Mini Vacation

Mr. Crazy has been busy lately with a bunch of short jobs (1-3 weeks), so we decided to join him on his latest trip to Illinois.  It's a mini-vacation for the kiddoes and I (we brought along some language arts and math so no one falls behind but we're not working every day or for long).  Now we have one week down and one week to go, and we're all still enjoying our downtime.

We got a big rental SUV (seriously, I am in love with this vehicle-- I think we need one to keep!), and a beautiful suite at the hotel, and the kiddoes are spending a minimum of an hour in the pool almost every day.  We also spent some time at Starved Rock State Park this weekend; we were even able to sneak in a bit of extra fun science and history along with some major PE: they have some killer staircases along those trails!

So we are having a great time taking a break from the usual daily grind (and from blogging).  I'll leave you with a little sneak peak of our fun from this weekend:

Those little colorful specks hidden in the cliff face are my kiddoes.  They had so much fun climbing!

 

--Little Miss Crazy

TGIF . . . pride

This week, I love homeschooling because it is a source of pride for the whole family.

Earlier this week, we went into town to run errands and find some new books at the library.  When we were at the desk to check out, the kiddoes were discussing their book choices with the librarian.  Most of their chosen books were nonfiction choices about different animals.  They went on and on quoting various facts and interesting anecdotes on various animals from their studies (and also a little from Wild Kratts).  Just before we left, the librarian took a moment to let me know how impressed she was with their knowledge and interest.

After we left, I told the kiddoes what the librarian had said and added in how well I thought they had all behaved and how proud I was of them for sharing their knowledge.  I could tell they were all very proud of themselves for earning both her praise and mine.

I love it when people compliment the kiddoes.  All my days are spent trying to help them develop into the amazing little people they have the opportunity to be, and I couldn't be prouder of my contribution to their lives and their progress through the confusing process of growing into their futures. This is just one example among many of the sense of pride that homeschool has brought into our lives.

--Little Miss Crazy

Grocery Shopping Sanity Saver

Sometimes, we do something other than sit at home with our schoolwork.  ::gasp::  I know, it's a big surprise.  :)  We still have to take care of the house, feed ourselves, or just get out and breathe some fresh air.  I try to keep any non-schoolwork time as peaceful as possible.  My constant nemesis to peaceful days: grocery shopping with children.

Grocery shopping is BORING for the kiddoes (like pretty much all other kiddoes).  After about two minutes of being told I will not buy whatever crazy-expensive, sugar-coated, cartoon-endorsed munchable food  they see, the kiddoes are ready to be outta there.  Then they proceed to try to fill their boredom . . . by driving me insane (just kidding).  I've known for a while that I needed to come up with some way to keep the kiddoes occupied during our trips to the grocery store so we could get this simple task accomplished more effectively.

After the success of our zoo field trip scavenger hunt, I decided to use a similar strategy to give the kiddoes a diversion for our grocery trips.  I took my grocery list and wrote out the items on index cards (I also made up extra cards for our common purchases so that I can reuse the same system each time we go to the store).  I punched holes through one corner of the cards, separated them into three groups, and put each group onto a metal ring.  When we got to the store, I gave each child one ring of cards, and told them that they were responsible for finding all the items on their personal "list."

Everything together and ready to go.

They LOVED it.  They have never been so excited to take care of the mundane part of our shopping excursion.  I arranged the cards so that they would come up in order as we went through the aisles, so each time someone picked something up, I would have everyone read off the next item on their lists to be prepared for their next "turn."  And as an added bonus for this effort, the boys got some reading practice as well. 

Athena also had extra tasks to do for some of the items on her list.  Finding the best price for tomato sauce or deciding what size block of cheese we need to last two weeks if we eat a certain amount each day were worthwhile challenges to get her brain working for a moment or two.  In the future, I will add a list of possible extra considerations to the back of the individual cards so she (and the boys at some point) can start thinking about them in advance.

