Time Flies when you're having fun!

It's 2010. The Winter Olympics are upon us. I'm having a flashback of when they announced that Vancouver had won the bid to host the Olympics. My boss and I took a break from our office work and tuned in to the live announcement. Then we went back to work, feeling rather indifferent.  I was in the midst of a busy archaeological career, no kids, no husband with my future still unclear.  My days as a  archaeologist living out of her backpack were coming to a close as my body and mind were tired and sore from the physical and emotional nature of the work. I took a leap of faith and left my job to take a rest on Pender Island.  Enter David to the picture and a few years later we were having a baby!!  During Lauren's pre-labour days, we watched a lot of the Summer Olympics held in Athens, Greece. We called her our Olympic Baby (especially after a very speedy delivery- she was almost born on the Oak Street Bridge!). 

And here we are now,  the Vancouver games are here. Putting the politics aside, I am enjoying them, and surprisingly a bit emotional about it- mainly because it has marked a passage of time from life before kids to my life now. And how my life has blossomed in so many ways: an amazing life on Pender Island (no more living out of a backpack), no more sore back, two kids, and a stellar hubbie. Time flies when you are having fun (i.e., making babies and building a house).

Speaking of fun, this is what our schooling has been about lately. Fun, fun, fun! Especially with all this glorious spring-like weather. And what better is there to do than garden with your kids? What they don't participate in, I believe they still absorb through some kind of osmosis. We have been planning a new garden on a piece of land on South Pender. It is an open, sunny lot, that was gardened at least 15 years ago, and we are breathing life into it again. We will continue to garden here at home too, in our more shady garden (spinach and chard galore!!), but Lauren and I are excited to grow the 'sunny veggies'.  Also, on this land, the kids have been exploring, building forts, running, and for the first time, and they are really starting to play together. Yay!

In this old garden, Lauren helped me turn over sod and weeds that had overtaken the rich soil underneath. Worms everywhere. The kids loved collecting as many as they could to save them from my shovel! Then we built a garden 'lasagna' behind it, to hopefully kill the grass layer and foster soil growth too. So Lauren and Matthew helped me with the cardboard and we will monitor how long this process will take. 

More lessons to follow in this new garden space: fence building, installing a watering system. And of course seed selection and planting. It'll be a learning experience for us all.

our walks find sign of spring everywhere. Flowers...

... to plum blossoms.

This is one of the garden plots we are working on.

This is one view of the 'Limberlost' (named after my mom and I's favorite childhood book, "Girl of the Limberlost"). This is becoming a special piece of land to our family.

These are the giant redwoods (a rarity on Pender Island) on the property. Just behind the trees at their base, is where the kids are building a fort with one of their friends.

I love this picture. The kids completely understand the grandeur of these trees. I asked them how these trees make them feel, and this is what they did to show me. Cool.

Needless to say, our outside time has been rich. Continuing this outside exploration, in comes my Stinging Nettle obsession. Yes, I'm obsessed lately with collecting nettles. The kids are bored of it now, but they did go along with me on the first couple excursions. When I spot a patch on the side of the road, I pull over to a safe parking spot, pull on my gloves and snip away. The kids roll their eyes at me and laugh. Lauren and I are experimenting with drying techniques and various ways of eating them. Potato Nettle soup, green (nettle) eggs, nettle on their pizza, Nettle hummus (yum!) etc. And they eat it! I'm now putting raw nettle in my morning smoothies and the kids are even trying this! I am pleased they are getting into it, and trying new things (especially for two kids who can be very picky, especially when it comes to green foods).  A friend of mine with acreage just told me she has acres of nettle. I almost fell over. So this Friday we are heading over there to harvest more, and teach them how to do it. Our plan is to have enough dried nettle to get us through till next spring. They are amazingly nutritious and delicious. And make a tasty tea.

I am so excited about the art of wild crafting and hope to expand my knowledge of wild foods. What an amazing way for kids to connect to the earth. What's next I wonder, dandelions? Need to get some books  pronto! I'm sure a whole new world is going to open up to us. And to think I used to get great joy in weed whacking. I will never look at a patch of weeds the same way again!

Nettle harvesting. Here Matthew is pointing out a good one.

One of our ways of drying nettles. 

Other 'schooly' stuff:

Lauren has been going to dance on Fridays taught by Wendy Soares. Going well. It is more of a social time for Lauren, rather than a serious study of dance. But this is perfectly fine (and preferred) by me at this point in the game. But since Lauren could speak, she has always wanted to be a ballerina. In fact, when she was 10 months old and not even walking, lauren started 'dancing' to a Loreena McKennit song  (eyes closed, her arms up, blissed right out), and really, she hasn't stopped dancing since (man, I'm sentimental tonight!) So with this passion of hers, we may explore doing more structured classes in Victoria. We'll see... the whole world of ballet gets me nervous (I could write an entire blog about that world and the resulting body image problems it can cause! Yes, I'm speaking from personal experience...). The subject of girls' self-esteem  is a sensitive topic for me, so obviously I want to protect Lauren from unnecessary negativity. Wow, I'm a bag of hormones tonight. (note to self: do not write blog during PMS!).

dance class.

