Getting back into the rhythm

We have officially started school as of last week. The fact is we all needed a bit more routine into our days when we were not traveling and school is one of the easiest ways to achieve routine.

Katie has been at her last camp for the summer this week and after this we have a couple of weeks at home before our last trip of the summer. Tomorrow we drive down to the GS camp to pick up Katie. Today, we got a letter from her telling us that she missed us but is having A LOT of fun.

Since we never stopped T4L we have just continued on with where the girls are there. Mary has discovered that she really enjoys working with fractions, seriously. All three girls are working hard and doing very well. Mary has added in the Time4Art component and does one lesson a week. She does the lesson online at the beginning of the week and then turns in her finished assignment at the end of the week. Between her and Emily's art we have been experiencing a shortage of paper around the house.

This week Emily, Robbie and I began working through their first unit study of the year. We chose 'Weather' as the topic because Emily is fascinated by weather and weather forecasts. I am using a Unit Study created by Intellego. We are keeping a daily weather journal and have explored "What Weather Is?" by reading Usborne's Beginner series titled Weather. We also watched BrainPop videos on weather.

Today we built an anemometer to measure wind direction.

(See the nifty haircut she gave herself last week...thus the need for routine in our house)

It was Emily's idea to lift the anemometer up on the two cups. She figured that the reason we couldn't get it to work immediately was because it was too low to the ground (of course it was totally calm most of today). All the pictures she saw of wind gauges showed them high up, so this one needed to be lifted also.

Without Katie here, we decided to wait on starting the Economics Unit Study she and Mary will be doing in August. I spent most of the week pulling material together and making some final lesson plans. I found this awesome Economics education site while searching around for material. I decided to use their 4-part lesson on Money and Banking as the core of this unit study. We are also going to use BrainPop materials to flesh out the study. I like that this focuses on budgeting, saving money and making choices on how to spend money. Later we will do economics studies on supply and demand, taxes, and other more abstract ideas.

I'm trying to get as much planning as I can out of the way now as sports are starting back this weekend. Katie's softball team has already had one practice, with another one on Saturday. Mary has soccer practice tomorrow evening after we get back from picking Katie up. We have not had confirmation yet, but her coach is hoping to start regular practices next week. Their first soccer tournament is in less than a month.

I'm looking forward to fall and some cooler weather so we can get back outside again. The heat is oppressive and nobody wants to be outside for very long if they can avoid it. The children don't even ask me to take them to the park right now. I'm ready to do some hiking!!!

Peace,

Amy

Cruising through the summer

Our summer is moving right along. After our trip to the beach over the 4th, we packed up and headed to the mountains for five days. Katie had a half-week camp up there and we wanted out of the heat.

We all had a great time hanging around the in-laws' cabin. They had trails all over the mountain to walk and explore. My MIL has a butterfly garden that enthralled Emily and Robbie.

We just had to keep reminding them to not catch the butterflies. The butterflies were so fat and slow that Robbie could even get his hands around them.

The first two days we were there the weather was very nice, but the next two (while Katie was at camp) it rained. We ended up being rained out of our day trip to visit the waterfalls in the area. Instead, I took Mary into Boone to see 'Eclipse'. It has been a long time since I have seen a movie in the theater. We really enjoyed the opportunity to spend some quiet time together.

The big news out of the trip is that Robbie was potty trained. We had started a day or so before the trip. I realized that as long as Robbie was allowed to choose to wear diapers he would keep choosing the diapers, but when we were out of diapers he used the potty just fine. So, the diapers disappeared ;-). We didn't have the first problem with him. He even made it dry through the 3+ hour drive home (with one pit stop).

He is getting to be such a big boy and is really very easy.

We came back home last Wednesday. Thursday we got busy with one of our summer projects. Last summer when we moved Mary out of the girls' bedroom we promised Katie and Emily that we would redo their room. Well it took awhile to find the time and money, but we managed to scrounge around and find enough pieces of furniture and helpers so that on Thursday we gave them a new room.

