Wow...Really?

OK, so I am now convinced that I actually have gestational diabetes. I am also convinced that my baby is HUGE! Listen to this...that girl is 6 pounds 3 ounces at 34 weeks. She really needs to slow her row.

So now I am on Glyburide to control my nighttime sugars, as this is when the doctor thinks she is taking in the most glucose, and fattening up. But now I am dealing with some crazy hypoglycemia in the morning. I am working on getting that figured out.

Also, she was lying transverse last time we checked. I am doing all the yoga moves I can to get that girl to turn, but she just may really like lounging where she is. I thought I felt her move around, but she tricked me!

Also, nothing like a crazy pregnancy to make you truly consider the tubal ligation....considering...not asking for opinions...just saying.

I went to do some window shopping yesterday in the "city". It was much fun. I will be returning with Andrew to purchase a few cute things I saw. Especially those baby nightgowns with the elastic in the bottom. I love those!

We are rowing the Wild Horses of Sweetbriar this week. The kids are loving the lap books or "Fold and Learns "created by the folks at Five in a Row. They have learned about Massachusetts, similes, writing in a first person view, and today we will talk about splatter art. We are sticking close to the recommendations from FIAR. None of these are my idea. I love it when I don't really have to think.

Monkey has been presenting me with several books each night to enjoy with him. Last night he took it one step further and asked me to look up several authors and illustrators he wants to check out at the library next time we go. That is so great! That is called a love of learning folks....goal accomplished. Sparking the interest, and letting them roll with it. I act all cool about it when he tells me a new author or illustrator, but inside I am doing cartwheels, or some other fantastic gymnastic move this body has not done in well....too long. :)

Puppy is busy regressing in his potty training. He loves to pee his pants these days. At least it is just pee. Also, while shopping yesterday in this outdoor outlet facility, kind of swanky place, they have little trees planted here and there. Well, one tree was apparently just too dry, it needed watering...yes, we scandalized many a passerby yesterday. Love it!

Mouse has just finished Where the Red Fern Grows. Her official review...It is soooo sad, I can never read that again. That reminds me that most animal stories end poorly. Why must they always kill off our sweet animal friends....WHY? Just think of your top 3 favorite animal stories, classic, not this new feel good stuff...they all die don't they?

Well, we are nesting around here, so it is clean the house day...week....ok month! Today is bedrooms. Don't tell Andrew but I am packing up books...lots of them. I hate to say that yes some people can have too many books. Especially old computer study guides. I am sure he feels the same about our 3 bookshelves of children's books. Those are next. HONEST!

First Day of Fall

We love the Fall season here. The weather cools, the trees are painted a beautiful collage of color. Football season is in full swing. It is just an exciting time!

We are going to do lots of fun things this Fall. Identify and collect leaves. Watch for migrating birds. Make lots of things with pumpkin as a main ingredient. Enjoy the wonderful weather and journal in our nature journals.

I am going to browse through a wonderful resource from Five in a Row, the Fall Nature Study. I think the kids and I will read through parts of it together. Today they are going to do an Autumn word search, and I hope to get out some paint and let them paint something in Fall colors.

Hmmm...I may feel the need for a new header soon!

The Method to My Madness

The last few days around here have been full of planning school for next year. This is the second year we have started school the week after July 4th. Last year, I started early, because I knew there was a strong possibility that I would get overwhelmed frequently with a toddler at home, and having to teach both of my older kids for the first time, which would cause me to need frequent breaks.

This year we are starting early in order to have plenty recovery time after the baby is born. I have planned for 2 weeks off after the baby, but I assume we may not be quite ready at that point, and I want lots of wiggle room.

This year Monkey (7) will be using Five in a Row as his main curriculum for the last year. He will move on to FIAR Vol. 4 next year for half the year, then move into Beyond Five in a Row the second half. Mouse (9) will use Beyond Five in a Row and a few Volume 4 titles as a break in between Beyond titles. Puppy (2 almost 3) will be doing some light activities from Before FIAR.

This is the way I plan:

First, I sit down and write down all of my fabulous ideas for the year. Like, things I want to improve upon, and things that I think need special attention. This year those areas are writing, and spelling. We will also work on calendaring. That idea has not cemented in Monkey's brain yet.

I also write down all of the curriculum we will be using for the year. This year looks like this:

FIAR Vol 1-3

BYFIAR - Vol 1-3

Sequential Spelling

Growing with Grammar

Horizons Mathematics

Handwriting from LightHome Publications

Story of the World - 2 days a week

Piano - 1 day a week (practice each day)

Then I make a general outline of how I want the day to go. Just to get an idea of what I am in for. Hee hee.

Next, I make a year long calendar on my favorite publishing program, Microsoft Publisher. I print it out with 2 months on a page. I print out the list of books used in FIAR, and all plannig wisdoms I have gathered from the authors of FIAR. Then I find a good pencil and an eraser and all of my FIAR volumes and a comfy place to sit. Currently, my bed.

I go through and check all of the books that we have already done off the book list. I also mark off all the days we will not do school on the calendar. I find that it helps me decide what kind of unit, or which unit we will do that week, if I know in advance it will be a short week.

