The more I try...

Things have been sooo stressful around here.  Lil Man is doing FANTASTIC with his school work so far.  He is loving Easy Peasy's curriculum, which we are using the Getting Ready 2.  He has a lesson from the McGuffey's First Reader a day, learns a capital letter to write from a hooked on phonics video a day, and then we do SOTW.  He is really enjoying it.  Sophie on the other hand... ugh.  The Easy Peasy 5th grade curriculum was proving too hard.  The language arts is focused on poetry that year, which was just too much for her.  She has a very literal mind, and doesn't understand how poetry compares things (i.e. My love is like rose blah blah blah).  She was getting more and more frustrated with it and herself, which is not our style at all.  So, we went back and started over at Day One with Easy Peasy 4th grade.  It uses McGuffey's Third Reader, which I do like.  It is building vocabulary and helping her with writing skills.  So I refuse to complain.

Math remains ambiguous for us.  I do NOT like Easy Peasy's math curriculum ideas.  Sophie doesn't respond well to the "Watch a video, answer questions" at all.  And Lil Man has me stumped as to what to teach.  He needs to learn how to write numbers and recognize larger numbers in their written form.  But he is well beyond Kindergarten arithmetic.  He can add, subtract, and even understands multiplication and division MENTALLY.  As soon as you write an equation down, he's lost.  I may just grab them some workbooks from the Parent-Teacher Store and call it a day haha.

Every time I turn around, I'm drawn more and more towards unschooling.  Obviously its a win-win for the kids, as they're just living life like always.  The only problem is ME.  I feel like they need to be doing some sort of traditional stuff for it to be school, even though I've read over and over that it isn't necessary.  Unschooling does work.  And I've proved it to myself that it works for my kids.  Why can't I just let it be a that?  Ugh.

School's Back IN!!!

Its August, and in West Virginia, that means SCHOOL TIME.  I'm mad at myself for not blogging during the summer, but we were B-U-S-Y.  Between going out on the boat, walks, mini-vacas, and the like, I just didn't have time.  But this school year I am making blogging a "Monday Activity".

I have everything we will be doing this year all ready.  I'm using Easy Peasy for math and language arts for both the kids, at least in the beginning.  I was going to buy Life of Fred for math, but its a HUGE investment, so I'm torn.  I like Easy Peasy for K language arts because it uses McGuffey readers, which is much better than phonics in my opinion.  We will be using Story of the World Vol 1 for S.S, for both, and I am getting a Human Body book and activity books off Amazon for Sophie.  We will adapting those lessons for Gary.  I'm pretty excited :)

We were using Netflix a lot as a supplemental resource, but we aren't getting it anymore (booooo) so I'm looking for new ways to integrate that kind of learning.  I'm thinking that we will be using YouTube a LOT this year.  Gary especially learns so much better when its visual like that.

So that's our game plan, folks.  I'm going to slowly start the kids back into "School mode" if you will, since its still so nice out.  I don't see us doing anything super big until after Labor Day at least.  Not that we are a "nose to the grindstone" type of group anyway haha.

Have fun everyone!!!!

I'm a horrible blogger!!!!

       Its official, I suck at blogging.  I honestly think I just have sooo much other stuff going on that I forget to blog.  So from here on out, I'm going to make this a weekly thing, and will write every Wednesday, rain or shine lol.  I think its important to have the blog, and to document our life, so I need to make the effort.

      In other news, we received Sophie's portfolio assessment and..... (drum roll please)......  She is a fifth grader now!!!  Woo hoo!!!  I'm so proud of her!  I really feel like we've made great strides in the last couple months together.  She is really retaining the things we learn about, and that's what is important.  So, we'll stick to what we've been doing, and go from there.


      A little info on what we've been up to:  We have been doing typical summer type activities.  We have been out on the boat once now.  Lil Man went into the water for real this year, the first time everrrr, so that was a big deal.  He finally realized that life jackets actually do their job and keep you up lol.  We also did a little real life math at Chuck E. Cheese over the weekend.  We bought 180 tokens that had to be split up, and then they had to split the tickets 3 ways as well.  We visited Cabelas for the first time and I love that place.  They have  a TON of stuffed animals (the real taxidermy type) that the kids were totally in to.  And not just the animals in our area either... there was even a polar bear!  It was too rainy and nasty to do much else, but we had fun with our indoor activities just the same.  Sophie has been reading like crazy lately.  We purchased the 50 books for $50 from scholastic and she is thrilled!  There were two scary stories books that she read the first couple days, and then you read two A-to-Z Mysteries books, and now she's reading "Super Fudge" by Judy Blume.  I love that she's reading so much!

      I don't know what we have in store for the week coming up yet.  I'd like to get outside with the kids and do some exploring, if the weather will hold up.  We've been trying to be quiet for Gary, since he is back on night shift.  That's hard when you're only 5 and 3!  Sophie on the other hand has no problem as long as she can stick her nose in a book or computer lol.  I guess we'll continue to play it as we go ;)

Notebooking!!!

        I have been turned on to a whole new way of keeping track of progress when homeschooling... NOTEBOOKING!!!  I think its the coolest lol.  It's a lot like lapbooking, but in my opinion, a lot easier.  You can find a bazillion free templates and tutorials online, and I found a couple tutorials that show you how to make your own using PowerPoint or in my case LibreOffice Impress (I'm cheap!).  I have been experimenting for the last couple days and thinking of what I could make now, without the books I'm going to be using next year, to make some for the kids.  I finally decided to make either an alphabet book or a number book for Lil Man.  He's been wanting to learn how to write the letters and names etc lately, so I don't feel like I'm pushing to awful much by making him a little book up to learn them.  I was having some problems, creatively speaking, on the alphabet one, and ended up finding a template I like better than my own attempts online.  The number one, though, was a lot easier.  He already knows his numbers to see them and can count pretty high, so really, all he needs to learn is how to write the number, and recognize it's word form (i.e FIVE versus 5).   Using the tutorial I found by Notebooking Nook on YouTube I created a title page and number pages up to Ten/10.  It would be helpful to know that you can download and install all kinds of fonts online any more.  I found one called Print Dashed on 1001freefonts that looks just like the dashed letters you see in "Learning to Write" type workbooks.  I'm pretty darn proud of myself!  I'm going to use Notebooking to keep record of our learning next year with both kids.  It seems like a heck of a lot more fun than regular old worksheets and essays etc.  And it helps to make things more adaptable between the two of them, which means less money spent on my end.  I'm going to attempt to add the pdf file for the number notebook I created on here, in case anyone should come across this blog post and want it.