Here is the picture I took shortly after we moved the furniture back. We still had not had the chance to hang pictures on the wall or get Katie's new comforter. But, it is about the cleanest picture I have of the room.

We moved the two girls out of a bunk bed and took out the play table that had become nothing but a roosting spot for clutter. Katie and Emily settled on this 'Apple Green', they LOVED it. But, it is kind of bright. To bring down the intensity of the color, we also painted all the wood furniture white.
Here is a picture after more decorating has been done, and has a bit more of that lived in look. Emily is loving having the desk in the room. I don't know how many reams of paper she has gone through making her drawings. But, next on my list to buy is a wastepaper basket.

Here are the four of them enjoying Katie's space. I lifted her bed up a little to put storage under the bed.

Now that we have finished that project we will again re-visit Mary's room. The loft bed isn't working as well as we thought it would. This weekend a friend of DH's gave us a twin bed frame. We are going to take out the loft and just put a twin in the room. Mary wants to add large pillows around the bed to make a 'sofa' bed.

In between household projects and traveling we are managing to find time for school. I officially started to keep track of days today for the new school year. The girls are still working on Time4Learning for Language Arts, Katie and Emily are using Math Mammoth and Mary is finishing Teaching Textbooks 5 that she started in the Spring. Mary is starting French and Katie is working on her typing skills with a SpongeBob Program. Mary has started her study of 1900-1930 US History. Katie is still trying to decide what topic she wants to study to kick off the new year.

Emily has been taking off on her reading. She is finding a lot of the 1st grade materials pretty easy already, which is saying something since most of her pre-K year was hit or miss depending on her mood. Now, if we could just get her writing...

Robbie is just being a great 3 1/2 year old. Potty training is the huge developmental achievement. He will spend hours letting me read to him if I could, and don't let him anywhere near tools. If something stands still long enough he will try to take it apart.

I can't believe it is already getting to end of July. The summer does seem to flying by...I can't wait for the cooler Fall weather.

Peace,

Amy

4th of July Family Trip

Just back from our family trip to the beach for the 4th of July. We are blessed that we have such a wonderful place to stay when we visit the beach. This trip is one of the best so far.

The weather couldn't have been any more perfect for a holiday weekend. Low humidity and mid-80s during the day. We could see stars at night that we almost never see during the summer due to haze. The tides cooperated to the point we could make morning walks along the sound.

With Robbie getting older trips are so much more easier than they once were. Constant vigilance over a baby/toddler is exhausting, but now that he is a preschooler I find myself able to relax a bit more. He is more aware of his own limitations and follows directions.

In one afternoon DH was able to get Robbie from standing on the steps of the pool to being able to splash around by himself in his floaties.

I managed to read three books while acting as lifeguard over the weekend.

DH was thrilled to spend time with the kids this weekend. He took the girls to the beach for some ocean time and played in the pool for hours at a time.

We watched the fireworks over the sound again this year and had a wonderful time hanging out with the other families in the neighborhood.

Now we are home and doing laundry to get ready to leave for the mountains at the end of the week to take Katie to camp.

Peace,

Amy

At Home with Preschoolers

This week I am at home with just the two little ones. The two big girls are at either end of the state attending camps.

Mary has been in the mountains since last Thursday. Exploring the mountains and getting to do things I can't, like crossing the swinging bridge at Grandfather Mountain. Yesterday, my in-laws took Mary to her EcoCamp at Laurel Ridge where she will be spending this week stargazing on top of the mountain, sleeping in a tee-pee and hiking everyday.

Katie went to the beach on Friday with my mother. She and my step-father have found a common enjoyment of flying kites on the beach. This morning my mom dropped her off for her first day of day camp. She'll be exploring the coastal, beach environment and doing environmental projects. This is her third year at the day camp and loves going.

At home we have just been playing. I think the little kids are enjoying the focus being on them for a change.

We rolled the rug up in the family room to give them plenty of room for building with blocks and train tracks.

My mom gave them some stamping supplies to enjoy during the summer. Lots of colorful artwork!


