Month(!) in Review

Yikes, I really dropped the ball on posting. October was a very busy month for us, so I'll blame it on that. We've done all our usual work - Colwyn has about 8 pages left in his Singapore 2A workbook, so that'll get done this week, then we can start on the second half of his kindergarten math. He's pretty much done with Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons
, so we're moving on to using easy readers for his reading lessons (which we try to do for at least 10-20 minutes a day, in addition to our regular read-alouds).

We've been working a lot on science/history. We covered (the basics of) the formation of the Earth, composition of the Earth, plate tectonics, the start of life, early life, and evolution. Most of that was through the The Usborne Internet-Linked Encyclopedia of World History
. We used some websites for the composition of the Earth. Plate tectonics was covered in the Usborne book as well as through some Science Day hands-on activities with our homeschool group. To complement the Usborne book on evolution, we also read How Whales Walked into the Sea by Faith McNulty.

For Earth Scouts, we read When The Root Children Wake Up
by Audrey Wood. Then we brainstormed some ideas on how to take care of the Earth and used those to play "Mother Earth, May I?" It's pretty much just like "Mother, May I?" except the kids say, "Mother Earth, may I compost our kitchen scraps?" and then the kid playing Mother Earth tells them how many steps to take. They seemed to enjoy it, I think. We were supposed to go on a walk to look for creatures outside, but it was rainy, so I assigned that as homework. The week before, we had done a Recycled Art Day (which Dani planned and hosted), so the kids who participated in that got a Recycling Badge.

For book club, we read The Wind in the Willows
by Kenneth Grahame. We only read the first three chapters or so, but Colwyn (surprisingly) really liked it. I think a lot of it went over his head (due to the language), but it was so enjoyable to read aloud. Both boys participated really well during the book club activities and enjoyed playing outside with the other kids afterwards.

We also went on a field trip to the Aquarium, which was quite a lot of fun. The boys spent a lot of time exploring with Alex and Mila, which was nice. We toured the Beverly Fire Department last Tuesday and will do an encore tour of the Danvers Fire Department this Tuesday. That obviously led to many discussions on fire safety, but I think the boys were most excited about climbing in the fire truck.

Our homeschool group's Halloween Party was a big success, as well. We rented a room at Endicott Park and the kids played that "Guess the Body Part" game with cold spaghetti, a peeled tomato, hot dogs, lunch meat, etc. One of the dads entertained the kids with some acoustic guitar music, which was super nice of him. They played Red Rover and Duck, Duck, Goose - both big hits.

So, all in all, a pretty busy month. We also had various park days, playdates, and who-knows-what-else going on. I'm going to make a concerted effort to stay on top of the journaling, since it's a pain the butt to try to remember what happened over the course of a whole month. :)

Week in Review

Last weekend, we went to King Richard's Faire. We didn't think we were going to be able to go, since we usually get free tickets, but our 'source' moved away. Thankfully, we lucked out with a new 'source' and got enough free passes for all of us (admission is normally $22 per person or something like that). We watched a bunch of different shows, including two jousts, and had a really great time.

On Monday and Tuesday, we did reading and history (reading from the Encyclopedia of World History). We also went bowling with our homeschool group on Tuesday, which was a huge success.. we had a few families show up unexpectedly, families that we haven't seen since the spring. Hopefully everyone's gearing up for the 'school year' and will be more active. On Wednesday, we went on a cruise up and down the coast between Manchester and Marblehead with Mahi Cruises out of Salem Willows. I don't know that the kids listened to a whole lot of the narration, but it was definitely a fun experience. When we got home, we did more reading and did 'cookie math' - which is basically just us baking cookies, but the kids do learn about measurements.