Number Notebook

        On the "unschooling" front, the kids are mad about Netflix here lately.  We've watched LeapFrog videos, National Geographic documentaries, and who even knows what else.  We have it on our Wii, Sophie has it on her iPod, and the kids LOVE it!  I know for a fact, one of the documentaries was about sharks because Sophie was asking to look things up on the computer about them.  She has always liked sharks (from a distance! lol) and I'm glad that she is still learning new things about them :)  We have also been learning a lot about baby animals, raccoon's in particular.  My mother in law found an orphaned raccoon the other day and is keeping it for a pet.  It's barely a month old and still nursing from a baby bottle, with a homemade animal formula.  The kids all love the little critter, and I think his/her name is going to be Smokey, a play on Smokey and the Bandit.  It's very friendly and cuddly.  I do believe we are attached already!

Outside Fun

        Well, I mailed out Sophie's portfolio this morning.  I spent half the night going back and forth on what to include and what to leave out, and what to say in the summaries I submitted for each of the 4 subjects.  I knew some of the things I definitely wanted to include, such as the dino trading cards she made and a sample of her recipes.  The rest didn't feel like it showed much.  I kept telling myself that I only had 2 and a half months of work to choose from, but still.... I had 2 writing examples.  Period.  And they were only a paragraph each.  UGH.  So hopefully, her extensive reading/resource list makes up for it!

        On the bright side of homeschool paperwork/red tape:  Lil Man has decided he is DEFINITELY staying home with Momma next year.  The thought of getting up before the birdies does not appeal to my little night owl lol.  I'm so happy!!  I already have a good idea what we'll be doing; I'm getting the Life of Fred elementary series, and we'll be working through that as a group, which I'm hoping will help reinforce Sophie's fundamentals.  I'm also  going to get Sophie a 5th grade workbook to fiddle with if she chooses.  We will also be doing our Social Studies side-by-side with Story of the World vol. 1.  I found a free pdf file that has the text, student book, and parent guide :)  It can be adapted for a multi-level instruction, which means less paperwork and fuss for me.  Science will continue to be child-led, with the both of them studying similar subjects at the same time, once again, easier for both of us.  And of course we will be reading, reading, reading.  Sophie is going to start writing more, hopefully, with the incentive of typing instead of "writing" things out.  Lil Man will be using a free phonics program I found online called FunFonix and I'm going to buy him the Kindergarten workbook for Handwriting without Tears.

         Its SOOOOO nice out today!!  The kids have been in and out all day, going between some more educational movies off Netflix (i.e. LeapFrog) and doing noisy, summer activities like playing Rock Band with my pots/pans/metal bowls.  We also used the play castle to dry some blankets, thus creating an even cooler play house lol!  It was all fun and games until Sophie got stung by a bee on the foot :(  She tends to overreact to these types of situations, even if it isn't her its happening to.  So the outside play ended abruptly for her and she seated herself (limping all the way) on the couch to watch Pocahontas and pouted.  Hopefully this doesn't ruin her for the rest of the summer, which is entirely possible unfortunately.  She's my little drama queen lol.

Things you learn the HARD WAY

           Its been a rough couple days for me.  My allergies are killing me, the kids are stir crazy, its raining like its monsoon season outside, and I have been getting a lot of negative feedback from "people" about homeschooling and my methods.  Criticism can be a great thing, really... It helps you to see what you're doing wrong, it shows you where you need improvement, but it also makes you question the things you are doing, even if it is working.

        Look, Sophie is LEARNING the way we do things.  No, she isn't writing essays or memorizing useless facts; maybe we DON'T pour over textbooks for hours at a time.  But she is learning.  She reads about dinosaurs, sea otters, and traveling West in the old days.  We color pictures, play with homemade play dough, and bake cakes.  We look at leaves, and dig up worms.  We take trips, and google facts.  We are having fun and figuring out life.  Get the heck over it!

A new Sensory Bin and making Sophie's Portfolio

          I made the kids a new sensory bin the other day.  They had taken the rice one outside and scattered it all over the yard (planting rainbow seeds!), so I had to go hunt down my container and lid and wash them up first.  I have been seeing tons and tons of "recipes" for Cloud Dough, which is basically home made moon dough.  It was super simple, just a bag of flour and a cup or 2 of oil.  You can use any oil you want.... baby oil, vegetable oils, olive oil etc.  I had almost a whole bottle of baby oil so I used that, and had to add some veg. oil to get to the right consistency.  I also added a couple drops of tea tree oil.  We like the way it smells and it deters insects.  A word of warning with cloud dough is that it is MESSY.  Like every where messy.  And I couldn't figure out how to color it, so we kept it white.  The kids got some measuring tools, but quickly decided it was more fun to use dino figures and cars to make tracks in the fluffy dough.  This started a discussion on fossils and how they are formed.  Sophie was pretty into that, of course.  She's interested in anything from that period in history lol

       We've reached the point in the "school" year where I have to provide the county with some sort of evaluation proving I have taught her something productive.  We have chosen to do a portfolio, which I will send to a certified evaluator.  She will look through Sophie's work, decide whether she thinks she has learned enough to go into the 5th grade, and then I will submit her decision to the Board of Education.  I'm a little nervous, having never done this, but I feel confident in what we've achieved in the last couple months.  We have quite a few worksheet type things, and Sophie's reading/resources list is long.  She has read a ton of books and browsed many websites.  I'm going to have to make a run to walmart or CVS to print out some photos to include, but other than that, we have everything ready to send.  We have to turn in the evaluation by June 30th to the board, or they get all butt hurt, and I'm going to go head and send in my NOI (notice of intent) at the same time, through a certified letter.  We're going to continue to learn through the summer, since everything we do is learning, and we'll be reading A LOT.  I have some really cute ideas set aside for making lapbooks to go along with the Little House books we'll be reading, and to explore the West (think Lewis and Clark).  I think we'll do a lot of Math review over the summer too, because I feel like she's still leery of multiplication and division.  I'm excited!!