Emily has been designing roller coasters using the train tracks and blocks. I've been available to offer some engineering suggestions, but she really does have the idea about how build them. For her own frustration, I do wish I could make it a little more stable.
Robbie loves having someone available to build tracks for him.

I'm trying to think up some fun trips for us to take this week, but the heat is killing any desire I have to spend time outside.

Emily and I have also been doing a little 'schoolwork' here and there. She found H.A. Rey's "Find the Constellations" book and we have been reading that every evening and doing a little star gazing when it isn't too cloudy or hazy. We've also been talking about angles and measuring them after reading the library book "Hamster Champs". This has come in very handy with her interest in building roller coasters this week. And, finally, we have played a few games of 'sight word memory'. Since the older girls got notebooks to use as summer journals before they left, Emily also got her own notebook. She has been using it to draw pictures of what she has been doing this summer...but I can't see it because "Journals are PRIVATE Mommy."

Before Mary and Katie left last week we pulled out Emily's new science kit. Everyone had a great time making the ball float in the air.

So far we are having a great summer!

But, I'm missing schooling.......

Peace,

Amy

Fun, Crazy, Chaotic

We had a weekend filled with adjectives. Hot and Humid, were probably repeated the most frequently, but trying not to go there.

This weekend was the last of the Spring sports calendar, plus trying to fit in all these other things before summer camps begin. Emily had her last soccer game at 9am when the temperature was only 1 zillion degrees. An hour later we drove across town to the softball fields to watch Katie's last game. Directly from there we went to the end-of-season lunch for the softball team, where the kids hung out outside at the picnic tables while us weak-kneed adults hunkered inside the restaurant enjoying the air conditioning and watched some soccer. Both Katie and Emily were thrilled to receive their medal/trophy for participation this year. I think Emily is going to rub the coating off her trophy before too much longer.

After lunch Mary and DH headed out to the World Cup party at her soccer coach's house. Since it was on that side of town DH finished his pool route for the weekend so that Sunday could be devoted to getting ready for the party.

Sunday everyone jumped into helping get ready for the party. Emily & Katie were handed sponges and cleaned all the cabinets and walls they could get too. DH focused on the yard work, while Mary and I went shopping. We did good too... by 3:00 the house looked great!!

Except for the fact that one could probably drink the air with a straw it was so humid, we had a great party. A neighbor offered us his swimming pool for a little while, one of Mary's friends is Hispanic-American, so her father showed us all how pinatas are "really" supposed to be done (no hanging it stationary for the kids to swing at). Otherwise, the 10 or so kids entertained themselves while us parents got to sit around and visit.

Monday we needed a recuperation day from our weekend, so DH stayed home from work. I took advantage of him being home to get started packing the two big girls for camp next week. I took both Mary and Katie out separately during the day for some alone time and shopping. I think we all enjoyed the time together. Mary and I often get to run out for one thing or another, but I don't often get time alone with Katie. She is such a fun, easy kid to hang out with that I can't help but to have fun.

Thankfully, for our wallet after this weekend, the girls are pretty well prepared for camp this summer. Some toiletries, new socks and underwear, and the ever necessary flashlight replacements I think we are ready to send them off to the wilderness for a week at a time this summer.

Mary leaves on Thursday with her grandparents, who will then take her to camp in the mountains on Sunday. I'll meet my Mom halfway on Friday to hand over Katie. She will stay with my mom for the week while going to day camp at the beach. I don't think I've ever had them this far apart at one time.

Emily is looking forward to next week when she will be the 'big' girl at home.

Peace,

Amy

Week ???

I've totally fallen off the keeping up with weeks train. Since we are pretty much on the summer schedule at this point I'm just going to drop trying to keep up with the weeks. I'll restart our counting in August when we 'officially' start our school year this year.

I'm really proud of how the three girls are taking ownership of doing their required on-line work. No fussing, except over who gets to use my computer, about doing the work. They enjoy it, are learning and they still have plenty of time to follow their desires during the day.