This is just before David took Lauren to the ballet in Victoria. A very special dad and daughter day. It was a big deal for Lauren. (sorry Dave, didn't get one with your eyes open!). Matthew and I spent the day at the pool for mom and son day. 

Violin continues to go well.  Denny has asked the children to practice almost everyday. Lauren has taken this on, and decided that having a sticker and reward chart would work best. And it is working! I love that she knows how to motivate herself. She comes to me and asks to practice!!  The violin kids are having a recital on April 3rd. Looking forward to this. And I'm really amazed at their progress. They learn so fast!

Spring Leaves attendance has been hit and miss. Complicated by our situation with Matthew these days. High anxiety, brought on by a sore tummy or not (maybe just his personality or young age??), and wanting all of mom's attention (when I can't always give it) has made him not enjoy the school. This will pass. Seems after talking to many of the moms, three is a tough age. And Lauren, has been quite happy not to go but busy herself with our activities. I do hope, to attend the gym portion of Spring Leaves because clearly, the children have been having fun here. And without question, from a personal standpoint, I really want to attend Spring Leaves. To participate and to observe, and to get bits of wisdom from other parents and Julie. I just have to wait for my kids to catch up with me. A matter of time...

Exploring with Ooblek!

Lauren busies herself daily with art and writing. She is a prolific book writer and creator. She tapes pages together to form a 'book' and draws pictures and dictates each and every word. Her stack of books is growing. She is on volume 3 of a book series of random drawings and abstract sketches.  She is also working on a very special book, where she is writing her own letters, and now wants to use lower case letters. She is also a prolific card maker. Valentines day provided a perfect chance to make many. Even one for the dog. Aside being a great opportunity for art, and drawing, her card making is wonderful for developing her writing skills. We still sound out together, and she knows more and more words that she doesn't need help with. She's got this one down perfectly and writes it often: "Dear Mom. I love you". Lucky me! She knows how to write other family members names, and is starting to sound out words on her own. More often than not however, she has trepidation to try. She exhibits some anxiety about getting it wrong. Of course I only gently encourage her, I tell her mistakes are o.k., and that they help us learn, blah, blah... I just know that when she does sound something out on her own, she gets such great joy. And she wants to read so badly! Future bookworm I predict.

Here is a poem from her book titled "Lauren's Book of Butterflies":

Twinkle, twinkle, butterfly,

Fly as high as you can fly.

Up above the clouds so high,

like the sunshine in the sky.

Twinkle, twinkle, butterfly,

Fly as high as you can fly.

THE END

And here is a page taken out of another book called the "Butterfly Garden":

Lauren loves the movie "Tinkerbell" and it was somewhat surprising to us that she immediately identified with the tinker fairies. But it soon became clear why. She loves to tinker!! The other day she 'tinkered' with the recycling box contents and came up with this creation from an Almond Milk tetra box. I thought it was brilliant. A mini puppet theatre complete with a moving butterfly performer! This butterfly is attached to a gold ribbon which is threaded up through the pour spout of the box so that it can go up and down when pulled.

A couple of weeks ago, Julie returned Lauren's Mind Map. It was interesting and helpful to review. We have definitely introduced many topics Lauren had expressed interest in, way back in September. One area of interest is geography. Funny enough the Olympics have proven to be an excellent learning platform. For example, during the opening ceremonies, we got our light up globe ready and when the athletes from each country paraded out, we found their country on the globe. It was great fun. I even got a refresher- it took me too long to find some of them!  China is one country that Lauren has always had a strong affinity to (and she mentioned this on her mind map). I think we shall delve into this next week, starting with a trip to the library.

Another thing I am working on is how to entertain and stimulate Matthew while Lauren does her work. We still try to practice violin at 9 am, then follow with some work book lessons. Lately I have been setting up a station on the floor, with drop cloths, bowls full of water, bubbles, scoopers, cars, etc... to keep him happily occupied. One day I got  him washing coins- he loved this!. Or I pull out the play dough. But now, I'm running out of creative ideas that will turn on the mind of a 3 year old boy. Must visit some other homeschooling mom's blogs, or web pages for ideas!!