Time and Money

       Its funny how things can suddenly just "CLICK" sometimes.  Sophie has always struggled with time increments (like decade, century, minute/hour) and money (remembering that a quarter equals 25 cents for example).  I think that's due in part to the weird spiral method math curriculum that the school was using.  They would just touch on a subject before going to something else, and Sophie just can't learn like that.  I never really made a big deal out of it, just correcting her mistakes or explaining when she would ask.  Out of habit, I often refer to times as "quarter of" or "half past" and that ALWAYS tripped her up.  She would pause and ask me what that meant, every time, and I would have to explain over and over.  The same with phrases like  "3 decades" or "several centuries ago"; she just didn't get it.  She's done a little better lately with money, mostly because I've been giving her all my change and she is big into spending her own money on things.  If she has a pile of change, she has to count it all up to figure out how much she has and what she can buy.  She's always been a saver (when she was 6 or 7, she had saved every bit of change and money given to her and had $150!), and loves to splurge at Dollar Tree haha.  Well, tonight we were watching one of our typical scifi like shows (Monster and Mysteries in America) and a man said he had been dealing with something for 4 decades.  Sophie immediately asked me if that meant 40 years... yay!!!  I didn't make a huge deal though, because it tends to embarrass her.  I just said yep, that's right, and we continued watching.  That really might not seem like a wow moment to many people, but it is to me.  Anything math related really comes hard to her, even when it doesn't seem math-y.  Its almost like any time a teacher even mentioned that it was in her math text, she just put up a mental wall or something.  And that's hard for ME, because I love math.  My brain just makes little math equation out of everything.  She's also doing better with things like minutes and hours because of the TV guide thing with our cable.  She can pull up the guide and see how certain shows are 30 minutes (e.g 8:00-8:30) and that would be a half block compared to say an hour long drama show, or even a quarter of a movie.  Its a very visual way for her to see it.  Fractions kind of clicked for her that way, too, when I happened across fraction strips online and showed her.  Now, she will say, "Good Luck, Charlie is on for 30 minutes, and there are 3 of them on until Daddy is home, so that's an hour and 30 minutes."  Another big step for us, that maybe most wouldn't understand :)

        More cooking stories!  We made no-bake cookies yesterday.  They're super simple and have a lot of "easy" measurements that the kids helped me with.  Sophie can whip out ingredients and measurements like nobodies business now, when it comes to cooking.  Also, I arranged them on one long piece of wax paper to set up, in equal rows.  I showed the kids how to count in a fast, easy way by saying "there are 3 rows, with 5 in each row.  That means 3 5's or 3 x 5, which is 15.  So we have 15 cookies."  Doubt this stuck with them, and I didn't really go into more than what I just said, but maybe if we do enough visual things like this, it will eventually "click" like other things have this week.  FYI, those things went FAST.  No more cookies :( lol.

        Sophie has been a texting/emailing demon lately.  She is keeping in contact with several of her public school buddies via Facebook.  I love that they are at an age where written communication is possible.  Sophie isn't a phone person (comes by that honest... I hate to talk on a phone!), but is such a social butterfly.  She has especially been talking to her BFF Makayla, and I've read quite a few of these convos (with Sophie's permission!).  They both type out all their words, no "text language" of u for you or ur for your etc.  Sophie is very good at typing out things, waaaay better than her actual writing of her thoughts.  We still struggle with her putting her words and ideas on paper.  I still blame this on being told that her written assignments were "bad" and that she wasn't good at it.  I wish teachers could understand how much damage they do!!  We have been using the Rory's Story Cubes a lot and I can't express how much I love, love, love these!!  A big thanks to a couple friends for pointing me in their direction (Felica :))).  Sophie can tell some pretty imaginative and awesome stories VERBALLY, but will freeze when asked to write a story on paper.  Something we will continue to work on, but I refuse to push her on.  I feel like if I push her with anything, she will just push back, and that helps no one.  We are still in the stages of "de-schooling" and unlearning all the bad habits and ideas that public school instilled in us both.

        Lil Man has been doing a lot this week, too, besides being a meanie.  He's rebelling a lot, and trying to push our limits.  I'm working on saying NO less and trying to pay him more one on one attention, because I think that's part of his problem.  Typical middle child syndrome lol and he's just naturally a very strong willed person, like his Daddy.  He has been talking about rhyming words a lot, and will ask me if things rhyme.  Usually they do not.  He confuses rhyming words with words that have the same beginning sounds.  Example: he will say, "Do SPOON and SPILL rhyme?" and I will say "No, but SPOON and MOON rhyme."  We'll go back and forth like this forever, and eventually, he will come up with a rhyming set, but most likely, the second word will be a nonsense word.  Its a long road, and I keep reminding myself that he is just five, and really good at math type things.  Its only normal that he isn't strong in all areas.

       We haven't really been focusing on too many "science" things lately.  We've broached the topic of anatomy when I was sick and the kids were curious about what was wrong with me.  Sophie wasn't as interested in this as Lil Man, and I didn't really want to get too awful in depth with him.  Sophie is still super into dinosaurs and reads about them a lot in her free time.  Lil Man has been investigating the world outside, since the weather has been nice, and will often ask me to identify leaves or other plants.  Max is also into the whole, "What is this?" thing when bringing me flowers from outdoors. 

