Funny Hiking Humor

Cristina over at Homespun Juggling posted today about hiking and making up puns about hiking. I was laughing as I read them. Maybe you'll find them humorous as well!

Weekly wrap-up--January 29, 2012

This week was a fairly good one as far a balance goes. We were both out and home, but not too much of either!

On Monday afternoon we went to the first of the Wescott Library Homeschool Science Series presentations. This one was presented by MAD Science. We have seen this presenter before, and loved him! He is highly engaging, but still gets the information across. Love presenters like that!

Tuesday we went to a new to us activity, Art Club. I learned about it through a friend, and really had no idea what to expect. It was great. Really enjoyable! There is a homeschool mom in our area who puts together a presentation on an artist (this month it was Kandinsky) and an art project that is related. It is very similar to the format that is used at the KidCreate Studios art classes we have been attending (but missed this month), but only costs, get this, $1 per child. Yep, she provides all the materials AND all the information, and it costs $1. Well worth it in my mind!

Art club is held at a library 3 blocks from where my husband works, so we went and had lunch with him! The kids love going to Daddy's work, so that was a treat.

After lunch, we headed back to the same library for Board Game club. Another homeschool mom has organized this group. People bring their own games and the kids (and parents!) play games for a couple of hours. I didn't enjoy this one as much. I am not huge on board games to begin with, I prefer card games and dice games and things like Bananagrams. It isn't that those games aren't welcome, just that there were lots of bored games, too. There were also a LOT of people there, and the energy level was a bit high for an indoor space. At least I felt it was high--I am used to fairly quiet kids! The kids had fun, but were getting tired, which may have clouded the experience as well.

Friday we went to another new to us activity, Homeschool Book Club. The same woman who does the Art Club also does a book club! Seriously, she is amazing! I know she has assistance, there are other moms who help her out (one of them being the friend who told me about these activities!), but she does the presenting, and does a great job with a wide age range. My kids are on the young side for this group. Kutey is perhaps the youngest actual participant, but she can sit that long, knows not to be disruptive, and loves to be with the older kids, so it works out fine! We loved this, too. The books this month were The Young Man and the Sea by Rodman Philbeck and the Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway, focusing more on the former. It was a great morning out!

Curriculum-wise:

• We read Chapter 20: The Diaspora in Story of the World, Volume 2. I didn't do much with this for extras, and I am finding myself doing less and less. I can't decide if that is good or bad!
• We covered Earth in R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey--Earth and Space. I still think there is a lack of depth in the study of the planets. I am still looking for a good way to bulk that up. Ideas are more than welcome!
• Kiddo is nearly done with Singapore 3A, with only review and practice remaining. He is anxious to move into 3B, which is good.
• Kutey started Singapore 1A. I am so excited for her. I had been doing basic math things with her, and will continue that, but this gives us something to guide our sessions. Much of it will be basic and review for her, which I think will help build her confidence!
• Kutey continued with 100 Lessons, and it is going well. I have to remember to do it early in the day, before she gets too tired, but then it goes very well. Makes me wonder how teachers at school handle it! Particularly those kids in afternoon kindergarten!

Oodles of free Kindle books...

I love my iPad. I didn't know how much I would use it until I got it. And I admit, I am only just scratching the surface of what we can do with it. I am constantly on the look-out for new apps that will help us in our school endeavors. Mostly I look for free apps, though I have splurged and bought a few, a topic for another post!

One of the things I love about my iPad is the Kindle app for reading books. Again, I am still reading mostly free books, but I am thoroughly enjoying them, none-the-less. I use it to read at night, so I can read in bed when hubby wants to go to sleep. The lights can be off, and I can still read perfectly.

Recently, however, I came across this list on Ami's blog Walking by the Way. Oh. My. Goodness. So many books! For free! For kids! There are several on her list that I have almost purchased in paperback form, but never quite felt the need. The Burgess books, for example. I am so excited that I can now download them to my iPad! I am also excited about the Lucy Fitch Perkins Twins books. I own an ancient copy of the Japanese Twins. It was a book that sat on my grandparents shelf through my entire childhood. I nabbed it when they were preparing to move, and it is a treasured book. Being able to read all of them, however, is very exciting!

Where do you find free and inexpensive books for your kindle/nook?

Weekly wrap-up--January 20, 2012

We seem to have found our groove, though I hesitate to claim that because I don't want to jinx it! It might have something to do with the fact that we only left the house on Tuesday this week. Being home, I find, helps with the homeschooling!