Summary of workbooks:

• Basic Phonics Skills Level B- completed chapters on all consonants with exercises of beginning and ending sounds. Now working on short and long vowel sounds. This book has been very easy for Lauren, 100% understanding so far. She enjoys the book's exercises too! She is excited we are over half way through this big workbook and thus, has provided a great sense of accomplishment. And I'm learning that Lauren likes to set goals for herself and work towards them. 
• Math Ahead Grade One- one chapter completed one math equations expressed in different forms. Has memorized some answers to simple equations (i.e. 2 +2, etc.) and for the ones she hasn't memorized, she can get to the answer, either by counting on her fingers, or in her head, or by using manipulative blocks. 
• Complete Math Smart 1 (her favorite math book): Completed section 1. The chapter summary says that so far the child has practiced comparing and sorting according to size, height and weight. Also matched objects by one-to-one correspondence and practiced counting to identify  sets with more, fewer, or the same number of objects. All of this for Lauren was very fun, and she'd say "more! More!" We are about to dive into Section 2 which states it will build upon the above concepts and focus on adding and subtracting and terms like sum, difference, total and equal and the signs that represent these terms.  

O.K., I think that's it for now. Fingers are cramping and eyes are crossing. This isn't proofread very well (sorry).

Thanks for reading and apologies for the sentimentality. But what can I say, I'm head over heels for my kids and when I reflect on them and how they are learning and growing, it gets me emotional. Like I said before it is an honour to be their mom, and watch them blossom like spring flowers or leaves. Yes, like Spring Leaves!!  : )

Until next time,

Joanne

Are you there Blog? It's me, Joanne!

Yes, I've been errant in my blogging. My last entry was the end of October.  After which, Lauren received her first 'report card'.  This report card, written by our Spring Leaves' facilitator, Julie, was so beautiful.  Really, it was! It made me so grateful to be homeschooling, and for the supportive Pender Island homeschooling community.  The report card was a thoughtful and detailed synopsis of Lauren's personality, learning style, interests, activities, as well as my observations and comments. I am thankful to Julie for taking the time to get to know and understand my daughter so well, and for continuing to provide thoughtful input and enthusiasm for our kids.

Since the end of October, our homeschooling steam train came to a screeching halt. Well, not totally true, but a series of events stopped our happy schooling 'routine' that we were developing.  In November, the kids took turns getting sick, they got better, then I got sick. Really sick. I was down for 3 weeks with major sinus infection followed by a month of serious bronchitis.  Also, Matthew is having MAJOR digestion issues, and potty training.  This alone is very disruptive and emotionally draining.

By mid December we were getting back on our feet in this house- just in time for the holiday season.  Even with living on little Pender Island, it becomes a very busy time of year for our family.

Despite the bumpy ride during the past couple of months, we were doing many activities that would fall under many learning categories. It just was more random, and followed the flow of what we faced each day (another benefit of homeschooling, is that it allows for learning organically, and following the family flow).

Lauren spent 5 days with her grandparents who live on South Pender Island.  A welcomed relief to me, seeing how horrible I was feeling.  They took on the role of homeschooling Grandparents with great enthusiasm! The school week was filled with activities, and Lauren was sent home with my mom and dad's careful notes. It was very touching. So I will summarize Dave and Audrey's notes below:

• Went for walks. 
• Watched and followed ditch water, underneath road culverts, and followed it down driveway, toward the beach, and found a creek which flowed over the midden bank, and onto the beach.
• Sewed and ironed. Lauren insisted she do EVERYTHING to complete a christmas present she made for her mommy. Made an apron. She selected fabrics, cut out from a pattern, and learned to sew on sewing machine. 
• Identified a handful of pebbles from the beach using identification guide (i.e., basalt, sandstone, granite), and collected beach glass
• Lauren asked questions: why are there white bubbles in the ocean, near the shore?
• Observations: Lauren observed objects far away seem small
• made muffins
• Walk with her Papa- took the bird book for bird identification (not sure the specifics of the outing, but this is something Lauren has enjoyed in the past).
• solitaire on the computer (she doesn't need help, and really enjoys the game)
• Papa's geography lesson (Equator, continents, oceans, etc. using one of those light up spinning globes)
• Lauren picked a book out of their library. It was a book I was given as a kid. A beautiful pop-up book on Life, and how it begins. So Lauren got a lesson on the birds and bees! This book is a stunning 3-D display of the insides of a uterus, the egg, sperm, complete with pull tabs to make things swim, move and wiggle. Pictures of a fetus at different stages of growth, etc... She came home excited to tell me all about her uterus, and her eggs, and so on. We've talked about this before, it is no big deal here, but this was the first time she showed excitement about it.
• Many other books- about whales, and dinosaurs
• did some Math- adding and subtraction
• Tree identification. Knew many on the walk, but learned red alder for the first time.

I know, hire those grandparents, right?  Yay, Audrey and Dave!

December was a flurry of crafting events.  I decided to make all my Christmas gifts this year, except for the childrens'.   So Lauren crafted and sewed along side me.   Her previous sewing lessons with her Grammie prepared her well for her deciding to sew a patchwork pillow. She picked fabrics, cut out squares, pinned, sewed and ironed everything herself.  Don't touch Mom, I CAN DO IT!! As I was hovering nervously as she pressed her foot down on the sewing pedal and the machine zipped along...