     We have talked about the government briefly when we were still going the textbook route.  Sophie tends to zone out, and I don't blame her, its BORING.  She did really enjoy a supply and demand worksheet we did, and lately we've discussed some things similar to that.  Being a pre-teen girl, she really GETS the whole concept of it, and it appeals to her because of her desire to open a bakery.  We've talked about things she would like to sell in her shop, and how a lot of people really liked our snickerdoodle bars, so they would sell fast, etc.  We've also been talking a lot about our present government and how she doesn't agree with a lot that's going on.  Sophie is very into the Hunger Games; she's seen the first movie and read about half the first book.  She's been talking about how she can see how things eventually led to how they are in the story.  Very intuitive of a 9 year old I think. 

     Just a quick catch-up post since I've been so random about my posting lately.  Its been hard, being sick and trying to keep up with house work and the family.  I need more hours in the day!!!

:( AWOL and sorry

        This is a quick update on the monkees....  I have been sooo sick.  I have kidney problems that occasionally raise their ugly heads, kidney stones being the most common.  The other day I was hit by a really bad attack of stones at 4am (after the hubby left OF COURSE) and I've been pretty well medicated since.  Because of that, we've done less around here.  Sophie has been helping out A LOT while I've been laid up in bed, feeling awful.  I explained about kidney stones, and why I was in so much pain, trying to lessen the scariness of the whole situation.  The boys both started a little game of what has kidneys lol, like cats, dogs, and horses, versus things that do not, like cars.

        Sophie hasn't done much other than play Animal Jam on NatGeo kids.  She likes it because she can be a variety of animals, she is socializing with other kids, and there are a lot of mini-games on there.  She's already learned several codes that you have to enter to do things, and I feel like its teaching her language arts skills in a very "Real" setting.  She is typing conversation back and forth with other kids her age and developing friendships.  She is on a limited account right now, but is requesting membership for her birthday.  Its $50 for a year of membership, which isn't too bad, but definitely a present type purchase.  If she is still super interested in it by July, I think I will get her the year package.

        Lil Man is becoming more interested in writing and reading.  He has been writing his name a lot, and does quite well.  He has also been asking how to spell other things, and how to make those letters, with minimal mistakes.  He is noticing words in his environment as well, and will ask me what things say, or will trace a letter in the air and ask what it is.  His natural curiosity is a great learning tool and I'm amazed by what he can absorb in a day.  I print out worksheets for him when he asks, but he quickly loses interest with those, so I'm not in any hurry to purchase a curriculum for him.  I wish he would stay home with me longer, but he is dead set on going to kindergarten next year.

      Hopefully I will be back to posting more regularly, again, but there are no promises with medical things lol.  I'm going to be researching our "curriculum" for next year in the coming months, so there will be a lot about that going.

What to do??

       We've reached a sort of impasse today.  Sophie is in a tough place math-wise.  She hates it, it kind of hate her back lol.  She can do the basics (addition, subtraction, and easy multiplication/division), but anything more is just beyond her.  She struggles when math is presented to her in anything but the most everyday way... for example, if you handed her 17 cookies and said to split them evenly between her and the boys, she could, and know that she will have 2 left over.  But if you asked her, "What's 17 divided by 3?" or even, "Sophie if you have 17 cookies and have to split them evenly between 3 people, what would each person have?" she is stumped.  She needs to see it in front of her, working.  The abstract, in your head, IDEA of math is just too much.  I don't know what to do to fix this, or if it even really NEEDS fixed.  We have calculators, they are accessible to us at all times these days, what with smart phones.  Why does she need to have it memorized that 17 divided by 3 is 5 with a remainder of 2?  I think I'm going to just let her be for now.  She plays math games all the time online, at multiplication.com and coolmath-games.com.  She uses various skills on these games, including basic math, strategy, geometry, etc.  I'm comfortable knowing she can use her knowledge to achieve what she wants.  And honestly, she has the skills she needs to do what she wants in life at this point (bakery owner/chef).  Next year, I'm buying the full set of Spectrum curriculum workbooks, which I will give her to use at her own discretion.  I don't want to PUSH her in any direction, but I want them to be there if she chooses to use them.  I'm hoping she will at least be interested in the math book.

        We finished our "Road to Revolution" project yesterday.  We found the project idea online, that a fourth grade class did in groups.  Obviously we don't have "groups", but we worked together on it.  She researched 10 events that led up to the United States becoming a country, found the year it happened and wrote up 2 sentences summarizing the event.  We purchased a medium sized poster board and I drew a "road" with ten segments for her to write her sentences in and Sophie decorated the "road sides" with trees and a period style house.  She worked quite hard on it, and we are both proud with the results.  I'm not going to lie and say she did this completely alone.  I helped her research the events, using the textbook the school lent us and Wikipedia, and helped her to summarize the events into a more kid friendly couple sentences.  All in all, though, she did the bulk of the work, and I think learned something along the way.  She didn't much like the writing part of it, as she struggles with putting her thoughts onto paper, but she did like the research and looking up ideas for the illustrations.  She does enjoy history when it isn't all about dates and textbooks.  Once again, she needs to be able to see it and have it in front of her, visually teaching her.  Words and pictures in a book are just not enough.

            We have been watching a lot of "Octonauts" on Disney Junior.  All 3 of the kids are interested in marine biology right now, following our trip to the beach, and this show is a fun way of learning snippets of it.  We watched an episode yesterday that was about a baby dolphin getting lost because he ended up being in the wrong slip stream.  This was something new to ALL of us, because even I didn't know about slip streams or that each dolphin has its own whistle that identifies them.  In the same episode was a species of fish we had never heard of called "spookfish", which are a subspecies of barrelfish who have transparent heads.  "Octonauts" may not be the most scientific of ways of learning, but it appeals to all three of the kids at once, which I like.  No one is over their head, everyone is having fun, and they are learning without even realizing it :)

         We are also into what I guess would be called cryptozoology right now.  There are several tv programs on discovery and destination America (channels) that are about animals/creatures that may or may not exist.  Sophie and Lil Man are very into this right now and have been on the fence about the actual existence of the creatures.  Sophie is more believing I think, which I found surprising considering she is the older one.  She is very fanciful though, and imaginative, thinking up stories and ideas that are less realistic in nature.  I like when the shows take a more scientific route than just a retelling of people's stories, personally, because they see how "scientists" or researchers find evidence either way and theorize from there.  They both like ghost hunter type shows, too, and often have their own expeditions.  Sophie uses her ipod to record them trying to find the ghosts or creatures, or acts like they have caught evidence of either thing.  We have discussed how scientists theorize that ghosts are a type of energy and therefore show up using several devices that measure different types of energy, like the people of TAPS use.  I think we will do more research on that and maybe conduct our own "ghost hunt".