On Thursday, we had Calvin over for a playdate in the morning, then did more reading and worked on our journal entries for this month's book club. The books this month were Friday was book club and was (surprisingly) a huge hit, as well. It was surprising because we tried out something new.. instead of all the moms sitting with the big kids while they presented journals, but the meeting being mostly free play, Jen had a few activities planned and also did a lengthy circle time where they read two books and had a discussion. While all that was going on, those of us with little ones hung out in the playroom so the babies wouldn't be disruptive. I was expecting Colwyn and Lachlann to resist, since they're normally very shy at book club, they they did really well. They sat for the whole circle time and even shared quite a bit of info. I was super impressed.

After book club, we came home and worked on a part of their math workbooks I'd been putting off. It involves pouring water from one container into many smaller ones, or filling up one big container with several smaller cups of water. We've done that activity before, but for some reason it came up again. I'd been putting it off because it's involved and makes a big mess, but we did it during Fiona's naptime, so it was fine. After that, they each did a few pages in their math workbooks, and Lachlann actually finished his Earlybird 1A book! Woohoo, Lachlann!

Week in Review

Our week was pretty full this week, but not nearly as full as next week's will be. We did reading lessons most days, two days of math, and three days of reading from The Usborne Internet-Linked Encyclopedia Of World History. We did cooking math one day (brownies, yum). We had health lessons on two days, when both Lachlann and I had physicals.

Friday was our first Earth Scouts meeting, and it was a big hit. At first, I was counting myself as very smart for not inviting everyone over to my house for the meeting, but that morning as I was trying to pack everything, load it and the kids into the car, and get everything into the library, I realized that I was wrong. :) Luckily, the space at the library was just perfect for us and the staff was super nice. While we waited for everyone to arrive, the kids decorated the folders they'll use to keep their journaling pages together. Then we sat in circle and listened to the first Rosie Emery song (I was expecting earthy, hippie type music, but 'Cooperation' emulated a hip-hop, rap-ish song and was a little embarrassing). Then we talked about what Earth Scouts do - the kids enjoyed listing everything they could possibly think of that lives on the Earth. We did a few cooperation games next, with much laughing. Then the kids had a snack. Once snacktime was over, the kids made their individual pictures depicting our Earth community that we made into our Earth Scouts banner. While they did that, I demonstrated the woven belts for the moms, and that was about it. All the kids really seemed to enjoy themselves and were well behaved. Fiona, who I had forgotten to bring toys for, entertained herself quite well for over an hour and a half, with very little help from me. I was so impressed.

I think Earth Scouts will be a big hit for this year, and can't wait until our next meeting. :)

We also made two trips to the park this week.. Lynch Park with Charlotte and Sam, and Stagefort with the homeschoolers. This is my favorite time of year for park days.. the ground is dry, there are a lot of overcast days, and the temperature is almost always cool. Woohoo for fall!

Homeschool Group

Our homeschool group is crazily busy this fall. September got off to a slow start, but this Friday (9/18), we're having our first Earth Scouts meeting. I booked a meeting space at the Hamilton Wenham Library since we'll have 10 participants, as well as a handful of observers. Next week, we go bowling on Tuesday (9/22) and on a cruise of Beverly/Salem harbor on Wednesday (9/23). Friday (9/25) is book club at Jen's. The following week, we have an apple picking field trip on Wednesday (9/30) and a toddler story time at Robin's on Friday (10/2) - though we'll probably skip the story time).

In October, we'll have science day, Earth Scouts again, book club, Recycled Art Day, an Aquarium field trip, a fire station tour, a Halloween Party, and a Lego day at my house. I'm responsible for five out of those eight things. Oh, and I also have Colwyn's birthday party to plan.

Oh, and we'll also try to get in as many park days as possible before the truly cold weather hits.

Yikes.

I'm really super excited about Earth Scouts, though, and will post more in depth about it after our first meeting.

Week in Review

Last week, we more or less stuck with all our regular activities. We did two days of math, two days of history, and one day of social studies. Colwyn is especially interested in the books we have about ancient Egypt, specifically mummification. I'm going to look up other activities we can do relating to ancient Egypt. Colwyn did a reading lesson each day and Lachlann did about four. Colwyn's really coming on with reading.. he can read a bunch of small words quite easily, and is slowly building up his sight words.