 

... And then she made a pillow for her Papa's reading chair.  This time with a message:

 

More Christmas crafting... collaged christmas cards made from old cards, paper mache lanterns for the New Year's Eve Lantern Fest... Family craft night at the school (made christmas crackers- see photo below...), baked and decorated cookies...

 (note the hats we made at school!)

Walks were sporadic, but squeezed them in. Really they do us wonders...

 a rare glimpse of sun. We stopped to soak it in.

 trudging home. Exhausted after the hike.

We recognized Hannukah this year again. We dusted off the minorah, and lit the candles every evening. David leads us in traditional songs or blessings. We did one traditional meal (I went on-line and did research for recipes!).  We made latkes, applesauce, challah bread, and baked fish.  David has a rather complicated past when it comes to how he was raised, and the impact (many negative) religion played on his childhood, and continues to impact our lives through difficult dialogue with my in-laws.  So when he shares with his wife and kids, he treads carefully in these waters, picking and choosing what he thinks is good for the children.  I welcome it wholeheartedly.   Anything that brings family together, for good food, creates harmony and love, and lasting memories I'm all for.  In our house, the lights of the minorah glow alongside the twinkle of the Christmas tree lights.  To me it is magical.  I believe there is beauty in most religions, and while I'm attracted to them all, we follow none in particular.  No offense to my parents, but I was raised with no religion but I sought it out wherever I went. Even sent myself to various churches as a kid.  Pretty amazing on their part for supporting this!!  I grew up thinking 'kosher' was just a type of dill pickle.  It surprised no one that I majored in anthropology in university.  My point being, is this: it is important to me that my children have a global perspective on the world's cultures and religions.  I suppose the holidays is a good excuse for us to explore this. I can't wait to take them to pow wows, and other such rich displays of spirituality meets art, and culture.  What fun this will be.

 A number of x-mas gifts were 'homeschooly' including a microscope, a space projector thingy, story-book making kit, books (including the Little House series we are enjoying), and art stuff.

Matthew and Lauren have taken to putting on 'shows'. This one below is a skating show (we saw Disney on Ice in November).  I anticipate we will be  heading to Victoria for some skating trips soon.  Violin continues, with Lauren's new and larger sized instrument.

 

The last couple of days Lauren has been spending hours creating her fairy tale (a story making kit).  She is insisting on using small caps. So far it is a story about Bella the Butterfly looking for a friend...

 planning stage

 the creating and writing begins!

With the New Year, comes a fresh start for the Grenonas.   Getting back on track, not that I think we really fell off... just more scattered than I like to be, too many distractions, too much illness, commitments, etc...  Looking forward to longer days, and spring blossoms.

Wishing you all a Happy 2010!

One more thing...

I just have to share this.  Lauren as a small child used to play on the computer in the Word program, and last night asked to do it again. So I set her up and went to fold laundry. I came back and this is what she wrote:

I had to admit I looked around on my desk to see if she was copying something written elsewhere, but no. She explained that she has memorized the words 'is', 'and' AND 'ponies'. The other words she explained she sounded them out. She pointed out the AY sound in mermaids. She is learning about different letter combos- like the 'AY' sounds, or the 'SH' sounds. Very exciting to see it all come together for her.

Cosmic Classroom to the Salmon Forest...

I finally got two very excited children into bed. Halloween is tomorrow, and Lauren has been preoccupied with her costume all day. SHE is dressing herself. I no longer have any influence in that department. The Queen of Blue is her latest costume idea. Works for me, no sewing or fussing for me this year. Just her rummaging around in our Tickle Trunk and putting something blue, sequinny and 'queenly' together. Matthew's costume (Thomas the Tank Engine) is care of the Nu-to-You. I got off easy this year. :)

Homeschooling since my last entry has rocked! We are having more fun, I'm more relaxed and even Matthew is enjoying some of the hands on activities we are doing. I didn't anticipate how excited and thrilled I was going to be watching the kids learn and grow.  Watching their minds expand before your eyes, and getting knocked over by profound and thought-provoking questions! I keep thinking to myself, this is the wonderful thing about homeschooling your children. I can't imagine missing this growth. It is really such an honour to witness. I remember holding Lauren as a newborn wondering what kinds of things she'll like, her passions, our conversations we will have, etc... And here I am now, watching this five-year old blossom into this amazing child.

The nuts and bolts:

Lauren continues to enjoy her school books, and in between our formal sit downs we are doing a ton of hands on activities.