Home Again

        Well, we got back to West Virginia today around dinner time.  What a crazy car ride!!  We made the trip TO South Carolina during the night, so the kids were asleep, there was minimal traffic, and it was quiet.  Not so on the way back... we ran into traffic jams, car accidents, and all 3 kids complained and fought.  Yuck.

      We had a great week!  We went to the beach, played in the water and collected sea shells (and found a piece of coral SUPER COOL).  There was a lot of discussion about marine life, so I think when we go back to library, we will be getting some books out about that.  The kids were amazed to learn that coral isn't a plant, but more of an "animal" life form.  We are all curious about the creatures that live in the shells we found, so we're going to google that info, now that we are back to the internet.  Yeah... a week with mostly no internet access SUCKED.  We also found 2 jelly fish that had washed up on the shore, dead.  We poked it a bit with a stick, I'm not sure if they can "sting" you after they're dead or not, and were surprised at how solid it was.  More rubbery than jelly like.

 

 

 

               We went to Bass Pro Shops in the mall down there, as well.  They have a HUGE fish tank in the back of the store.  It had several species of fish in it, but we all liked the big puffer fish.  Well, Max was amazed with all the fish.  They were at least as big as him, but some were probably almost as big as me!  The whole store was set up really educationally, if you ask me, with animal tracks indented into the floor, so the kids had a ball identifying them and then following the trail to the placard to see if they were right.  Sophie was right about 99% of the time.  Lil Man got the deer tracks right, which I'm not surprised.  They go hunting with Gary quite a bit.  There was also some fossil indents in the floor.  The kids found a huge sea turtle one by the fish tank that they liked.

 

 

          Mom had warned us about the lizards at her house.  Sophie, being herself, decided to hunt them down.  It wasn't too hard lol.  On the warm days, they sun themselves on her back porch.  I'm pretty sure they are just anoles, which I had one for a pet when I was Sophie's age.  They're tame little things, friendly, and keep the bug population down.  They also swim, we learned, as they are not afraid to jump in the pool with you =/    Sophie wanted to capture one to bring home as a pet, but we didn't have a little cage for it, so we couldn't.  You can buy anoles online for a couple dollars though, and I wouldn't feel so bad about taking one from its natural habitat.  I want to get Sophie some kind of creature to take care of, either a lizard, frogs, or chickens.   The lizard or frogs would definitely be the least work! lol.

 

 

Busy Busy Busy

        Life has been crazy around here the last couple days!  We're getting ready to go to Myrtle Beach yay!!!!!  It will be the first vacation that we've taken all together as a family since 2004, and we only had Sophie back then.  I've been trying to dig out shorts, flip flops, get directions, and basically go nuts in the mean time lol.  We're leaving tomorrow and we'll be gone for 10 days.  I won't be posting while we're down there, but I'll take lots of pics and post them later :)

        We've mostly been talking about dinosaurs still.  Sophie has read the library book about a million times and showed it to everyone, including company that came to visit.  She's also got a free ebook on the kindle about dinosaurs and fossils that she's looked at a couple times along with a website she put on her favorites that is about dinos and has a bunch of educational type games.  Just about anything dinosaur involved has been happening here.  I had forgotten how much I liked dinosaurs and learning about them until Sophie got into them.  And a lot has changed in the last 18 years or so, I'm shocked!  Or maybe there is just more information out about them?  I don't know.  Its funny that she is becoming sooo into dinosaurs right now, because Jurassic Park is being re-released as 3D.  Sophie is DYING to go see it.  I'm seriously considering it, I want to see it myself!

       Sophie has decided that she is going to open up a bakery, sooner rather than later.  I'm going to look into what she needs to have in order to sell baked goods at a semi-professional level.  Obviously we don't have a building to house a business, but if we could make some stuff, package it, and sell it, she'd be happy to make a few bucks.  She has a whole list of things she wants to buy, and I think making her own money would help her to figure out what stuff she really wants and to appreciate it more. 

         I started crocheting a couple days ago.  Nothing fancy, a couple dish cloths, a pretty little flower/snowflake, and a granny square, but now Sophie is wanting to do that, too.  I'm going to teach her, but I need to get her a easier to handle crochet hook.  I tried with the one I have been using, and her fingers wouldn't do what she wanted.  She has fine-motor skills issue, which I think is coming into play here.  I'm hoping by doing something she WANTS to do, not really HAVING to learn, it will be a mind over matter situation.  She is still struggling with shoe laces, but that isn't fun, so it doesn't hold much appeal.  If she can get the hang of it, I think we'll do a mother-daughter project with it.  I was thinking about getting a real fine, white yarn and making Christmas tree ornaments :)  We usually have homemade ornaments on our tree.

Dragons and Castles

                 The kids got to play with the sensory bin I created yesterday.  All 3 started out excited to play with it, but after the first, ohh 20 minutes? only Max was playing with it.  Sophie said it was a little boring, Little Man didn't really offer a reason, but Max had a blast with it.  Sophie went back to it a couple times over the course of the day, playing for maybe 10 minutes at a time.  I joined in at one point, just because it seems like such fun.  The colors are super vibrant and the kool aid left it smelling a lot like fruity pebbles.  During our joint play session, Sophie messed around with the 1/8 measure and the 1/3 measure.  She estimated that 4 scoops of the 1/8 measure would fill the 1/3 measure and then we tried it.  3 filled it up pretty much, so she said 3/8 was almost equal to 1/3.  I didn't do the actual math until later, but she was pretty darn close.  3/8 equals 9/24, and 1/3 equals 8/24.  She does so well with math when its in real life situations!  I'm proud of her :)

 

It started off so pretty and neat lol

 

After the kids were done =/  It still smells yummy though

 

            Gary found a castle playhouse the other day, too.  The kids have been wanting a play house for a while now, but our plan had been to build one when we had the time/money.  This was in perfect condition though and such a neat idea!  The kids were excited when he brought it home, but it was kind of late, so they didn't get much play in besides a couple times down the slide.  Yesterday, the sun was shining enough that they were able to really get out there and enjoy it.  Sophie took the lead, as usual, and decided that they were going to pretend that the yard was their kingdom and Max was the King, she was the Princess, and our cat, Bad Kitty, was the dragon protecting the castle.  Little Man wasn't home yet, or I'm sure he would have been recruited to be something too lol.  They played forever at that castle play house! 

