks.  Both girls spent a large portion of the week, especially Monday and Tuesday, on the couch listening to the stories of Kaya, Rebecca, Julie, and Kirsten.  On Monday night we skipped dance altogether and had a movie night–Kit Kittredge.  Steady Eddie had an out-of-town meeting Monday through Thursday, and I try to do something a little extra when he’s gone; often this is a movie night.  (I hate to say it, but with so many afternoon and evening activities, even a movie night is tough to plan around here!)  It was a bonus for me because I worked on my Project Life scrapbook during the movie.

3. Lulu continues to show great interest in crocheting, and I still haven’t found the time to learn how to do it myself in order to teach her.  My mom spent the night with us Tuesday night, and she was able to help Lulu a little bit.  Heather’s series, 10 Days of Pouring into Your Child’s Passions, is really encouraging me to find ways to carve time out of our day for the girls to do things they’re really interested in.  Lulu is all about making things with her hands–from tiny purses out of Scotch tape to necklaces to crocheted bracelets.  I really want to encourage this.

4.  I have such a hard time with knowing how to handle sick days.  (I’ve written about this before–here and here.)  Thankfully, I’ve wised up a bit and sort of let the sick one take the lead–more “Do you feel like doing ______?” than requirements.  Actually, Monday and Tuesday were fairly productive school days, even though we didn’t get in all of the 3 R’s on either day.  However, I felt way more relaxed about school than I usually do–I even did some things I enjoyed in the middle of the school day and spent extra time working with Louise.  I found myself thinking that that’s really how I want school to be around here–more relaxed on my end of things.  How do accomplish this?  I don’t know.  Maybe trying really hard to not see it as a day-by-day project but more as a week-by-week (or even month-by-month or term-by-term?) project, so that what we don’t get to today we’ll get to tomorrow?  By lowering my expectations?  Hmm. . .lots to think about as we finish up this year of learning.  (This post of Alice’s really resonates with me.)

5.  Wednesday afternoon found Louise, the DLM, and me enjoying some sunshine on a quilt on the lawn of Lulu’s piano teacher while Lulu was inside having her piano lesson.  Louise and I did her “piano school”–we read together and played yet another game of Swim to Ten.  (She absolutely LOVES this game!)  I also brought along The Well Trained Mind which I’m perusing once again as I begin to think about next year.  I’m feeling the draw toward more books (as if that’s possible ;-) ) and less formal curriculum.  Good books + narrations + the basics of math and language + something they’re passionate about = a good education, right?

6. On Thursday I shook up our schedule a bit, knowing we were taking the day off on Fun Friday.  After piano practice, we went on a Get Outside Photo Scavenger Hunt (hat-tip Barb) for which I handed over my little point-n-shoot camera for the girls’ use.  (This is huge–I’m usually pretty stingy with use of my cameras.)  Unfortunately, the camera battery died before we got very far in our scavenger hunt, but at least everyone got ONE turn to take a picture.  (Fairness is very, very important around here. :-) )   When we came back inside, we stirred up a batch of King Alfred bread from the SotW Activity Guide.  We had read about King Alfred the day before, so I knew that pairing a very interesting story from history with a kitchen activity would be a win, and I was right.  Our bread turned out to be more cake-like, so instead of kneading and forming the dough, I ended up pouring it into mini-loaf pans.  It was delicious!  (Must’ve been the butter and whipping cream. . . )  My girls will probably never forget about King Alfred and his cowardice!

7.  We were in a lunchtime rut this week, so on Thursday I made us “snack lunches.”  This day it was cheese cubes/sticks, baby carrots and Ranch dressing, grapes, and King Alfred bread.  What’s your favorite homeschool lunch?

8.  This week we finally got around to starting on a states notebook, which is something I’ve wanted to do since we were in the middle of reading Little Britches (linked to my review).  While reading this wonderful story, I thought it would be great to use this story to talk about the landscape of Colorado and then just about Colorado in general.  Using state-specific notebooking pages from Notebooking Treasury and this state fact sheet from Homeschool Creations, the girls have a nice start on their states notebook.  (I was also inspiree by Jimmie’s 50 States Noteobook Squidoo lens.)  My Favorite Resource This Week, though, is How to Draw Colorado’s Sights and Symbols from the A Kid’s Guide to Drawing America series.  (The link is to Amazon, but the book pictured with the link is about California, so beware if you click it.  I don’t think I’d pay the $25 Amazon is asking, either, but it’s definitely worth a look around for cheap used copies or at the library!)  We’re all a little frustrated by drawing, so having simple, step-by-step instructions on how to draw the map, the seal, etc., was invaluable to us.  Plus, the book includes a lot of good information. 
This, a few informational books on Colorado from the library, and our memories of Ralph Moody’s descriptions were all good resources to get us started.  We also pulled out and studied Geography from A to Z: A Picture Glossary by Jack Knowlton (which I wrote about here) when we weren’t sure of the definition of canyon and gorge.  (That’s the DLM’s contributions to our studies up there in the picture–a Little People pirate, goat, and lion–looking on as the girls pore over this colorful little geography book.)