I'm still wavering over next year, whether to do topic/unit studies in the afternoon or be more unschooly in the afternoon. Right now we are seeing how the unschooly thing goes. They are staying busy and doing a lot of neat stuff, but the girls keep asking me when I'm going to 'do school' with them. I don't know, but they just don't buy that they are learning unless I'm feeding them bits and pieces of information. I'm hoping for the best of both worlds with them picking their topics/units most of the time next year.

The past couple of weeks we've spent some time reading and trying to understand the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. This has led us to read about the Exxon Valdez and IxCon incidents. We've looked at maps and traced the Gulf Stream up the East Coast.

We've read about Jacques Cousteau, who would have been 100 on Friday. Looked at the history of diving and diving equipment. Then we had to see how much diving lessons would cost and how old the girls had to be. I was a certified diver in my teens - Looooved it, but stopped being able to clear my ears well enough and just ran out of time to keep up with my diving. Would love for the girls to experience diving, but think I might have them wait until they can be certified to dive without a parent.

Mary and Katie have decided that if they can't be SCUBA divers, then being a mermaid is the next best thing. They found this video on you tube, and then spent several hours measuring each other, looking up the cost of materials and making a shopping list. Now, they are figuring out how to earn the money to buy the materials. I think the fins are going to be the hardest part.

Emily has been re-potting weeds from the yard so that she can have them inside to look at all the time. She also says she needs them as models for her paintings. I'm trying to be very careful to be sure that she doesn't bring poison ivy in to grow in her bedroom. She also decided that she needed to hang glow-in-the-dark stars on her walls so that the plants wouldn't be homesick. According to her we couldn't just stick the stars on the wall, they have to make pictures...so out came our H.A. Reys "Find the Constellations" book.

Today I am waiting for this science kit to be delivered. This is going to be a special thing for Emily and I to do together this summer while her older sisters will be in and out of town all summer for camps. It is also to make up for the fact that we never got to science this year with Emily.

The girls are still reading. Mary has moved on to a joke book this week. So, we've been listening to jokes along the lines of "What do you call a pet bunny of a bug? Bug's Bunny." Katie is reading a 'Katie Kazoo' book while she takes a break from the Magic Treehouse Series. We are still reading Book 8 of The 39 Clues as our read aloud. Set in China, we've already watched the Last Emperor, which then led to all sorts of discussions about modern Chinese history.

After watching a Spongebob episode, I had to read them The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe. And, then we talked about how many cartoons have references to classic literature. Mary thinks this is done to drive her nuts, but I explained that it is probably due to the fact that classics are considered universal and that all should know and understand references to them. THAT is yet another reason we should be well-read. I think that went over like a lead weight if the rolling eyes were any indication. But, she did say she liked The Tell-Tale Heart, although the narrator creeped her out.

This week I am really, REALLY trying to clean the house. Sunday we are having about 15 people over for a cookout. But, I think I am losing that battle. I'm probably better off waiting until Saturday to get it all done. I work better under pressure, and it will give the natives less time to scatter all their belongings in the corners and under furniture.

Off to enjoy another day. I wonder what the kids have planned?

Peace,

Amy

Week 21 2010

We've fallen into our summer schedule starting this past week. The big girls got up in the mornings and knocked out their online lessons, language arts and math. They are still doing really well and seem to be enjoying the lessons. I've had Mary put aside her math program for the right now and just work on her multiplication facts. Too much frustration on her part because she understands the math concepts, but she just cannot remember her multiplication facts. She is using Timez Attack and extra worksheets from Math Mammoth.

The lessons are only taking the girls an hour or so to complete online, then there is generally a writing assignment for the day. I'm so over-the-top thrilled that the girls are actually writing!!

This week we also watched all three seasons of "Avatar: The Last Airbender" thanks to Netflix. A show we really enjoyed on cable, but never sot to see Season 3 because we had the cable disconnected. As far as children's cartoons go this has to rank up there as one of the best.

