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Showing posts from October, 2011
I've been alternating between 15 minutes of cleaning and 15 minutes of resting. I got the idea to do this from Fly Lady. She is always saying to "set a timer." This has done wonders for my house since I am keeping up with the regular chores and even getting to all the projects that I "didn't have time for" before (like cleaning out my closets and organizing my drawers). It's also done wonders for my mental health since I am no longer discouraged by all the things that need to be done and I'm not overwhelmed by the prospect of cleaning without any end in sight. I only start this alternating after we are done with school for the day, when I see the chores piling up and when have a few hours to kill (like in the afternoon once Avril goes down for a nap). Before I started timing myself, I just cleaned and cleaned till it was all done and I dropped. But I find it easier to talk myself into fifteen minutes and right about the time I am feeling any st
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We reviewed all the parts of cells by building an edible cell with jello and candy for all the various organelles. It was supposed to look like this, but when we turned ours over, it collapsed. Norah wasn't too upset since it was still edible, after all.
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It snowed today! It usually doesn't snow till sometime in November! The girls played while I cooked dinner. They were so hungry that they licked their dinner right up. (I made them wait for hot chocolate till after they finished their meals.) I'd like to take the girls sledding tomorrow after church. I hope Dwayne feels up to it because I'll need his help getting the baby back up the big hill. It's only two days till Halloween, so I really hope the neighbors clear their walks in time for us to get to their doors for candy!
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Five stars for Cadoo ! I got this board game a long time ago from the thrift store for something like $3. It didn't have the wrapper on the outside, but all the inside parts were still wrapped and accounted for so it was basically brand new. We finally got around to playing it last night and it is awesome. This is a really fun game for parents to play with kids between the ages of 10-6. It really helps if kids are reading on a basic elementary level. Our youngest, Avril, couldn't play but we sat her with us and we gave her her own pieces to hold and the sculpting clay kept her busy while the rest of us took turns. I think this might be our new favorite thing for a while.
My Resolutions for 2011. Run a 5k. This one will stay on the list to be completed sometime next year once I am up and going again. Follow Fly Lady's Flight Plan every single day. I'm doing better with this since I am not so sick. I can usually manage to do everything Fly Lady assigns by the end of the day or make up for it by doing double or triple later in the week. Mend my quilts. I am sewing the girls' Halloween costumes right now. I made Avril a dress and I am working on another dress and two sets of pajamas. I had forgotten I even wanted to mend my quilts. But I think I can manage to mend them as I am sitting under them by the fire and I'm doing that more and more often now that the weather has gotten chilly. Let Norah play outside . She hasn't been out much at all lately. If it's sunny out this week, I'll encourage her to play in the yard, at least once. I've been meaning to take her to The Jump Zone, but I haven't felt up to that either
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This is a picture of one of Norah's ongoing science projects. We will add body systems to this body as we study them in Human Anatomy and Physiology this year.
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"I know I say other people I like are 'best friends.' But Avril is my best, best friend." -Norah And Avril totally heard Norah say this, too! They gave each other a big hug because of this and I grabbed my camera because it happened to be right there. When I took this picture, Avril was still gushing over what her big sister had said about her. It brings tears to my eyes to see Avril's joy in this photo. The night before this, I actually went to bed wondering if Norah was getting enough "socialization." We have a lot of her friends over to play and we see friends at church, etc. but I was beginning to wonder if a two year old was a good enough companion for a seven year old day after day after day... Norah had no idea I was thinking about these things. She just said what came to heart at the moment and it just happened to answer all my doubts. I think one of the weaknesses with formal school is that it can subtly weaken sibling bonds over the years
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I've been sewing the girls' Halloween costumes. You can see the beginning of Norah's Princess Leia costume above. But being around all those great fabrics and patterns in the store inspired me to make Avril a little dress for the winter. I've been meaning to learn at least one simple pattern that I can use again and again to bang out some clothes for the girls when they need something new but when we may not have the money to shop or be able to find something we like in the stores (which seems to be happening more often these days since clothes for little girls are getting more and more mature and provocative, even within just the last few years). This pattern seemed like a good choice because I can make minor changes to the length of the sleeves or the dress itself and have simple dresses, shirts and even nightgowns. And, depending on the choice of fabric, this pattern will work for winter or summer clothes alike. I've lacked the confidence to try anything with sl
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We just covered the Middle and New Kingdoms in The Story of the World, Volume 1: Ancient Times and Norah made Egyptian bracelets for her history project. We cut a toilet paper roll down one side and then in half and Norah painted them with gold craft paint.