Now I am ready to fill in my weeks with books we haven't yet rowed. I try to group them seasonally, so they will be relevant to the time of year we are in. Doing Cranberry Thanksgiving in March, just isn't going to work!

Normally there are 36 weeks in a standard 180 day school year. So that is 36 titles...or what I did this year was 33 FIAR titles and one Vol. 4 that takes 2 weeks, and one review week. This will have us finish school the last day of April, because we will take several breaks.

After I have assigned a book per week, the really hard part comes. I sit down with the manual, and look at each title in detail. I choose which activities/subjects we will cover for each book based on what the child needs to focus on, what we have already learned, or what his interest is. I will ask my child frequently which he would prefer to study. I want him to feel like he can direct some of his learning. Also, at times, I cannot decide, and can't figure out what he would like best, so asking him seems to be the best way to relieve the pressure from my brain! I write all these things down on the calendar. Then I put them back into my calendar on Publisher. I know I could skip this step by just typing straight into Publisher, but I like the feel of a pen and paper sometimes.

Then, when I do all that, I go post on the FIAR boards about how much I rock!

Here is a sample of one month of planning. I think you may be able to click on the pic and make it bigger. I hope so.

Arabella Watercolor Lesson

Here is a little make up lesson we did this week. My mom came over and painted with us.

Watercolor is a tricky medium. I would love to take a formal art class. I have a great book that I am going to practice with. It is called The Artist's Handbook by Angela Gair.

This first photo is an excerpt from the book Arabella.

I found I do pretty well at copying someone.

Mouse is pretty good at coming up with her own ideas.
I think we are going to try to do a lot of painting this summer.

FUN School - Another Celebrated Dancing Bear

We are still in to the Fun School idea. I think we will really enjoy this week.

I finally have a copy of Another Celebrated Dancing Bear by Gladys Scheffrin-Falk. This is a fabulous book about friendship and how we can support and uplift one another.

Monday:
Social Studies: RUSSIA!

I have another Highlights Top Secret Adventure. We will complete this together, and use the book as a reference throughout the week.

Tuesday:
Language Arts: Characterization

We will compose several sentences that are descriptive of people we know. It will be fun to see what they come up with.

Wednesday:
Art - Color/Posters

We will talk about how color choice sets a mood in a story.

Also, the local univerisity is having a showing of Russian movie posters. We will see if we can take a tour and relate it to the poster that is shown in the story. We will see if they want to make a poster of their own.

Thursday:
Applied Math - Hours on a Clock/Seven Days in a Week

This lesson is pretty basic for my kids. We will try to beef it up a bit with time differences. Maybe talk about time zones.

Friday:
Science - Boiling Point/Freezing Point

We will find the boiling point and freezing point of water.

I think this story would be fun to act out. I may have them make bear masks and we will see how we do.

FUN School - Arabella Week Two

Week one of Funschool was very fun. We did not get to everything on our plans, but we did most of it. Some things we will try to catch up on this week. Especially studying the Great Barrier Reef and storytelling.

Monday:
Social Studies - Relationships & Learning - Island Life - Review Australia
Science - Build an Island (Volcano building)
LA - Storytelling

Relationships and Learning: We will discuss why it is important that we learn things in stages. Building one idea on top of another. This will also be taught in a spiritual way. Heavenly Father loves us and teaches us in stages. Using Isaiah 28:9-10

Island life - I used to live on an island, Crystal Beach, TX, it was fabulous. We will talk about the pros and cons.

Australia Review - Where is it? What animals live there? etc.

Language Arts: Storytelling
Mouse wrote the story to a boy, a dog, and a frog. It turned out quite nice. She is trying hard to write so she can be "published"! I have seen a huge improvement in her writing lately.

I will have Monkey narrate his story to me later.

Science: Islands
Mouse wants to make an island as part of our study. Being the new and improved homeschooler that I am we are going to do it! We read a book from the Magic School Bus series on volcanoes and how an island is formed. This will be fun. We are going to make a volcano, and then if she wants to make a dirt island outside we will do that too.

Tuesday:
LA - Descriptive Sentences/Lists, an extra for Mouse: Parallel Construction
Science: The Great Barrier Reef

We will use some books I found at a library sale to supplement our study of the GBR. We will learn about coral, and the fish that live among it.

Wednesday:
Art - Medium - Watercolor
We will paint nautical scenes on real watercolor paper. It should be fun! I was thinking of tying this in with the GBR study and painting coral, or saltwater fish.

Thursday:
Applied Math - Parts of a Whole in Real Life
Science: Clouds

Friday:
Science: Tides

Dinner will be seafood po boys.

Pictures will come as they happen!

FUN School - Arabella Week One

The next two weeks are an attempt to make our homeschool fun again. We got a little focused on workbooks, and just doing the basics and it got B-O-R-I-N-G! This involves hands on science all week. (My kids idea.) Also I have to step up the art lessons.