For outings we went mini-golfing one day at Richardson's and talked a bit about dairy farming and nutrition. We also had lunch at the mall another day. It was rainy for most of the week which made it difficult to get out. Unfortunately, this week is supposed to be much of the same, which sucks.

We had our big homeschool BBQ at our house on Saturday. There were 28 people, including our family. Everyone had a great time swimming, playing, eating, and socializing. Doug said it was the best BBQ we'd ever had, in part because everyone talked positively and supportively about things we're doing - gardening, chickens, homeschooling, homebirthing, etc. I commented to Jen at one point while surveying all our guests at how great it was to see so many people doing the same things we were. All the other moms commented later about how great it was for their husbands to get to see families similar to their own - us moms see that regularly, but the dads aren't so lucky.

Caught in the Whirlwind

Our lives are so busy, so full of fun and activity, that I shudder to think of what it would be like trying to cram preschool and kindergarten in there. Everything we do with the children is stuff we would probably do with them anyway, excepting the workbook pages Colwyn asks for (I imagine if he were forced to do workbook pages all day, he wouldn't ask me for any).

Colwyn and Lachlann have been really productive on the art front. They draw and write incessantly. Lachlann's writing is mostly just scribbles, reminiscent of a heart monitor's readout, but Colwyn does a pretty good job. His favorite is making love cards, which usually include a nice drawing as well as some combination of the words, "Colwyn" "Mommy" "Amma" and "Lve" (he often leaves out the o). The other day he drew a remarkably detailed Captain Rex, which I meant to save but might have gotten tossed by accident. We live with a near constant litter of construction paper, it's hard to remember what should be saved.

This past week we went to tour the Salem Post Office with our homeschool group. It was the first field trip I'd planned for the group, and I was super anxious about it. Homeschoolers can be a bit.. flaky.. at times, and I was afraid nobody would show, and there I'd be at the Postmaster's door, looking like a total idiot. Well, thankfully, we only had one no-show, and the kids were all super well-behaved. I think the moms learned more than the kids, but not by much. Colwyn, of course, said that the only thing he learned was that post office workers like to go to Dunkin Donuts, just like us. Yeah, he's at that age.

We go to Jen's house every other week for book club. The boys have always played really well there during one-on-one playdates, but for the last four book club meetings, they've refused to play with the other kids. I suspect that Lachlann would, except that he doesn't want to leave Colwyn alone. They just sit with me in the living room, which is fine since they don't really complain, but it leaves me less able to talk freely. We plan on continuing to attend, in the hopes that they'll eventually get used to the group. I think part of the problem is that we now tend to have mainly 5-6 year old boys, and as you can imagine, it gets rather rowdy. I don't want to push them, but I also want to make sure they're exposed to groups like this. It's a delicate balance, and I don't always feel like I'm doing a good job.

Living Life

Colwyn has been doing well with the Singapore book. He's got the shapes down pat, especially with the extra reinforcement that all the playdough-playing they've been doing recently has given them. We moved onto numeral recognition which is easy for him, too. Recently, we were doing some oral math, which is a pretty routine part of our day, and I decided to write down the numbers and signs, so he's gotten a little exposure to math sentences now.

We've gotten back into the habit of feeding the birds and squirrels. I'm thinking of seeing if the kids want to keep some sort of nature journal and record what they see out at the bird feeder. It might be fun to have them draw some of the birds they see.

Lachlann surprised me the other day by singing the ABCs. He did quite well. I need to remember that he's getting older now and might appreciate some more effort from me. Hmm.

Our homeschool group is still going well. We're having people at our house this week for a little Valentine's Day party. The kids will decorate 'mailboxes' and exchange cards, and then have some cupcakes or something. Two weeks ago everyone came over here for some Imbolc activities.. it was pretty much a bust, except for the ice cream I gave the kids as a special surprise. The activities I had planned really didn't hold a candle to the epic Star Wars battle they were involved in. Oh well.