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"If you don't have a schedule when you get up in the morning make one up and then tell it to your child." -Susan Wise Bauer We (meaning I) don't like schedules. We (meaning I) hate them. But, ever since I heard Bauer give the advice above, when we're eating breakfast, I'll make a list of what I'd like Norah to do that day for school and I'll let her number the list 1 to whatever and we do the work in that order. She knows reading always goes last because she reads for an hour or more. The "school" part of our days go much smoother now. Norah is more aware that she isn't done when she finishes this or that. She doesn't go running out of the room before I can gather my thoughts like she did before. She usually tells me what's next. Schedules like this are awesome.
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Something's wrong. I've saved this photo straight up and down and it's still loading into my blog post sideways. Oh well. Norah colored this coloring sheet for United Nations Day yesterday. We talked to her about the UN, it's history and purpose and she colored this landmark and flag so she will be able to recognize it in the future. Here's the coloring sheet , if you are interested.
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"The big problem with writing is while the child is developing the skill he's got to simultaneously fill that skill with content. It's a little bit as though the kid were learning how to play the piano and the only way he could learn to play the piano is to compose his own music at the same time." -Jessie Wise Bauer I like Norah's writing curriculum because it makes sense to me and it is the answer to all the nagging doubts I've had when looking into other writing programs for young ones through the years. It doesn't require Norah to write paragraphs and more paragraphs before she has anything real to say. In my opinion, it makes no sense to expect a seven year old to come up with at a moment's notice several facts on African wildlife or time travel or her last trip to the zoo or whatever. And the program doesn't ask her to make up stories out of thin air, either. I've never thought it made sense to expect a kid to write from "Once up
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"Can I do reading first?" Norah asks this every single day and every single day I say, "No." I have good reason for denying her, even such a great request as that. Norah will read a whole book in one sitting and reading will often take her up to an hour or more because she's reading serious chapter books now. If I were to let her do reading first, we'd never get around to doing math or spelling, etc. and if we did ever get around to it, she'd be so spent, she wouldn't do those subjects well. So reading always comes last. It's like a reward for all the other hard work that came before. But I do let her choose what I can. If I know we have to do math, grammar, writing and history today (before she does reading), I'll let her choose which of those she does first and next and next... and in that way, she gets some say in her day and it's enough to satisfy her until she gets to do what she really wants to do anyway: reading.
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Norah's ming bowl. She made it over a period of several days using white air-dry clay and blue craft paint. It goes along with her history chapter on Ancient China in The Story of the World, Volume One: Ancient Times .
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A friend of mine has a ton of great books that I've never even heard of. I asked her about it and she said she's found most them by looking up the authors of books she already knows she likes and seeing what else they have written. I liked this idea so I started doing it with Norah's Sonlight 4-5 reader list and I've already found some great titles that way. The book on Sonlight's list was called "More Stories From Grandma's Attic." So I looked up other books by that author and found a book that was meant to come before it called "In Grandma's Attic." So I gave this to Norah before I gave her the book on Sonlight's list. In this way, I hope I can keep finding more good books that aren't on some of the main lists.
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Here's a shout out to my big brother for sending more school supplies. We came home to a box at the door and the girls rightly assumed it was from "Uncle Donnie!" Last time, it was markers . This time, it was colored pencils. Thanks Donnie (and Mom and Dad and Sissy). I know you all will often coordinate to do this kind of thing for us. We appreciate it. Every supply we don't have to buy makes our home school (private school at home) endeavor much easier to manage.
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People wonder how I manage to homeschool. I tell them homeschooling is the easy part. Keeping the little one busy while I homeschool her older sister, now that's the hard part!
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This is what happens when I have to stop reading with her to help her big sister with school work. A big part of Avril's "curriculum" right now is learning to be flexible, share and wait. Isn't she sweet, though? :)
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In reading: Norah's already done with all her Sonlight 3rd grade readers . We're moving on to 4th-5th grade readers now!
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We did our first lesson on verbs in First Language Lessons , Level 1. To add some spice to the lesson, I had the bright idea of letting Norah find photos of verbs in an old camping magazine I was getting ready to throw out. (It was Monday and Fly Lady says to purge your old magazines on Mondays.) Norah cut and glued and then told me what verbs to write under the photos. I think she did well!