Mary has decided to write short stories and made a notebook to keep all her stories in. Again, can I just say how excited I am that they are writing!! This is her book and she has let me take a peak at one or two of the stories. Her spelling is much better than I expected, but it looks like we need to keep hammering in the capitalization rules. In addition to writing stories she has also thought it would be fun to make up Word Find puzzles for Katie and Emily. That has been interesting to see her work on those.

The 39 Clues: Book 7 has sent us on a mini-study of South Africa and Apartheid. Mary is currently reading "Journey to Jo'Burg" by Beverly Naidoo. And, this month's National Geographic had a very interesting article on South Africa and Apartheid since the World Cup will be beginning there next month. We found out that Invictus, starring Morgan Freeman will be available on June 15th...very interested in watching that movie together.

We've made it to the park a couple of days this week and Mary has spent a lot of time outside working on striking the soccer ball harder. She had try-outs this week for classic soccer. Mary made the team for our area but one of her weaknesses was striking. She has decided that she will work on that throughout the summer. We hung a net from the old, metal swing set and she has been practicing every evening when it cools down enough to go outside.

On Wednesday, we finally made it out strawberry picking. Were able to get a bucket of late season strawberries to enjoy this week/weekend. Yummy!

Not to leave all the other kids out of the report this week, but they are just doing what they always do. A lot of games and puzzles. Katie is probably spending too much time on the Bulld-A-Bear website, but is doing a lot of neat math games while she is playing. She is still reading through some of the Magic Treehouse series, but has slowed down a bit.

Robbie loves to put boxes over himself and pretend he is a robot, so Mary decided to make him his very own 'Robbie-Bot' suit. He and Emily are having a lot of fun with this.

Otherwise, nothing too exciting. This weekend DH is working a lot (got to figure out how to pay for soccer now) and the big girls are spending time at their friend's house. Mary also has a job this weekend taking care of neighbor's pets. It has been kind of quiet around here at times and I am trying to use that to do some much needed cleaning.

Peace,

Amy

Week 20 2010 - Already!!

Well, we are way past our required number of days for the year. Everything is going so well right now that we are just going to keep on going.

This week was a good week back after the testing last week. All the kids are still liking Time4Learning so that is getting done with a minimum of fuss. Even adding in more of the worksheets from the program has not been a big deal. I'm somewhat surprised at Katie. The child who used to tear up at a two-sentence copywork assignment willingly completed a two page worksheet answering reading comprehension questions in complete, original sentences.

Mary spent most of the week working on a quick 'Amelia Earhart' unit study inspired by The 39 Clues book series. We've watched a biography on her, watched a BrainPop video on her and one on how planes fly, Mary completed some vocabulary work regarding airplanes and painted a model the plane Earhart used in her 'around-the-world' attempt.

It is actually a styrofoam glider I found at Dollar General for $2 and looks more like a modern-day passenger jet, but was as close as I could get.

Here they are testing out the principles of lift and thrust.

Emily took her first 'tests' this week on T4L and was very excited to earn 100% on both of them. Mary's work with planes inspired Emily to learn more about birds and we have been reading about them. She has also been continuing to work on writing her numbers. I think '8' is her favorite number this week "because it looks like a snowman."

Katie is reading, reading, reading. I think she is averaging a "Magic Tree House" book a day. She also did a few more pages for her North Carolina notebook we are working on with her. This week we focused on some symbols of NC.

Today we went to the 'Got To Be North Carolina' festival at the fairgrounds. It highlighted NC agriculture, crafts and products. It was a great day for it. Very few people there since it was a Friday and still clean since they had just opened.

We arrived just in time for the antique tractor parade which was actually kind of cool. Then we headed over to the petting zoo area.

The big discovery of the day was that goats and camels have 'people' teeth according to Emily.

We wandered around for a while a looked at the fiber art displays watching people spinning wool and weaving. Stopped by the antique farm machinery building where there was one tractor the kids could climb on.

Stopped for some overpriced lunch and tried to keep Robbie from taking a dip while listening to Bluegrass music.

After that I finally let the kids loose on the midway.

This ride goes against every instinct as a parent. First you let them climb into a deflated rubber bubble, then a really loud air pump is attached and inflates the bubble.