Garden Project:


Last spring, Dave built Lauren a raised garden bed. In April, she picked what she wanted to plant, considering the fact that our garden doesn't get the optimal amount of sun a great veggie garden needs. She planted: peas, sweet peas, carrots, bachelor buttons, and morning glory. She learned how to transplant plants such as wild Lamb's Ear, and transplanted a few of these from our yard. A few strawberry plants as well.
On October 12th, we went out to the garden to do a Fall Clean-up and assess her garden. I asked her to make observations on her garden bed. She noted that bachelor buttons and sweet peas STILL had blossoms! The carrots when pulled were not long, but thick and stubby (but sweet and crunchy!). She discussed next year's plans- beans this time, more carrots, and tulips. She realized her morning glories did not work, or her strawberries and believes it was due to crowding (she's right about that!).  She also observed that the southern tips of all of our garden beds had the best and biggest veggies (especially our kohlrabi crop- a complete failure except a few of the southern most plants). Her hypothesis was because they got more sun. When they grew bigger, they shaded the northern portion of the beds. Cool! She wants to look up shady flowers. Her final comment, was that she was pleased that her garden did well despite not watering it.  I rarely watered it for her, because this was our agreement. Before leaving the garden Lauren decided to conduct an experiment. Can you transplant a carrot? She pulled a few and redug them into the soil. She quickly came to the conclusion that it would not succeed. Leading to our discussion on roots, etc... (see picture below, of freshly planted and labeled garden- April 09).

Workbooks:


Kumon Math pg. 28

• more very simple math. Addition by 1. Kumon books do a ton of repetition exercises. Today Lauren was in no mood for it. Onto something else.

Math Ahead p. 19

• Chapter 3 'Numbers to 20'
• count and write numbers to 20; count forward from 0 to 20 and backward from 10 to 0; and identify odd and even numbers. Lauren found the descending rows more difficult but completed the last two on her own. She was VERY pleased and was able to articulate what exactly she wasn't understanding at the beginning. 
• Lauren faced new concepts in this chapter. Learning to count and write numbers to complete exercises like this "13 is 10 and 3. She seemed to understand the odd/even number concept when she could draw out the number of objects and circle pairs. 
• Chapter 4 'Time'
• Started exploring this chapter. Will pick and choose from it. We began with days of the week and months of the year.  Looked at a calendar, and how it's drawn. The exercises in the book were difficult so we did them together. We still rely on how many more sleeps until... as our units of time. But this was a good intro.
• This chapter ends with intro to the clock and telling time. For another day...

Complete MathSmart pgs. 6-13

• Comparing heights and lengths
• Comparing sizes
• Comparing positions (under, on, left, right, inside, outside, etc.)
• Lauren found all this very easy and tired of it quickly. We moved on.

Basic Phonics Skills- Level B pgs. 21-30

• 'M' sound, and review of 'S', 'B', and 'M' sounds. 
• Exercises such as listening for letter sounds at beginning and ends of words. 100% understanding of these. Even remembered the words 'grass' and 'kiss' end with two s'!

Science Made Easy (Grades K-2) pgs. 8-11

• label body parts, sounds (loud vs. quiet things), identify animal's eyes. One animal, the snail. stumped us all. Where are the eyes? Do they have eyes? Go to the internet and we spent some time learning about snails! Yes, they have eyes, and we read about their body structure, habitat and reproduction. Introduction to hermaphrodites! Lauren was stunned at this bit of info. 

On-line Math Games

• Sheppardsoftware.com has two little games that Lauren had fun playing. An addition game and a subtraction game. Lauren is getting the hang of simple equations, memorizing some, and working out others on her fingers, and sometimes in her head.

Other notes:

• planted edible sprouts in a mason jar. Soaked for 12 hours, then we are watching them sprout. Ready to eat by tomorrow. The kids have watched with mild interest. I still figure it's learning, despite them not being overly excited by it. 
• Our candle-making friend, Laura taught Lauren and I how to make soy candles. Melted soy candle chips then Lauren had to watch the thermometer to achieve the right heat. Then we mixed in pigment chips. We used the thermometer again, to see if the wax reached the right pouring temperature. This may be a good lead in to some further science based lessons. ?

SOLAR SYSTEM! (*cue the music from 2010 Space Odyssey)

Back in September when we sat down to do Lauren's 'Mind Map' I was surprised she had an interest in the solar system. With this in mind, Dave chose a learning book "Planets- A Thematic Unit Book".

I decided to start there, not knowing where to start such a lesson as grand as the cosmos. We flipped through the book, looking for age appropriate activities. Thankfully, it covered the basics (sun, positions, names and desciptions of planets and their moons).

We decided it would be fun to act out the sun and earth's relationship. Me- the sun, Lauren- the Earth. And Matthew was some sort of asteroid running around and between us. I stood still, while Lauren walked around me, all the while rotating. I would yell 'day' when she faced me, and 'night' when not. Then once she made a complete circle around me, we declared one year had passed! Really sunk in.