Favorite Resource This Week9.  I knew Lulu was better on Tuesday afternoon when she remodeled one corner of their bedroom during rest time to make a “dressing room.”  I really, really try to not interrupt their play time to do something as prosaic as lessons.  ;-)

This week Lulu did three days of week 27 in WWE 2, the first part of step 11 in AAS 2, lessons 85 and 86 in FLL 2, some reading aloud to me, and some handwriting practice.  Louise completed lessons 145-147 in OPGtTR.  As usual, we also read a lot.  We took the day off on Friday for appointments and errands.  Steady Eddie was back home, and boy, were we all glad!

Although I hate to make an already too long post even longer, I thought I’d share some of the things the DLM does while we’re doing school.  I have read every suggestion out there on how to keep a toddler busy during homeschooling.  Mostly, we just go with the flow.  Sometimes one of the girls will read to him while I work with the other girl; sometimes he colors in his high chair while we work.  Lately he loves playing with the math manipulatives.  This isn’t ideal, but it does keep him happy.  Plus, it’s cute to hear him count on the abacus.  ;-)

Have you been enjoying the iHomeshcool 10 Days of series all over homeschooling blogdom?  I have!  I have to give a plug for my friend Mary’s 10 Days of Teaching Music series.  So far it has been five days of fantastic information and resources, and I can’t wait to read the next five days!

Something else that keeps the DLM busy and happy: playing "do" on the piano!

 

Normally I link up with Collage Friday at Homegrown Learners, but it has been pre-empted this week for the aforementioned 10 Days of Teaching Music series.  This week I’m happily linking up at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers and Learning All the Time.

Read Aloud Thursday–Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site by Sherri Duskey Rinker

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I almost didn’t write this review because I know I’ve seen so many good things about this sweet picture book on the internet that I figured everyone else has seen those reviews, too, and has probably already added this book to her family’s collection.  However, since this blog is more for my remembrance than it is to promote the books I like, I’m going to list some of the things the DLM and I love about Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site by Sherri Duskey Rinker.  We’ve only been reading it for about a week and a half now, so I’m sure this list will probably grow as it goes from being merely familiar to ingrained forever in my brain.  :-)

  • It’s the perfect naptime or bedtime story.  Like Goodnight Moon and, I’m sure, a host of other bedtime stories, this story is literally about going to bed.  The fun twist here, though, is that it’s heavy equipment that’s getting all cozied up for a night of slumber.  I usually read this book to the DLM by the faint light of his heavily shaded window at naptime and by the light of the hallway light outside his bedroom at night.  It’s a good book to read by dim light.
  • This story uses the real names for the equipment and real terminology for their parts:  Crane Truck raises a beam with his boom;  Cement Mixer pulls up his chute and slows his drum;  Dump Truck lowers his bed and locks his gate; Bulldozer pushes with his blade and stops his track;  Excavator twirls on his track and lets his scoop rest on the ground.  In other words, it’s not overly simplified, so I think it will be a favorite for a long, long time.
  • The construction equipment are all male (yes, they are–I double checked) and they are all given rough-and-tumble personalities, yet the book is still sweet and tender.  They are just like my little boy toddler!  :-)   Here’s a sampling of the verses from a couple of pages toward the end of the story that captures the the tough-but-sweet essence moms of little men are familiar with :

These big, big trucks, so tough and loud,

They work so hard, so rough, and proud.

Tomorrow is another day,

Another chance to work and play.

 

Turn off your engines, stop your tracks,

Relax your wheels, your stacks, and backs.

No more huffing and puffing, team:

It’s time to rest your heads and dream.

  • Tom Lichtenheld‘s illustrations are just about as perfect as illustrations can be.  They capture perfectly the spirit of the story.  The DLM’s favorite page is of Excavator pushing a mound of boulders with his blade.  We always pause on this page so my little man can point to and name the rocks.  (They’re all named Rock.  ;-) )  One of my favorite details is the setting sun which is replaced by a sleeping moon.  I love that Excavator’s scoop is cradling the moon on the cover and that Crane Truck helps raise the sun on the endpapers.  The sunset pages are completely awash with a pinkish-orange glow and the nighttime pages are shadowy and grainy and star-spangled, with the vastness of the nighttime sky a perfect backdrop for the softly snoring Dump Truck and teddy bear-clasping Crane Truck.  Sweet perfection!

