Saturday, May 12, 2007

saturday morning...

Today is a glorious day... the sun is shining and a cool breeze is blowing through the windows. I sure wish the weather would decide what season we are having. I am just thankful we havent had any freak snow storms lately... April was bad enough. Today it feels positively autumnish... and part of me expects to smell that glorious scent of woodsmoke in the air.

Everyone in the family is up now... well 'cept for Daddy... he is still snoozing away, even with the alarm shrieking at him every 15 minutes or so. As soon as teengirl is out of the shower I will pour Dad a cup of coffee... poke him until he rouses and jump in the shower myself. Then it will be a matter of directing him in that general direction and we can hop in the van and head north.

Generally traveling any distance in the car with the girls is unfun... you know that saying that goes... that which doesnt kill me makes me stronger? I think Nietzche knew my girls and what its like to be trapped in the car with them...lol today I am taking Harry Potter and the order of the phoenix with me... Maddy can take her copy... Teengirl will have her cellphone and probably spend the time texting her bf... and daddy will drive and mumble to himself.. and hopefully we can all get there with a minimum of stress and bickering ...

There is a family game night tonight with the homeschooling group... just found out about it last night... *sigh* I really should use a different email address so that the notices come straight to my regular mailbox... Tomorrow is Mothers day and I know Maddy and Daddy have some stuff they need to do tonight...Teengirl already shopped and if Maddy doesnt have something to give me tomorrow she will feel awful =( I really dont want to be rushing through the museum today but we will see... if we get home in time and they can get their stuff done we will go... I would hate to miss another though... we missed the last one too.

Since we pulled Maddy out of PS in mid march we have been trying to "complete" her school year and deschool her all at the same time. Some of the things we have done have been Maddy-directed... but for the most part we have tried to continue on with the Maine studies... and keep up with the learner results that Maine participates in. We did get the Saxon math curriculum for 4th graders... it was one area Daddy and I both agree we need to emphasize.. Teengirl has struggled so much because of lack of basic math skills, and the funny thing is Maddy isnt the only one becoming more comfy with math... Mom is too. *smiles* The kid is doing basic algebra and the way the books are introducing it... its natural (well as natural as 5n=5x3 can be LOL. Next year I forsee being totally different, more relaxed ... and more spontaneous.

I have spent a lot of time lately reading other peoples blogs... seeing how they do things, wondering what would work for Maddy and I... what I know wouldnt work for us... I have added a huge number of blogs to my list.. and i have been trying to read them all... I have become addicted to reading homeschooling blogs lol...

Well Hubby/Daddy/Puterdude just wandered by with his towel... so I gotta scoot.

~have a great one... and peace
Regi

Friday, May 11, 2007

and so it begins...

Tomorrow we are going to the State of Maine Museum in Augusta. It should be a lot of fun. Just the thing to wrap up the unit on Maine we have been finishing up. She just finished reading a really good book called Sign of the Beaver. Its about a young boy whose father leaves him to take care of the cabin and the crops while he travels to massachusetts to bring back his wife, their daughter and the new baby. He tells his son Matt it should take 7 weeks. Maddy and I learned quite a bit about life in those days...

We have also been studying nutrition for our health unit. We have read about and manipulated the food pyramid... and currently we are studying a book called The Healthy Body Cookbook by Joan D'Amico and Karen Eich Drummond. It has a lot of interesting articles about our body and what foods we need to keep it healthy. Maddy has been having fun reading the articles and doing some of the experiments.

For Math we have been using Saxon's math 54 ... (typically used in 4th grade) we used a placement test to see which books we should purchase. She is really learning a lot ... and so is mum. *smiles*

For science so far we have studied volcanoes and how the earth is made up. We are moving into rocks and minerals... and I hope to take her and her sister on a rock expedition later on this spring/early summer. She has also developed a fascinatin with horseshoe crabs... and has been feeding the ants outside to see what different foods they like to eat. Everytime someone comes over she is careful to remind them to walk around her pets who decided to settle right in the middle of the walk way. Im not sure what we would have done if the ants had decided to move indoors... might have had a battle on our hands. *smile*

For reading etc we have been rather relaxed... the child is a avid reader, she is reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by Rowlings, Dragon Rider by Funke, just finished up Sign of the Beaver by Speare, and a book called East by Pattou. Sometimes I will have her write a letter to a friend about the book, or have her re-write the ending of the story etc... but mostly she just drifts from book to book...

I am really looking forward to our trip to Augusta tomorrow... if only Ms Maddy would go to sleep... she is really torqued up about our adventure.

~peace
Regi