North Shore Young Homeschoolers

Our homeschool group is getting bigger and better than ever. We've had seven families join in the last two weeks, which brings us up to 25 families on the Yahoo Group. Of those, I've met in person probably about half, maybe a little less. Not bad, all things considered. We had a planning meeting last night and three moms showed, which was a little less than I was hoping for, but it actually worked out really well. One of the moms decided to take over planning field trips, and we're going to aim for a factory tour (probably Necco or Garelick Farms) in February. Jen offered to host quarterly parent workshops--the first of which will be in March, on storytelling (she'll have a guest speaker come and everything). We also have planned a small Imbolc event at my house, a Valentine's Day party, and a family game day.

The main issue is still getting people to attend. This past Friday was supposed to be science at my house, and we had a lot of RSVPs.. there were supposed to be 13 children coming over, in addition to my own. In reality, only five kids came (three families). It was fine, and we all had a great time, but that just illustrates how.. flaky.. homeschoolers can be. I mean, I can flake out with the rest of them.. but it does get kind of tiring when I'm doing all this planning. When I sent out the meeting minutes, I included a little blurb about how Jen and I are fine with somewhat informal attendance for the co-op, but that for big events where there will be a speaker, tour guide, or people preparing amounts of food based on RSVPs, that people need to take their RSVPs seriously. I really hope I didn't offend anyone, but what else can I do?

Fledgling Co-Op

Our homeschool group is going through some changes. Now that it's not nice enough for us to just meet up at the park, attendance has been changing and I've had to reevaluate what the group needs and what I can do to keep everyone coming. Jen and I talked about it and we decided to set up something along the lines of a co-op. Jen is going to be in charge of a book club geared towards younger kids. They'll meet every other Friday to do an activity based on a book we've all read. I think she's going to go for beginner chapter books.. the sort of things that parents can read to their kids if the kids aren't reading on their own. We did a bit of brainstorming about what kind of activities we might be able to do.

On the alternating Fridays, we're going to meet at my house and do either science experiments or craft projects. Today was the first meeting at our house and only one family showed up, but that was actually great since it was a nice way to ease into it. We let the kids play for a little while to warm up, then I lead an experiment about color dispersion and molecular properties. The only problem was that Fiona was fussy, so I was trying to soothe and entertain her while also keeping the activity moving along. Robin was a great help setting and clearing up, and we got to chat for a while, too.

Hopefully with some cross-posting to other groups, we'll get a bigger turnout and it'll end up being something that everyone looks forward to attending.

Halloween Party

Today was the Halloween party for our homeschool group. This is the group that I started over a year ago, but only just got off the ground within the last two months. It's been wonderful--we have regular playgroups, people show, we're getting to know everyone, and the kids are all 6 and under. There's a good mix of boys and girls, too. One of our members was kind enough to host the party at her mom's clubhouse, and we all had a great time.



The kids bobbed for apples, played Pin the Stem on the Pumpkin, heard a mildly spooky Halloween story, created wreathes out of leaves, decorated cookies, and generally ran around like maniacs.



Lachlann slept through most of the party (Colwyn's birthday party was earlier in the day, and he was just wiped out), and Colwyn was pretty slow to warm up, but he felt a lot better after he had a big helping of all the nutritious goodies everyone brought for snacks. I was really impressed with his behaviour at the party. I never thought he would bob for apples, but he dived right in. He was even the first - one of the dads said, "Okay, Anakin, you're first!" and he went for it. Then during Pin the Stem on the Pumpkin (pictured above), he let me and Doug stay on the opposite side of the room, he let a woman he doesn't know at all really put the mask on his face and spin him around, and he let another woman (who he knows slightly better) help guide him toward the pumpkin. And when they did storytime, he sat with the other kids and even *gasp* raised his hand when she asked questions. That especially blew me away.. how did he learn to do that? He seriously raised his hand and waited for the mom to call on him before he spoke. Colwyn was delightful and really polite throughout the whole party (except for a bit of forcefulness when asking everyone to *please* call him by his character's name--though I was actually pleased to see him being assertive).