 

 



 

             Sophie is getting more and more interested in dinosaurs lately.  We got that book from the library, and she had me look up some stuff online for her to look at.  We found some print out information cards on quite a few species of dinos, and she's been looking at them.  She's amazed at how big they really were and has theorized that maybe WV didn't have any because we are so mountainous, and that didn't leave much room for the dinosaurs to move around where they were so big.  I hadn't thought of that myself, and I can't find any research that suggests that, but its as plausible as anything else!  She also watched an episode of Octonauts on Disney Jr about Narwhal whales and was interested in those.  We looked up some pictures of real Narwhals and read about how they are hunted for their horns and blubber.  We also read how their horns can grow to be 10 feet, and baby Narwhals are around 5 feet long at birth.  That is just a bit taller than she is now, at 9, and that amazed her.  She was especially interested in how their horns were once mistaken for unicorn horns.  She made the connection that sailors also thought manatees were mermaids in the past.  She said that many legends were later debunked to be new animals that people just hadn't ever seen before, and that as science learns more, legends are often left behind for the truth.  She's enjoying this way of learning science much more than textbook learning!  I think it helps that this is all about animals, which interest her anyway lol

Library!!

               We went to the library today and got a bunch of books!  The kids always love going there and playing with the puzzles and picking out books.  Its a little rougher on me, since the boys are in one room and Sophie has moved on to the Young Adult section and everyone wants Momma at one time...    One of the main books we got this time is a dinosaur book that focuses on 5 (I think) dinos.  Sophie was disappointed because it didn't include the T-Rex, which is her favorite, so we'll have to get some more out when we go back.  We also researched what kind of dinosaurs lived in West Virginia, only to find out NONE :(  There has been no evidence of actual dinosaurs in our state, but in all surrounding ones.  I think that news disappointed us ALL.  Sophie and the boys invented their own species of dinosaur that they are calling the Sugarloaf dinosaur.  It has 3 different "calls" that signal either danger, hunger, or spotting another Sugarloaf dinosaur.  They made up a walk/run for the dinosaur (sort of up on your toes, with your arms cocked back like chicken wings lol), and its a carnivore apparently because it eats chicken and ham.  Creative little buggers lol

    
           The kids played outside for a while, before the wind sent them back inside.  They set up a play tent and some chairs and toys to be a camp site.  Sophie is so much like me with wanting things ordered "just so".  She wouldn't use all 5 chairs because they didn't line up the right way (in other words evenly).  It really was too chilly for Max outside though, and they came in before getting too into the campground play.  Hopefully it warms up more soon.  I have been wanting to go walking and see if we can spot more Springtime signs, but I'm not trying to freeze my butt off in the process.

           I was finally able to make it to the grocery store, since Gary has the next 3 days off, and I bought the stuff to make the kids the sensory bin!!  I bought a big 5 lb bag of rice for a couple bucks and some packets of kool aid.  It was a super simple process:  put a cup of rice, a packet of kool aid, and 1 teaspoon of alcohol in a gallon Ziploc bag, get as much air out as possible then smoosh to your heart's content.  Let the rice "soak" in the bag for 15-20 mins, then dry on trays.  It did take a couple hours for it to dry... or rather SOME of it.  Red and purple dried crazy quick, then the orange, then the green.  Blue took forever and a day and the kids were going crazy looking at it drying and not being about to touch it.  I lined it up in the bin, but I know as soon as the kids get into it tomorrow it will be all mixed up.  Oh well!  It's pretty for now lol.  I really like the kool aid method because the fruity smell masks the alcohol smell after its dried, and its an added sensory tool.  I'm going to let them play with this for a while and when they seem to be getting bored, I'll switch up the stuff in it.  I'm thinking of making homemade moon sand next.   This time I just put a couple spoons and measuring cups in, but I'll let the kids add stuff if they choose as well.

 

The rice drying in little foil trays I made

 

The sensory bin set up BEFORE the kids get a hold of it

 

 

             All the talk of dinosaurs and prehistoric West Virginia got Sophie thinking.  We had touched on the fact that WV was once inhabited by Adena Indians, who were mound builders, before.  Gary's dad lives on a piece of property that once had a mound, but it was desecrated a long long time ago.  Sophie wanted to see if there was any pictures of it online, but alas there was not.  I think it was robbed too long ago, like before photographs, and I'm fairly certain the grave robbers didn't think to sketch it before they tore it apart lol.  But in doing that, we happened across an article about the Beards Fork petroglyphs, which are just a couple miles from us.  Gary grew up in the area and had never seen them, so we are planning a exploration trip when it warms up.  He has seen similar ones up his dad's holler though, and is trying to remember exactly where they are so we can go look at them too.  This time period really interests us all and its nice to have a piece of history literally in your back yard.  