The work book provoked many questions from the kids. Lauren wanted to know what kind of creatures lived on these planets, and if not why couldn't they? Naturally this lead to a great conversation about Earth, and why it is so special that it supports diverse life. Brainstormed all the conditions needed to sustain life.

We did a little exercise to recreate the surface of the moon, and mercury- both full of craters. Got a plate, and put flour on it. Then let the kids dip their fingers in water and let the droplets fall onto the plate. Craters formed. They experimented with bigger drops of water and from different heights- resulting in different sized craters.

We got a couple of children's space books given to us today. We shall read those over the next little while, and see where our cosmic classroom will take us next!

FIELD TRIPS!

Galey Farm- for a train ride/hay ride/pumpkin patch/corn maze. A fun-filled field trip. Then onto...

Goldstream Park- for a wonderful experience! The Spring Leaves group went to the Nature House and Lauren thoroughly enjoyed the Owlry display. Then we learned about the Salmon Forest and got a tour of one. Later, on our car ride to the ferry, Lauren told her Gramma and Papa all she learned (they stayed in the car with a sleeping Matthew!). I couldn't believe how much she retained and absorbed:  she told us about the salmon's life cycle, the ocean, the estuary, decomposition and bugs, wolves, nitrogen, animal poop fertilizing forests, etc... She got a beautiful lesson in the concept of species inter-connectivity.

 

Funny, but I really felt emotional listening to Lauren recap her Goldstream experience to her grandparents. She learned some big and beautiful things that day. Things that I think changes a kids' world view (in a good way). It has broadened her awareness of the natural world that much more. Our Goldstream tour guide also put an emotional lump in my throat, when she concluded her tour by telling the kids, that it is their job to protect the future of our Salmon Forests, and our planet. Such a heavy burden for such little shoulders. Isn't it?

Signing off for now. Happy Halloween.

One Plus One equals, Phew!

Since our last blog entry, the family is finding our stride. Getting organized and out the door is easier, and moods are better.  The Grenonas are finding their groove again!  This has allowed for more time and space for Lauren and I to focus on her learning.

What is working so far, is Lauren sitting down after breakfast to do some lessons. Lately she has been drawn to picking up her math workbooks.  So we've been sitting down at the table to do math for numerous mornings.

"My Book of Simple Addition (Kumon, ages 4,5,6)" is a great workbook to warm her up. She loves the repetitious exercises. She finds the exercises quite simple,  as a result I am seeing this build confidence.

• Example exercises: Saying and Writing Numbers up to 30; saying numbers while tracing them, fill in the missing numbers, and simple adding by 1 (i.e. 1 + 1= 2, all the way to 30). 
• Lauren has completed these pages with relative ease, makes a few mistakes usually when rushing through, but enjoys crossing out and correcting her answers
• Her number writing itself is still quite awkward, but improving
• most importantly, she seems to enjoy it (Phew!). Somewhere along the way I developed a major dislike for math (which I do NOT communicate to the kids!), so watching her happily explore math makes me happy. Lauren's dad on the other hand, is a very gifted math guy. He just taught me long division, which sadly I had (sort of) forgotten. And, surprising enough, it was FUN! Hey, maybe through watching and teaching the children, I will re-evaluate my dysfunctional relationship with math? :) But enough about me...

"Math Ahead- Grade One"-

• Sorting (Geometry & Spatial Sense): 
• Circle the picture in the group that doesn't belong, sort the items that belong to each group/category (i.e. freezer foods from fridge foods, summer clothes from winter clothes, fish and birds, etc...), and looking at a group of animals and Lauren making her own two categories then sorting. She breezed through this section.
• Patterning (Patterning & Algebra):
• Identify patterns such as shape patterns and colour patterns; 
• Identify and extend patterns; 
• identify patterns described in words and 
• create their own patterns. 
• Lauren had difficulty with the last exercise in this chapter. A series of patterns were started and Lauren was asked to continue the pattern using similar colours. We worked together completing them.

Geometry Blocks/Math Manipulatives-

• Lauren has been enjoying playing with the coloured geometry/pattern blocks. Working on adding and subtracting equations. 
• I just found mathplayground.com. Will check that out for fun on-line math games.

Printing Practice-

• 20 minutes of formal printing practice (lower-case letters) in her dry erase printing book
• Lots of printing practice this week while making Thanksgiving cards and presents, and she wrote another story book. Still prefers to write with upper-case letters.

"Basic Phonics Skills- Level B"

• Completed exercises Beginning and Ending Consonant Sounds of b and s. Lauren demonstrated that she clearly understood these concepts and easily completed exercises.
• Learned about the double s (ss) sound and the sh- sound.  Will do another lesson today to reinforce this concept since this was entirely new to Lauren.