Then the kids get to go try their feet at walking on water.

But, most of the time they ended up looking like gerbiles in a ball.

Mary and Katie said it was a lot of fun, but it got very, very hot in the bubble.

This was the ride chosen by Emily and Robbie.

All four of them rode the spinning strawberry ride.

By this time we were very hot and tired. All of us were ready for a nap...so we headed home to chill.

It was a great end to a very good week.

Peace,

Amy

Summer is coming fast!

It is that time of year that everything begins to finish up. Slowly activities are falling off our calendar and I don't have quite as many days figuring out how to be in two places at once. It is bittersweet. The girls have had such a great time being involved in their activities this Spring I know that they will be missed, but it sure is nice not to have to rush around so many afternoons.

Of course, the break will not be very long as we have summer camps and trips already filling up the calendar and several 'unknowns' still floating around out there to add. My problems become less how to get to two activities across town on the same afternoon, to how to be at two camps across the state on the same day ;). Thankfully I have very helpful family members.

The girls are still doing well using computer-based lessons and spending the afternoons working on unit studies. Yep, totally the reverse of the whole Classical/Charlotte Mason method I tried to force on them. For whatever reason this just seems to make more sense to them. They are actually getting it for a change and not so frustrated. They are actually okay with continuing through the summer with schooling (when not out of town).

Personally, I'm finding so much more time in my day. Time that we can use for all those interesting studies we never got around to finishing, time to sit and relax, time to do chores.

Last week we did our required standardized testing. Mary has such severe testing anxiety that this has always been one of the worst weeks of our year. But, this year, she was much better. She understood our beliefs about the tests and hopefully finally realized that the world wouldn't end if she didn't do perfectly on the test. This was Katie's first year sitting for the test and she also did fine, although the whole testing language and having to fill in those tiny circles threw her for a loop at first. Thankfully, it is over and done for the year and we can move on with our regular lives until next year.

On Thursday, we took the day off from testing and visited the newly, re-opened NC Art Museum. The new space is wonderful. It is bright and lots of space to sit back and enjoy the art. Lots of new pieces are out that had been in storage because of lack of space in the old space. The architects tried to blend inside and outside with little garden areas outside. Looking forward to many more visits in the near future. Already planning to go to the Norman Rockwell and Eric Carle exhibitions when they open in November.

In our extracurricular world Mary finished her soccer season this past weekend. Next week they have tryouts/team placement for Classic level. And, then there will me mini-camps over the summer to prepare them for Classic play.

Katie has her last Brownie meeting for the year tonight. Last week her troop went to Build-A-Bear with their troop money from the cookie sales. She made a really cute owl instead of a bear after falling in love with Molly and the owlets.

Recreation soccer and softball will continue into June, but with nothing else going on that almost seems too easy.

Peace,

Amy

Soccer Tournament Pictures

This past weekend we spent in hot & muggy Myrtle Beach (yes, already) for a soccer tournament that Mary's team was participating in. We were not sure what to expect, with it being our first overnight, out-of-town soccer tournament. We had a blast!!

The girls spent a lot of time together when they were not out on the fields. They played in the ocean, swam in the pools and had dinner together as a team Saturday night. Lots of team bonding went on, and as parents we could see the affect that it had on the team.

Saturday the girls split their two games. They beat the first team 8-0 and lost the second game 6-0. On Saturday they looked much like they had all season, playing well in one game and not so much in the second. But, Sunday, they came out with team spirit and a won't give up attitude.

Their first game on Sunday was against a regionally-ranked U-10 girls team. Our girls scored 3 goals in the first half and then let them back in during the second half to tie. In overtime, Mary scored her fourth goal of the tournament to put us ahead and on into the finals.

The final game was against the team that had beaten us 6-0. Even after playing overtime in the first game and having a short break, and the 90-degree temps the girls still gave it everything they had. The girls lost that game 2-1, but left everything they had out on the field.

We were so proud of what they did this weekend.

Go AC Milan!!

Peace,

Amy