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Norah's been reading to Avril before Avril takes a nap. Of course, this makes it so much more difficult for Avril to leave her sissy and go to bed.
In the past, I have cared very little about how much we accomplish accomplish day by day, even grade by grade at times. I have not stuck to a strict daily, weekly, yearly schedule. Even distinctions like the grade levels on the covers of books don't really matter to me as long as Norah is progressing at a steady pace and doing a reasonable amount of work everyday. I am even fine with Norah working out of a first grade book when she is in second grade, etc. especially because many of her books are advanced for her age to begin with. But there is a certain amount of material I'd like for Norah to have finished (or almost finished) by the time she gets to "middle school." With that in mind, I decided to go ahead and break it down subject by subject and see what adjustments, if any, I need to make to progress at a better pace toward our goals. In math: I'd like Norah to be ready to do Math U See's Pre-Algebra in 7th grade. This way she will be free to maste
I listened to another lecture by Jessie Wise Bauer called " Homeschooling the Real Child ." One of the topics she addressed in this speech was the frustration homeschooling moms feel because their daily expectations aren't being met. She suggested that home school moms take a few moments to "Write out what your perfect home school day looks like" and said this was a good way to find out whether or not your home school expectations were even realistic to begin with. Note: I know I will often get frustrated and discouraged when I see a book just sitting on the shelf day after day and we still haven't gotten around to reading it together. But now that I have articulated what I think our "perfect" day looks like or rather, what I think is most important to accomplish on any given day, etc. I see that I am usually meeting my own expectations and I really shouldn't be discouraged about the books that are "just sitting on the shelf" b
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I let Norah make her own lunch yesterday. Here's how .
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Norah made paper bead necklaces to go along with her study of ancient Africa in history. These necklaces are still being made today and they are very beautiful. We used construction paper this time but I think we will try this again soon with some old, glossy magazine pages and then cover the beads with a mixture of glue and water to varnish. Here's a tutorial if you are interested in making some yourself.
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Norah put together a puppet show for Avril one afternoon while Avril napped. She sang "Old MacDonald" and made all the animal puppets appear when it was their turn to make their noises with a "moo" or a "neigh," etc. Only problem with the whole idea: Avril wanted to be with Norah on the other side of the curtain and didn't understand why she was being forced to sit in the audience. She whined and/or cried through the whole thing. I think we will try this again soon. Maybe Avril will enjoy holding one of the puppets and I will just fill the audience myself.
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After we picked apples on Saturday, Norah and her dad made two pies that evening. Dwayne did an incredible job with Norah. I overheard him saying things like, "1 slash 3 means one-third of a cup. Look for the cup with 2/3 on it. Okay. Half of that cup or up to that middle line is one-third. Fill it up to there." and "Packed brown sugar... What do you think 'packed' means?" What he covered with Norah in that one evening puts her so far ahead of where I was when I started baking and cooking.
I spent my free time this afternoon listening to a lecture called "Teaching Students to Work Independently" given by Susan Wise Bauer. It was only a few dollars to download and it was well worth the cost, in my opinion. I probably had to pause it fifty times to deal with the kids and the phone, etc. But it is nice that I own it so I can listen to it again in the future. While some of the content of this lecture didn't exactly apply to us right now (she speaks about how to teach all levels of students from elementary through middle and high school), I found that it was a good reminder of why I am trying to do all that I am doing now and how it will "pay off" for Norah in the future. So much of what I am doing now is training her to be capable of so much more later on. I think I will try and listen to all Bauer's lectures available online here . It's certainly more productive and inspirational than watching crap on Hulu with my free time! Here's
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We took the kids to the apple orchard today. We shared one apple among us all while we picked. We got two bags full of apples: one bag to bake with, one bag to eat fresh. Avril is not the most cooperative kid when taking photos. "Avril, Look at Mommy!" and she looks straight down. These pics were the best out of all I took today.
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Avril reading to her babies. (These were my babies first. My mom gave them to me back when I was Norah's age.) She set them up like this, leaving room for herself on the pillow and then grabbed a book, crawled onto the couch, laid back next to them and covered her legs with a sheet she dragged out of Norah's room. She'd chatter for a little and turn a page and then ask, "Okay Babies?" I guess she wanted to make sure they were getting it all.