It just really struck me that, given the chance, he'll do things in his own time, when he's ready for it. There's no need for me to rush him or make him uncomfortable; it's much more enjoyable for all of us to let him participate on his terms--and if we do that consistently, he'll grow out of his shyness. And it was also a good example of how unschooled kids will learn to wait in line, take turns, be polite, respect other adults, etc. without being in school.

Warm Weather!

What a great end to the week. Monday-Wednesday was pretty rainy and warm, so when we woke up on Thursday morning to find sun and no snow, we headed to the playground. We met friends of ours there and the kids had a fantastic time. They were so excited to be at a playground and everytime they did something daring (which had become routine last summer) they ran up to me, beaming with pride, saying, "I did it, I did it!" The sun, fresh air, and warm temps sure did a lot for my disposition, too. Afterwards we went to a little pizza place we'd never been to before and I was amazed at how good their chicken fingers were. Like.. I could go for some right now. :)

When we got home, it wasn't quite naptime so the kids played out front and in the car while I got all the trash and soggy hats/mittens and whatnot out of the car. After naptime, we went back out again for a walk around the block. Our neighbor had some flooding and had lots of tubing pouring water into the street, so the kids marveled at the 'river' and then spent a good 20 minutes finding stuff to drop down the drain. On the way back we found some lovely sticks to bang on the sidewalk, then threw them in the marsh, then found more pinecones to bring home. Fun stuff.

So today, it was nice again, though a little bit chillier. We met some different friends at a different park and, once again, had a great time. The kids played tag and hide and seek, pretended to be the billy goats Gruff, and made mulch soup. Afterwards we went to Kelly's for lunch with our friends and the kids had fun there, too.

Not bad for early March. :)

Yikes.

I know, I know. It's been way too long. To be completely honest, we haven't been doing a whole lot of homeschool-y stuff lately.

Well, that's not entirely true. We've been busy, but so much of we do is educational but isn't directed homeschooling, so sometimes I forget that I should be blogging about this stuff.

As for 'real' schoolish stuff, we really haven't done too much in the last month or so. We do the occasional page in our Singapore Math book, we write letters/draw pictures and send them to friends and family, we watch Between the Lions and Zula Patrol, and have endless discussions about what letters words start with.

We did get to take a fun tour of the Danvers police station, which I think Kristine and I may have liked better than the kids, but whatever. Doug and I also took the boys to the Beverly fire station's open house, which was really fantastic. The kids got to climb in fire trucks and ambulances several times, they got to watch firefighters slide down poles, and they got to examine CPR dummies. Colwyn got to climb in a van filled with gear for water rescues, so he got to check out the wet suits, flippers, a giant motor, flash lights, masks, and all sorts of good stuff. We also brought home bags overflowing with goodies. But the best part of all was the jaws of life demonstration. We got to watch the firefighters totally dismantle an old car, and.. wow. It was so cool. Colwyn really got that they were practicing what they would do if there was a bad car accident and someone was trapped inside, so that was good.

But, like I said.. that's about it. We've been doing playdates here and there, and we try to make it to storytime every week. We've been keeping up our every-other-week library trip and we've gotten some great books lately. I'm still keeping track of everything we check out in an Excel spreadsheet, in preparation to reporting to the school district, although that's still two years away.

Colwyn's birthday is tomorrow, so we're planning on going to Imajine That and meeting up with Mary, Charlotte, and Sam. Then on Thursday, we have a playdate scheduled with Heidi and her kids, who are also homeschoolers. Then on Friday, we're hoping to get together with Jen and her boys, which will be our first intentional playdate since her baby was born two months ago. Colwyn is psyched to see Calvin, and I'm looking forward to obsessing over homeschooling and childbirth and all the other fun stuff we haven't gotten to talk about lately. I also planned a meeting for next week for the homeschooling group I'm starting up. Dani said she's going to attend, and hopefully some others will too. I'll mention it to Heidi and Jen this week and maybe they can come too. We'll see.