So, the sum total: Mommy got a peaceful and enjoyable trip to the store; everyone got a little reading practice; and Athena got to use her math skills in everyday situations.  It was definitely a successful "school" day.

--Little Miss Crazy

TGIF . . . first day celebrations

This week I love homeschooling because our first day celebrations don't have to be confined to a classroom.


Even though we school year round, I still think it's fun to celebrate a back-to-schooling time in the fall.  Maybe it's because I love the season and what it signals, but to me fall has always felt like the season of new beginnings.  Suffice it to say, it's always nice to do something to get everyone in the mood for a new year of learning opportunity.

This year, we had some pre-first day celebrations as well as some more fun on the first day.  We started things out with a super fun picnic with our neighbors and some good old-fashioned running around in the beautiful weather.  We also continued the tradition of gifting the kiddoes with new school supplies for the year [this year's favorite item was highlighters. :) ]  Then we moved onto singing, tumbling, hanging upside down, climbing trees and ended the morning off with some crabapple picking.

It was not the most exciting way to start off a new year, but it was also not the most mundane; and best of all, these were OUR choices.  Some were planned; others were spontaneous; but all of them came from us, making it the best start to the year I could imagine.

--Little Miss Crazy

Ancient Americas

Although we had the least amount of information for this unit of all our areas AND we didn't do any kind of project, this was one of my favorite areas of study thus far.  [Story of the World volume 1 does not include any discussion of the Mayan civilization or those that came after (these are studied in volume 2), so instead we studied some other civilizations in the Americas that I had never studied before and they were just fascinating.]

Kiddoes drawing their journal entries.

First, we discussed the Nazca of South America.  This ancient tribe made pictures using the earth itself: enormous pictures that can only be seen from high in the sky.  From the ground, they look like roads or stray markings in the dirt.  But if you fly over this dry area, you can find pictures of a spider, a monkey, a flower, and so many more.  The Nazca lines present us with two mysteries: WHY were they made and HOW were they made.  Many theories exist to answer both of these questions but nothing conclusive has been found to point in one particular direction.  The Hows are most likely explained through science: perhaps using the positions of the stars or very careful mathematic plotting.  If you are interested in a modern exploration of the Whys, check out this great episode of Digging for the Truth.

Next, we moved on to the Olmecs, who lived in Central America.  They also left behind some amazing works of art: giant statues of heads.  The popular train of thought is that these were sculptures of the rulers of this civilization.  Why don't they have bodies? Nobody knows.  What was their purpose? Another mystery.

Finally, we briefly discussed the early Native American tribes in North America.  We looked at legends and folklore dating back from their earliest manifestations.  the kiddoes had a great time coloring in a comic depiction of the story "Rabbit Shoots the Sun."

 It was a lot of fun to take a brief glance across the globe and see how civilizations were starting out in different regions.  This allowed us to discuss similarities and differences between cultures from one region to another and gain a little more insight into the ancient world.

--Little Miss Crazy

TGIF . . . math toys

This week I love homeschooling because math manipulatives make the best toys.

I admit it: I am a math manipulative junkie.  Months ago when our box arrived packed to the brim with RightStart's math program, I spent hours pouring over all the fun "math toys" which now have a home on our shelves.  And we use these tools during our math lessons.  I can't remember a day over the last 6 months when we have not used some of our manipulatives during math time.

But the greatest use of our math manipulatives does NOT come from our curriculum.  The kids are constantly wanting to play with our math tools, outside of school time; they are quite simply the most interesting toys in our house.  When other children (and often even adults) come over, the first thing that interests them is our math balance (it sits on top of the shelves that hold the rest of our school supplies); then they notice the abacus, geoboards, clock, tanagrams, cubes, etc.  I am now never at a loss to figure out what my kiddoes would enjoy for birthdays, holidays, and so forth.  A tool to help them learn always holds their interest better than the latest toy craze.

The items we have purchased to enrich our homeschool are utilized both during and outside of school time.  They enrich our lives on the whole, which has been a real blessing.

--Little Miss Crazy