I’m adding this one to my long-neglected Best Picture Books list.  If you have a toddler or preschooler, especially a boy, don’t miss this one.  If you don’t have a toddler or preschooler but are in the market for a baby gift, consider this one.  Highly, Highly Recommended.  (Chronicle, 2011)

A Hole Is to Dig


 

It’s a start. . .

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I’ve wanted a butterfly garden for a long, long time.  On Saturday, we finally made progress toward the realization of that dream:  we planted a butterfly bush (Fourth of July variety) in a sunny corner of our front yard.  Saturday also happened to have been my granny’s ninety-eighth birthday; well, she would’ve been ninety-eight had she lived six more years.  Lulu wasn’t even a year old when Granny died, but planting a butterfly bush on her birthday seems appropriate–like I’m keeping something of her personality alive for her great grandchildren.  Granny loved flowers, and I’m learning to love them, too.

A Short Week with Lots o’ Reading, a Calculator, and a Rainbow

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1.  We started the week with a field trip, which was a nice way to ease back into school after spring break. 

2.  I worked Easter eggs into our lessons as often as I could this week.  :-)   On Tuesday I hid a trio of eggs for each girl, with each egg containing a math problem for her to solve.  We’ve also been working through our annual Resurrection eggs/reading of Benjamin’s Box tradition over breakfast.  The girls LOVE this.  I always hide the Resurrection eggs and let them find them just before we read the Bible passage.

3.  Our favorite resources this week have been the Decorah Eagle Cam and the Cornell great blue heron nest cam (hat-tip Janet).  Louise and the DLM have spent a good bit of time this week peering at the computer screen.  I’m usually pretty anti-technology for my young children, but I make an exception for live nature experiences.  Louise got extremely excited when the eagle’s mate came back to the nest right before her very eyes, and again when the heron stood up and she actually got to see the eggs.  Although they prefer watching the eaglets, we’ll have to keep an eye on the heron cam as time draws close to the hatching time!

4.  We’ve all done a lot of reading this week.  I even remembered to have Lulu read aloud to me several times this week.  Once she began reading fluently (and voraciously!), I sort of forgot to keep her reading to me.  She doesn’t like to do it, but I require her to because I think it’s important for me to hear her and gauge her fluency and help her read plainly and teach her how to actually pronounce words.  She read an Aesop’s fable and a passage from Mary Poppins Comes Back.  Like her sister, Louise is reading like a house a-fire!  I love that she is capable of picking up almost any old book and reading for herself, like she’s doing in this picture.  (This particular selection was The Easter Egg by Jan Brett, a book that gave us the opportunity to meet Jan Brett!)  You can take a peek at what else we read this week and get all the details here.

5.  On Wednesday the weather was so nice that Louise, the DLM, and I sat out on the hill beside the home of Lulu’s piano teacher and just enjoyed the great outdoors.  I actually intended to bring Louise’s book and the card deck to play a game of Old Main (tens facts game from RS), but in my haste to get us out the door for Sonic Happy Hour, I left them at home.  This little memory slip actually afforded me a much-needed opportunity to sit in the sun, read, and watch my children play.  Perfect!

6.  On Thursday we headed outside to observe our neighbor’s dogwood trees, only to find that they had shed every single one of their white blossoms (which aren’t really blossoms at all–did you know that?).  Oops.  I’ll detail our discoveries more in a future Outdoor Hour Challenge post. 

7.  Math continues to exhilirate and frustrate me.  As I’ve mentioned before, Lulu is at the point in RS C when I’ve heard that many people jump ship, and I can see why.  The lessons take a long, long time to get through.  Steady Eddie even posted a message on the RS Yahoo groups about it, and we’ve received a good bit of encouragement to a.) slow down and take our time and b.) know that it gets “better” shortly.  (I hesitate to use the word better because it’s not really a fault of the program, but rather perhaps my perception of how to use it.)  This week we covered lessons 94-96, and the first two of those involved learning to use the memory function on the calculator (all the while working multi-step subtraction word problems).  I have mixed feelings about handing a calculator to my second grader, but I finally decided that while I definitely don’t want her dependent on a calculator, I do want her to use one correctly and I want her to know that it’s an option.  (For the record, I learned how to use the memory function on the calculator this week, too!)  Lesson 96 introduced the metric system, which was a breath of fresh hour after an intense few days of subtraction.  ;-)   Steady Eddie and I are tossing around the idea of taking a very brief break from RS to let subtraction marinate for a while in Lulu’s brain.  Louise continues to breeze through RS A, finishing lesson 15 this week.  We’re still working on review lessons.

8.  We didn’t intend to do any school at all today since it’s Good Friday, but since we made a run last night to look for the girls’ Easter shoes, we didn’t have Science Thursday.  Steady Eddie made it a Science Friday instead.  He taught the girls all about gravity while I made my morning ablutions. 