This is what we are doing with the Five in a Row book Arabella by Wendy Orr. This book is a story about a boy and his grandfather and the model ship Arabella. The model gets lost at sea during a storm, and the little boy goes after it. The boy makes it safely home with the Arabella but learns that his grandfather values him most of all the things in his life.

Monday:
Social Studies - Discover Australia
Science - Weather Observation

A while back a friend from the FIAR boards sent us this book as a surprise. It is signed and there is a note to the kids from Wendy Orr. Very nice. It was shipped from Australia, where Wendy Orr now resides. So we are studying Australia.

Today we completed a Highlights Top Secret Adventure that cover Australia.

We are also going to make a bottle thermometer, a barometer and a wind speedometer from the instructions in the Usborne Big Book of Experiments.

Tuesday:
Language Arts - Simile, Storytelling, Vocabulary
Science - Rope and Knot Tying

We have the book a boy, a dog, and a frog by mercer mayer . This is a wordless book, and both Mouse and Monkey will write a story for this book.

Mouse will do the Vocabulary words in the FIAR Vol. 4 book. Monkey will learn about similes.

Andrew will be teaching us basic knots during Family Home Evening on Tuesday. We are pretty excited about that. I am sure I will "tie" in a demonstration on how family unity can be represented by a rope. I am sure the Godhead will be demonstrated also as they are 3 individuals united in one purpose.

This is the Double Half Hitch knot:

This is the Sheet Bend knot:

Wednesday:
Art: Model Ship Building
Science: Parts of a Wave/Reefs (The Great Barrier Reef)

We are going to build models of ships from toothpicks. We will also make the Crayola models of The Black Pearl and The Flying Dutchmen from Pirates of the Caribbean. I found them at Goodwill for $2.

Thursday:
Applied Math: Parts to Make a Whole
Science: Blood Cells

We will find real life fractions. This will not be intense. We will keep it light and fun. They get a ton of fraction practice in their math curriculum.

We will look at this website on blood. We enjoyed learning about how our blood is such a help to our body. We watched the Magic School Bus show Inside Ralphie. Note to me: It is so much better to study something then let them watch the movie. We discussed and reviewed it as we watched. Very good!

Friday:
Science: Sailing
Field Trip to a local marina.

We will talk about sailing concepts, and the general principles of aerodynamics and the use of simple machines. (straight from the manual)

We are using many books to aid in our studies this week. Our "Learning Library" is full of fun and interesting books on all topics we will cover over the next two weeks.

I will update with pictures as they happen.

Down Down the Mountain

We enjoyed Down Down the Mountain by Ellis Credle. This book is about an industrious little girl and boy from the Appalachian mountains who want a pair of shoes. They grow turnips to sell in town, but end up giving all of them away along the way except one. They end up entering their last turnip into a contest at the fair and winning. They win some money and buy the shoes they loved and gifts for their family.

Throughout our study, we learned about repitition and onomatopeias. We also talked about foreshadowing. Monkey is especially good at spotting foreshadowing in other books now. Really, all of these elements, but he likes the cleverness of foreshadowing.

Mouse discovered she loves raw turnips! She even took a page from Down Down the Mountain and shared some turnips with a lady we visited during the week.

We studied where the Appalachian mountains are, and some appalachian culture.

This was one of our favorite books. I am glad we own this one.

Annual FIAR Ornament Exchange

Here are the ornaments we made this year to exchange with other families from the Five in a Row Message Boards. The kids and I enjoyed our time together painting and visiting. We ran out of trains, and the local stores ran out of trains too, so we had to improvise with rectangles and make stamps. Our ornaments are from the book Mailing May. This was a book about how a little girl was mailed as freight on a mail train in Idaho that her uncle worked on. He delivered her to her grandmother's house in Lewiston Idaho. The cost was .53 cents. Very cute story.

These are the ornaments we received this year. These include the 2 we made and an extra from our friend Heather W's family. It was so fun to check our mail each day! Thanks FIAR friends!

The Pumpkin Runner

We finished rowing The Pumpkin Runner by Marsha Diane Arnold illustrated by Brad Sneed. It was so fun. We spent two days on identifying Australia, and how Australia is a whole continent. We talked about how Australia is in the Southern Hemisphere, so the seasons are opposite from our seasons. The kids love watching videos from United Streaming. We especially love the show from Animal Planet, The Jeff Corwin Experience. That man is simply hilarious.

We talked about using true incidents to create a good story. We looked up information on Cliff Young, the person Pumpkin Runner is based on. B-6 was especially sad to find out that he was eventually too old to run anymore.

One of our favorite activities was from the Identifying Places Through Famous Architecture lesson. We pointed out different landmarks on our map from the book, It's A Big Big World, and identified where they are located on the map.

We also put together a paper diorama from http://www.papertoys.com/ of The Sydney Opera House suggested by Holly from the FIAR boards. We found this landmark in several shows and movies we watched that week. It was so exciting for the kids when they recognized it!

Other topics we covered from the FIAR manual: Jeeps, disagreeable people, cheating, reactions, motivation for participation in sports, bragging, vocabulary, Metric System, hot air balloons,art: perspective. Common Sayings and their meanings.