Other activities of note:

• Two great back-to-back Spring Leaves Wednesdays- Beach sculpting and Art. Of course Lauren is at ease in both these environments where she can creatively explore and create. This past class we also traced our shadows on the pavement to watch our shadows shift as the sun moved across the sky. We will likely do this again sometime where I can put more time into the exploration and explanation. This will tie in nicely with Lauren's desire to learn about space, planets, etc...
• We have been exploring the compass direction points both in relation to where Lauren's house faces and on the world map.
• Dave involved the kids in the decision making and planning of the window placement and design in their tree house
• Dave also has taken the kids to his work on numerous occasions lately to visit the Treatment Plant at Currents at Otter Bay. They watch dad operate the system and test and treat the drinking water as well as the swimming pool's water.
• Violin lessons on Monday continue. Lauren is still grooving on them, and likes to practice at home.
• Lots of baking at home. We've been gluten-free for the past two weeks, so Lauren has been helping me to bake gluten-free breads, and muffins. She is learning about various flours, rising agents, etc... And also learning that sometimes baking experiments don't work (she has witnessed me tossing a few loaves of unpalatable 'bread' in the garbage!).
• We are going for morning walks with the dog. Our usual route is through the disc park, then take the trails that branch off from there. I hope to do this rain or shine- it is a GREAT way to start our day and we all come home refreshed and beaming. AND, these walks provide numerous opportunities for learning and discussion about the natural world...
• This week we are winterizing the yard and garden. Lauren has her own garden bed so we will examine what needs to be pulled out, and examine the state of her carrot population. I will take this opportunity to discuss with Lauren her gardening experience overall. What she planted that worked, what didn't grow, how could she improve next year's growth, etc...
• The Montessori mornings are good opportunities for Lauren and Matthew to play and learn with kids of all ages. They have been learning songs, baking, crafting and experiencing good old fashioned playtime under the apple trees. 
• One evening Dave bundled up the kids and went up the hill to the ocean-view lot to look across to Sidney and the various other islands. Across this distance, they could see traffic lights change, and cars driving. They were amazed! They then turned their attention to the starry sky. Lauren and Matthew saw their first satellite. They haven't stopped talking about this evening. What are satellites? And so we are learning about satellites. 
• Finally, last night at my parents for Thanksgiving, my brother, Uncle Mikey, set up the telescope, and set it on Jupiter. The kids still haven't got the hang of looking through telescopes, or binoculars, (an acquired skill I think), but they did see Jupiter with their own eye. This of course fed right into Lauren's fascination with space. This week I shall open up our book on the planets and we will read about Jupiter! 

PHEW! That's it for this update. Thanks for reading. I welcome comments and suggestions by all who read this. Happy Thanksgiving! 

Until next time,

Joanne 

Check Mate!

This week has been hectic. I'm not sure we are adjusting so well to our new September schedule. O.K., maybe it's ME who is not adjusting so well. Our family has gone from no commitments to several scheduled classes per week. Naps are far and few between, and consequently, our fragile hold on happy sleepers has been broken. Not to mention Matthew is trying to become a master of the big boy potty, and all this time away from it is disruptive. Having said all this, it's apparent we need to strike a better balance. No one is really complaining but me, but I see it in the moods and sleepiness (and constipation) of my children. Now that I've vented (phew!) Dave and I are sitting down to pare down the family commitments. We'll work up to all this fun stuff...

As for the homeschooling week... Wednesday at Spring Leaves was fantastic! Gym time and epic parachute games then on to... classroom time with exploration of mechanical parts including a bicycle wheel, locks, phones, and other gadgets including a battery voltage tester that Lauren brought from home. Pulling these pieces apart with screwdrivers, and examining the insides was fascinating for us all. Afterwards, we went to the Pender Island Community Garden where the children harvested the wheat and various other grains (Kamut, Spelt?).  The plan is to mill the wheat to make flour for Pizza! It was a glorious afternoon with the warm sun shining down on the children eagerly cutting and gathering bundles of golden wheat. As I surveyed the scene I couldn't help but be filled with such joy to be surrounded by Earth's beauty and abundance. Then to see the children connected to all this beauty and taking an active role was equally touching.  As I drove home that afternoon (with kids zonked out in the backseat) I felt such gratitude and assurance that what we are all on the right path.

Lauren loves Chess. So on Thursday morning (while Matthew was at Montessori) we sat down to play. David taught Lauren the basics of chess last winter, and since she has greatly improved. She knows what all the pieces do, and is now getting defensive strategies down. She is starting to plan out her moves in advance. If truth be told, I don't enjoy the game- partially because I'm terrible at it. So for now my skills are good enough to teach a five year old. If Lauren continues to love the game and improve, her Dad will have to take over!

Later Lauren asked to pull out her Hooked on Phonics kit. It was a gift from Grammie, and Lauren loves using it. This is just one form of 'reading' we do, but since she's eager to use it, I'm going with it. The kit has all the things Lauren responds well to. Workbooks, follow-along audio CDs, a progress sticker chart (she REALLY loves getting the stickers with each accomplishment!), and little books. Lauren learned the AT, AN, AG, AND, and ON sounds. Then with simply adding a consonant sound in front of these, she was reading words and read her first two books. She was very excited (o.k., so was I)!