Cookies and Bubbles

                I knew we were going to have a kind of tough day today as soon as I woke up.  For starters, it was raining and cold, which meant we weren't going to get much outside time.  The first thing Sophie did was look at the inside/outside thermometer and announce that it was only 47 degrees and that the sky was dark and stormy looking.  Yuck!  We watched some TV, the kids ate some candy, and then everyone got all sugar-high and crazy.  I had seen a recipe for homemade bubble solution the other day so I googled it.  (6 parts cold water, 2 parts dish soap like dawn, 1 part corn syrup in case you were wondering)  I made that as quick as possible in a Tupperware container and bundled the 3 of them up.  We didn't have any leftover bubble wands or anything, so I told the kids to get creative.  They found an old straw (the party favor kind that whistles), an egg whisk, a plastic bangle bracelet, a cheese grater, and a spaghetti spoon.  I sent them out to the front porch to have fun, while I cleaned up my Easter Disaster House lol.  They experimented with all the different ways the bubbles came out with the different utensils, but that they were ALWAYS circles no matter what shape the hole on the "wand" was.  Sophie also liked how the bubbles had rainbow reflections on them and said it was maybe some kind of light bending thing (we did some brief reading on light waves a week or two ago, apparently SOME of it stuck lol).  It was kind of too cold to play outside with the bubbles for long, even with jackets and hats and whatnot on, since you are sticking your  fingers into cold bubble solution in 40 degree weather.  Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the bubble adventure since I was stuck cleaning the house :(

          After being inside for a while, Sophie got to talking about cooking.  She is currently pretty obsessed with cooking of any kind, but particularly baking.  She is always asking to help me with meals or treats and to make her own "alone" (with supervision of course).  For the last year or so, Sophie has been saying she wanted to be an architect when she grew up.  She wanted to make everyone a house, and they make a lot of money.  I have been trying to explain that money isn't everything, that you only need enough for all your needs and some of your wants.  Today, I suggested that maybe she would like to be a chef or baker when she grows up, because then she would get to do something she really enjoys for a career.  This fueled questions of how much money do they make, would she get to own her own business, and how do you get people to work for you.  So now her plan is to someday own a bakery and co-own a plant shop with her Meme.  After all that conversation, Sophie was apparently hungry, because she asked me to find a recipe for something yummy to cook.  I looked around and found one online for snickerdoodle blondies, which I had all the ingredients for.  I had her get all the ingredients together, measuring them herself with a little prompting from me, and she put it all together.  They were delicious!!  She really is an accomplished baker already at 9.  And that is something we both enjoy doing, so its a "together" project.  We often browse through my tons of cookbooks together and fantasize about making elaborate meals. 

        Another thing Sophie has been into a lot lately is drawing or even Art in general.  She asked for art supplies for Easter and I got her watercolors, markers and colored pencils.  She has been drawing since then pretty much non-stop.  She had never used watercolors before, but has picked it up quickly.  Most of her drawings are of animals, but more like cartoon animals, as they often have clothes and make up on, and they are doing human activities.  I'm not sure if this is because its more interesting making them "girly" or just because she likes making cartoon-type drawings.  Maybe she isn't even sure herself.  Either way, I'm letting her feel this out on her own.  Little Man has also been drawing with her a lot.  He sticks to shapes mostly, hearts in particular.  He's good at them and stays in his drawn outline 95% of the time when coloring them in.  He hasn't asked to do any letter worksheets lately, so I can't comment on his handwriting skills here of late.  He was getting pretty frustrated with himself last time we printed out his name to trace, so I'm actually glad he's taking a break.  No sense in stressing himself out. 

             When I get a chance to go to the grocery store, I'm planning on getting some supplies for a sensory bin type box.  It will mostly be for the boys, but I'm not going to tell Sophie she CAN'T play with it.  I'll include some measuring tools and hopefully she will practice a bit with them.  I have seen a ton of ideas for sensory bins online lately, but most of them are so blatantly educational that I'm not going to "copy" them.  I am not trying to push education down my kids throats, and I don't see how making a three year old have a whole week of a single letter themed play is going to help.  That's just my opinion though, so if that's your style, go with it.  I do have a plan in the future to label a lot of things in our house with their names, just as a visual tool to SEE it when you THINK it kind of thing. I don't know if it will do anything in the way of helping and I don't plan on making it a lesson at all, but if he asks what they say I will explain it and let it go.  I'm still working on a way to make these labels that won't hurt whatever it is I'm labeling lol so I'm not sure when this will be happening.

             Sorry no pictures in this post!!!  I haven't really had the time to take a lot of pics today :(  But its been a busy day and when I've had the chance, I have been in the middle of the activity, not observing.

           

Hey, Sunshine! Welcome to WV :)

            It was just Max and I this morning when we got up today, which always makes for a lazy, quiet day.  He's pretty content first thing to just sit around, watch TV, and drink some juicy.  Lion King 2- Simba's Pride was on, and we're all Lion King fans (great family values!).  Max got a little sad though, and said, "Our daddy isn't here, he went home..."  LOL he meant work!  But I agree, we miss Gary when he isn't here.  He has to work tomorrow, too, which will be the first holiday in a LONG time that he's missed.   About half-way through the movie, Max realized just how nice it was outside and asked to get dressed and go play.  The sun was shining brightly and it was in the mid-60's, so I was game for a little soaking in the rays myself.

         There was a lot going on outside!  Up the road a bit, some workers were putting on a roof, which was LOUD!  Max kept telling them to quiet down, since he is a little sensitive to noises, but after a while he was too interested in everything else to even notice.  We found a couple creepy crawlies in the grass, which prompted a search for worms underneath our brick walkway.  I think it might be a little too early for them, since we only found a few teeny tiny babies.  There wasn't much other bug life going on under there, which is unusual.  Again, I blame the unseasonably cold weather :(  Max was disappointed and asked the bugs where they were a few times.

 

Pulling up bricks

 

Baby worms... so cute!

 

 

            Later on, Lil Man came home from Mamaw's.  Him and Sophie had spent the night over there, but then the girls went dress shopping for church tomorrow.  That's no fun!!  He watched a little TV with Max, then asked if we could do an experiment.  Hmm.... What kind of experiment would interest a 5 year old boy??  All I could think of was volcanoes lol, so we got out the vinegar and baking soda (and some food coloring to make it pretty).  We picked green the first time, and the reaction shocked him for a couple minutes.  We got a pretty decent foam going on, and it spilled over the cup sides and all over the sink.  That was declared "AWESOME" and we did it two more times in pink and blue.  I think we could have went on and on with that, but I ran out of vinegar. 