The big event of the week was Homeschool Book Club. It is the first time we have attended one of these. The book this time was Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick which is one of the National Homeschool Book Award books. Really good book. Don't let the length (somewhere over 600 pages) frighten you off. It is a really fast read. We met at the Bell Museum, where they have a diorama of wolves. We talked about dioramas, learned a little sign language, and made our own dioramas. Diorama pictures forthcoming. They have been working on them all week. It was great fun, in spite of the fact that the museum is on the campus of the University, it was the first day of spring semester, and it turned cold for the first time all winter.

The rest of the week we spent our time working on dioramas, learning about Martin Luther King, Jr., and doing our regular school routine.

Curriculum-wise:

• Kiddo cruised through the adding money section of Singapore 3A. He would have moved into subtracting money, too, but we don't have the next books yet, so I tried to keep him in check!
• Kutey is doing really well with her math! I had her identifying larger numbers, she understands odd numbers and even numbers, can count by tens all the way to 100, and add up to 20 with manipulatives.
• Kutey worked on reading with 100 Easy Lessons. We are working through lessons we have previously completed. I want to build on success, which is not where we were. I also recognized this week that she gets tired easily when reading. That is one of the problems we were running into. I am considering getting her eyes checked, too.
• We read Chapter 19--A New Kind of King in Story of the World, Vol. 2, about King Richard the Lion-Hearted, John Lackland, and Robin Hood. Instead of me reading all of the Robin Hood stories, I managed to find 5 of them on Storynory. I love listening to stories at lunch time, particularly if I don't have to read them!
• We covered Venus in R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey Earth and Space. I am still looking for a really good activity to tie all the planets together. The curriculum seems a little thin. Any ideas?

We are linking up to Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. Click to see what others did this week!

The Piano Man

Kiddo decided to teach himself to play the piano. He has been saying he wants to learn for a while, and I have been a bit slow to find a teacher. I have my reasons, though I think they are likely my own blocks, not his. I took lessons for 4 years, and while I can play, I am certainly not fantastic. I didn't like to practice and my last piano teacher took all of the joy out of it for me. As an adult, I like to sit down and play and I enjoy the fruits of my labors, but as a child I did not. The teacher really wanted to be training pianists in the making, which I was not. Even thinking about trying to find a teacher who is gentle and would make playing the piano fun instead of a chore, whose expectations would match that of the student, is daunting.

So he is teaching himself. We have taught him a few things before. Middle C. Left and right hands. Very basic things. But that has been at least a year. Maybe two. We have various lesson books at the piano--mine from when I was a child, Hubby's from the same time, and a few I have picked up at garage sales and thrift shops. Recently I purchased a new copy of the piano books I started with and gave them to Kiddo as his very own. He was thrilled.

He goes in spurts, which is fine when one is teaching oneself! There will be a week or two where he plays a lot, asks for feedback on what he has played, challenges himself to move forward. He has even co-written a song with Kutey! She wrote the lyrics and he wrote the music. Over thanksgiving he had the chance to "jam" with his very talented cousin Dimples (I have called him Dimples since he was, um, 3. He is 16 now. He still finds it amusing.) Dimples attends a special arts high school because of his musical talent. He plays multiple instruments, including the piano. He and Kiddo played for several hours. Piano, trombone, trumpet, guitar, drums. Kiddo was in heaven. I wish Dimples lived closer to us and they could do that more often.

Kiddo hasn't asked for a teacher for a while, but he has also stopped moving forward in the book. He plays the songs he knows, changes them now and then, plays with tempo and the pedals, but hasn't really moved ahead. Do I get him a teacher? How does one go about finding someone?

Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick

Have you read Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick? Oh, you should. It is a fantastic book. And don't let the fact that it is at least 3 inches thick stop you. It is a very, VERY quick read. I read it aloud to the kids in less than 5 hours.

This is the first book we have read for the Homeschool Book Club in our area. It is also the first book we have read that is a nominee for the National Homeschool Book Award. I will admit, I was a little worried about Kutey. Kiddo's comprehension is excellent, so I knew he would be fine. Kutey loves to listen too books, but the book club is advertised for ages 8 to 12, ish. Given that she is 5, well, I was worried. I was even more worried when she decided, upon seeing the book, that it "looks boring!" Talk about judging a book by its cover! But I wanted to give it a shot.

Kutey and Kiddo loved it. They begged me to read more. It was their go to activity for the few precious days I read it. The story is engaging and has the adventure that appeals to kids. And it is unique. It begins in Northern Minnesota, which I will admit was a huge hook for my kids. That is one of our favorite areas, so it gave us an immediate connection to the book. I don't think it is necessary, though, to have that. The book is fabulous no matter where it takes place.

Weird Weather...

I just used a broom to sweep the snow off my driveway. It is highly unusual that we get that little snow. This winter is so weird!