9.  Is there anything prettier than Easter eggs in their dye baths? 

Oh, we’ve done more of the routine: 

  • Lulu completed lessons 80-81in FLL vol. 2, which entailed lots of parts of speech and direct/indirect quotations review.
  • Lulu finished up day 4 of WWE week 25 that was left over from the week before spring break.  This was narration and dictation from a pretty complicated Rudyard Kipling tale.
  • Lulu–AAS Step 8
  • Lulu–narration/notebooking about Alexander the Great (Louise listened to the chapter from SotW, too.)
  • Handwriting practice for both girls, both from their Getty-Dubay workbooks and dictation/copywork and the keeping of their booklists
  • Louise completed lessons 140-142 in OPGtTR.

This month we’re also enjoying poetry in honor of National Poetry Month.  You can read about this week’s pick here. 

We also began memorizing 1 Corinthians 15:3-7 and listened to “In Christ Alone” over and over.  I love this song.  We memorized it for Easter last year, but it sort of fell off the radar after that.  I need to add it to our hymns playlist!

I also have to share this:  we decided late last evening to head out to look for shoes for the girls.  It had been a rainy evening, and the temperature had dropped a good bit.  When the girls got outside they immediately began yelling about a rainbow, and when I went outside to see it, I was awestruck.  It was gorgeous–we could almost see the whole thing!  It was actually a double rainbow, but the one on top was so faint that I don’t think it photographed.  What a blessing to see this–a beautiful reminder of God’s promise!

 

I’m looking forward to a good weekend.  Steady Eddie and I have had a mid-day date today because all the kiddos went over to Nana’s before lunch.  We went out for a late lunch and did some piddling around.  One thing I’m very excited about is that we’re in the beginning stages of planning a butterfly garden for our yard.  We even bought a butterfly bush today!  This weekend we plan to work around the house, spend time with family, and remember the Resurrection.  How about you?

Favorite Resource This Week

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This Week in Books

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This week’s reading in bullet points:

  • I started and finished Inside Out and Back Again (wonderful!), started Dead End in Norvelt (hilarious!), and stalled out on Lit!  Why, of why, do I find it so difficult to get through nonfiction anymore?  Stay tuned for reviews.
  • Louise and I read together Abigail Takes the Wheel and Minnie and Moo and the Haunted Sweater, both of which are I Can Read chapter books.  See the four books above those two in the picture?  She read those by herself and brought them from her bedroom to add to the stack when I asked the girls what they read this week.  One of the smartest things we decided to do when rearranging the schoolroom for our new bookshelves is relocate a small bookcase to the girls’ rooms and put some leveled readers (in fact, all the I Can Read type books that we own!) on those shelves to give Louise something to read.  She even confessed that she only meant to look at Glasses for D.W., but she ended up reading it anyway.  She couldn’t help herself.  :-)
  • Lulu’s required reading this week was actually Mary Poppins, which she borrowed from the library at the end of last week.  However, when she wanted to read one of the P.L. Travers sequels instead, how could I refuse?  Despite my own misgivings about Mary Poppins – the P.L. Travers version is not the Julie Andrews version — I knew she wouldn’t be able to resist because she loves the movie so much.  I was right!  She loved it.  Obviously, she’s also still on her Boxcar Children kick.  She just loves those Aldens.  :-)   I’d love to broaden her horizons, too, with some other mysteries, but I’m at a loss to find something comparable to the Boxcar Children–something that isn’t scary at all, but still holds her interest.  Ideas, anyone?
  • Yes, we’re still reading Little Britches and Little Pilgrims’ Progress, with the addition of Benjamin’s Box this week for Easter. 
  • We’re reading poetry this month.  Come back tomorrow to find out what we’ve enjoyed this week.
  • We shared several picture books we all enjoyed, including these. 

Have you had a bookish week?

Tiger moth (?)

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We found this beauty inside our house Monday night. Isn’t it gorgeous?  I think it looks like it’s made of wood, with the details etched or burnished in.  I’d love to know what kind it is.

Edit:  I think it’s some kind of Tiger Moth.

Natural Bridge, Alabama

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On Monday we eased back into school from our spring break with a fun field trip to Natural Bridge, Alabama.  After a little mis-direction from Google maps, we found the place and enjoyed some time with some old and new homeschooling friends. 

See the Indian?

 

 

 

Ferns inside the cave's mouth--love the bright green!

 

 

 

 

This is the entrance to Natural Bridge. Isn't it pretty? Doesn't it look cool? It is unseasonably warm in AL this spring!

After our hike, we enjoyed a picnic lunch and the kids had some fun in the creek. I’m sure this was their favorite part of the day!

 This would make an excellent location for geology studies or just nature study in general.  If we hadn’t been with a group of friends, I’m sure I would’ve encouraged the girls to do a bit of nature journaling.  As it was, it was a good way to get out and get some exercise and fellowship.