 

 

 

         By then, the boys were both looking to get into something messy.  We don't have much going on in the house right now, so I suggested we fill a bucket up with water and play with that outside.  Of course they were both all for that!  Water play just sounds so summer-like :) and I think we are ALL just waiting for summer.  They started out with just the 5 gallon bucket of water and a couple cups, when I went inside.  It wasn't long before I heard a lot of laughter coming through the house.  Lil Man found an old washer hose and was using it to spray water everywhere, just like an elephant.  They took turns using it to carry water over to my flower beds to water the flowers, which are non-existent at this point.  The water didn't last long, but that didn't stop the boys!  Lil Man discovered that the hose had many uses, including carrying sound.  He would make noises in one end and they came out the other end like a telephone!!  Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of the water play.  My phone was dying and I'm not too keen on getting a brand new iphone around water! 

 

         I don't think the boys realize tomorrow is Easter yet.  They have played with some empty plastic eggs today that they got at a egg hunt yesterday, and ate a little candy, but no mention of actual Easter.  Usually they would all be hyper over the anticipation.  I'm guessing its because Sophie isn't here to tell them.  The boys are much more into the NOW of today and don't really plan the future.  Sophie is a planner by nature, and thinks about events months away even.  I never really noticed the difference in their personalities until lately.  Sophie is a reader, as long as its something that interests her, and likes to make up long, complicated (but very verbal not written) stories.  Lil Man is more into numbers.  He's only 5, but he can count high, I'm not positive to what exactly but the other night we hit 120 before he got tired of it.  He can also add and subtract already, although entirely in his head.  He isn't writing yet, besides the occasional tracing of his name, and I'm fine with that.  I worry about him going to school next year and what they will force on him.  He's insistent about going though.  He wants to ride the bus and do the school thing.  And I don't want to take the experience away from him, if that's what he really wants to do.  I'm torn.  I only hope that public school doesn't steal his spark, like it was doing to Sophie.

 

           Well, until next time!  We're going to go play some more and get ready for Easter.... Even though we'll be spending it alone and be missing our Daddy  :( 

 

HAPPY EASTER!!!

 





It's (a) Good Friday

          Its a beautiful day here in WV, with the weather acting much more like Spring now.  It's Good Friday, which anyone who knows their theology can tell you is the day that Jesus was crucified.  We're gearing up for Easter, the kids are discussing candy, eggs, and the story of Jesus.  They are going with their Mamaw later today, to an Easter egg hunt in Beckley, proceeds going to the Children's Miracle Network, and everyone is very excited with the plan.

         A couple days ago, we made Resurrection Cookies.  We were bored, Sophie wanted to "make something", which is a request I'm hearing a lot lately.  She loves baking and concocting strange recipes.  I did a quick google search to make sure we had all the ingredients (we did!) and I printed out the story that goes along with it, and we started.  Resurrections Cookies are nothing more than meringues, sometimes called "Forgotten Cookies" because you leave them in a preheated, then shut off, oven ALL NIGHT LONG.  When you wake up the next morning, you get a yummy breakfast treat.  The trick with the Resurrection Cookies, is that you tell about Jesus being prosecuted, beaten, and crucified while you make the cookies, using the ingredients and actions as props.  It was a lot of fun and kids got a kick out of how they were hollow the next morning.

          We ran out of juice this morning.  This is a big deal in the Monkee House, because 2 out of 3 Monkees are allergic to milk, and let's face it, plain water is BORING.  (I water down the juice before I provoke a nutrition lecture)  We poked around the cabinets for a while, looking for something to make, finding only a single packet of kool aid and some crystal light single packs.  Ugh.  Then Sophie found our Sun Tea jug.  Hmmm....  The sun was shining brightly (Thank you Mother Nature!) and while it was cool, it wasn't cold.  Sounds like a science experiment to this Momma.  We set it out in the backyard, where we get the most sunshine, and waited.  Sure enough, it brewed right up, no problem.  Sophie announced that apparently Sun Tea only needs sun, not summer heat, to make the tea bags work.  We then flavored it with that lone kool aid packet.  So we are the proud drinkers of Springtime, strawberry-kiwi Sun Tea.  Yum!!!

 

Doesn't she look thrilled? Haha!

 

Yummy!!!

It Begins!!!

       Well, I did it.  I finally decided to make my own blog.  There are a number of reasons I'm doing this.  For starters, everyone else is doing it, and I felt a little left out haha... but more importantly, I have made the decision to not only homeschool Sophie, I'm leaning towards "unschooling" and I need a way to document our adventures.

       West Virginia is middle of the road in the homeschooling laws.  They ask that you file a notice of intent, tell them what you will be teaching/learning, and that you turn in an assessment at the end of the year.  Unfortunately, that makes things a little difficult from a unschooling perspective.  How am I supposed to tell the county what we will be learning?  I don't know the answer to that myself.  What I DO know is this:  Traditional school learning isn't working for Sophie.  She can read (and loves it as long as its a Goosebumps book), she can technically write, but she hates it and is convinced she CAN'T.  Hand that girl a recording device, though, and she will tell you hours of stories that are pretty darn good.  She hates math.  Hates it because she doesn't "get it".  If she's given a worksheet, it will take her at least an hour, sometimes longer, to finish it.  And even then, she's not really sure what she's doing or why.  But USING math, in every day situations?  She can do that.  She baked a cake, from scratch, using only limited measuring tools, no problems, no tears, and it tasted delicious.  She read a ghost story online, circa 2007, and announced happily that she was 4 when it happened.  And don't get me started on science and social studies.  It bores her to the point that she literally has glassy eyes and she just zones out, not listening, not retaining.  But she loves history, without having to worry about specific dates and boring details.  She is thrilled at hearing about our heritage, and what happened in the area that we live.  She just doesn't want to read about it in a textbook.  She is excited to do experiments, to design her own, to hypothesize what is going to happen when she does certain things.  The DESIRE to learn is there.

           And so we set out, the three kids and I, on the adventure of our lives.