What else? Lots of art. Currently Lauren is writing a book for Emma's 6th Birthday present. She dictates word for word the story then I write it out. This one we are both illustrating and coloring. It is titled "The Emma and Lauren Pony Story."

Finally, early this week we traveled to Victoria to pick up our order at the Home School Supply store. So we have LOTS of fun workbooks, paint, learning blocks, etc... to supplement the living and learning we are already doing.

Today the family is off for a forest picnic and hike. It is hard to be inside when weather outside is divine. On that note, I'm am shutting off this computer and getting outside.  Happy Autumn!

Random Lessons...

On Friday of last week, Lauren, Matthew and I met with our friends Kate and her daughter Jessie. Seeing that it was a gorgeous and sunny day, we went for a small hike.  The Mount Elizabeth Park trail is the perfect size for little legs, and has an educational sheet available to point out things along the path. The kids ran from number sign to number sign, and Kate read the laminated parks info sheet. It was a good lesson for me in that it appeared the girls were not all that interested in listening to the blurbs of info, since they were so excited skipping and hopping, picking up leaves, feathers, etc... But upon reflection about our hike a few days ago, Lauren remembered 9 of the 10 items. In fact, she is helping me list them now! So these are the nature items we learned a little about and got to observe and touch: Big Leaf Maple, Red Alder, Salmon Berry, Moss Beds, Rocky cliffside, Banana Slugs (however, we did not find any), Nurse Logs, Wind-thrown trees (where we learned about strong winter winds, and root systems), and Sword Ferns.

But what was more remarkable was the imaginative play that occurred when the kids found a 'fort' just off the path- formed by leaning and wind-blown trees. It quickly became the Fairy Forest, and we were all fairies in charge of building a home for the birds. We beefed up the roof with fallen branches, decorated with leaves, wrote 'messages' on leaves and left them for the birds, among other fairy tasks. Because I was the Animal fairy, I was in charge of whistling to the birds what the Tinker fairies (Lauren and Jessie) needed me to tell them. Matthew was the Chef Fairy, who ground up rotten fir log into a fine powder, then mixed with soil, to make wonderful birthday 'cakes'. We practiced being quiet so we could hear the birds. The children decided the birds were very pleased with their new home.  The imaginations of the children were contagious and it was a special afternoon.

Last night (Monday) Lauren and I sat down to do her Mind Map. I asked Lauren what she envisioned her upcoming year to look like, what she wanted to learn about, her interests, or anything else that came to mind. A fun exercise!  Many of Lauren's ideas were predictable, but some were surprising- things we hadn't discussed before. For this reason alone, the mind mapping exercise was very helpful.  If Lauren is going to be an active participant in the direction her education will take, this is a great tool to guide me. I kept her Mind Map in my mind, as I went shopping at the School Supply Store in Victoria today and picked up some books that otherwise I might not have (i.e. Solar System and planets for instance).

For the past month I have kept a small notebook with me, and have been writing down Lauren and Matthew's questions.  Lauren asks a lot of great questions, some I can answer and MANY I cannot. When she was younger, I used to ask HER to try and answer her own questions (Matthew still enjoys this), but now she really wants to know "the truth Mom."  It is amazing how many questions we have written down already. This year, we will pick some of these questions to research and answer. I think this will be fun.

Craft time in our house these days is spent with Lauren 'writing' stories and illustrating pictures. She either tells me word for word what to write, including punctuation, OR she 'writes' the story (we sound out many words together, or I simply tell her what letters to put together when she just wants to be creative and not "all spelly"). She has many words memorized now, 'the', 'I', 'cat', etc... Today she wrote a rhyming poem called Cat. She has learned that by putting consonants in front of 'AT', that this spells many other words. It was an exciting discovery. So then we went on to put consonants in front of 'OG' and so on...

I would like to encourage Lauren to practice her small caps, and number writing. Many of the school books we ordered today will address this. Lauren loves workbook and exercises, sitting down with her pencils, and crayons. We have been using those Kindergarten activity books (found a bunch at Cosco last year) and she loves them.  

Finally, Lauren had her first Monday morning at Montessori. She told me she enjoyed being the oldest kid there, They picked apples, made applesauce, had circle time, movement, and then outside play.

Oh, and last but not least, we rented a fiddle today. Lauren took a few classes last winter and has been itching to start up again. Since a small child she has always perked up at the sound of fiddle music. And so, she will be taking lessons with Denny on Mondays. She has already given us a concert as well as her grandparents one over the phone. We will see if her interest continues, but for now she epitomizes the word 'Keen'. I hope I can keep up to her!

Signing off! Goodnight :)