Homeschool Groups

As always, the quest for socialization continues. Overall, I'm happy with the socialization the boys get, but we're always looking for new opportunities. Last week I sent in a membership form to North Suburban Home Learners, and I'm still working hard at starting up our own preschool group.

Thus, I splurged on a Meetup.com membership and formed a group that way, hoping to get more members.

Click here to check out
The North Shore Young Homeschoolers Meetup Group!

Fieldtrips Galore

We've had three big fieldtrips in the past week, what fun. I already talked about our trip to the wildlife sanctuary, so that's one down.

Last Wednesday, I took the kids into Boston to the Scooper Bowl at City Hall Plaza. We went with Jen, Calvin, and Miles, and took the Blue Line in from Wonderland. The boys had a great time on the T and it was so cute seeing Colwyn and Calvin sitting next to each other, looking out the window, pointing out planes and the tracks and other trains going past. Getting out of the subway station was not fun, though, as the stop wasn't handicapped accessible and we had strollers with us. In fact, the first trip up the escalator was downright dangerous and I feel like an idiot for even trying it. Then we dragged our strollers up another flight of stairs, each carrying our youngest child while the older kids went up in front of us. Blech.

The actual event was pretty fun, though. It was packed and hot but we got to taste a lot of delicious ice cream. The kids had fun playing and running around, and we saw two young kids (I dunno, maybe about ten years old?) playing guitar and drums, and their song selection was great (I'm blanking on what it was, but it was older music that you really wouldn't expect ten year olds to know). Very cute.







On the way back, Colwyn and Calvin talked even more, and Lachlann slept in his stroller, even with all the commotion on the T. It was a lot of work, but a really fun outing.

Our other outing was on the weekend, June 10th, I think. We took the kids to the Dragon Boat Festival on the Charles River. Aside from watching the boats on the river, which Lachlann loved, they got to see a demonstration of drumming and martial arts. There were a lot of craft type activities set up, but Colwyn wasn't really interested. We did get to sample a lot of Asian food, including my favorite, Pad Thai. Mmmm. Dad came with us and we met up briefly with his friend, Peter.

Here's a link to another Shutterfly album with pictures from the Festival as well as the Scooper Bowl, Wildlife Sanctuary, and others: http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8Absm7ho0bNmH7.

Drawing

Here's a picture of Colwyn's recent artwork. He drew a few people, two ladders, and made some letters (C, O, L, and X). My budding artist. :) I have to say that I feel quite vindicated that he's discovered an interest in writing letters without me pushing him at all and making it into an unpleasant experience. I guess providing a print-rich environment has worked really well for us. All these little victories give me confidence that we can do this for the long haul.



So our homeschooling group has kind of collapsed. We still get together with the two families who were in it, and between that and our other playgroup, the kids aren't lacking for socialization at all. For example, last week we went shopping on Monday, to Bonkers on Tuesday ourselves, to the park on Wednesday with Calvin and Miles, to Bonkers on Thursday with Thomas and Aidan, and had a family day on Friday with mom and Kristine. Today we met Charlotte at the Touch-a-Truck event (more on that in my other blog) and we all went out to lunch after. Next week we'll do playgroup at a farm and probably have two one-on-one playdates.

I am working on forming a new homeschooling group for young homeschoolers in this area. I think the group I joined was a little too specific in who it accepted, so I'll try being open to people who aren't absolutely positive they're going to homeschool. My goal for right now is for the boys to form friendships, and to be honest, it's not a huge deal if their friends end up going to public school. But if we can eventually set up co-ops and stuff, that would be awesome. I'm hoping that people who are considering homeschooling their kids will see that there are fun activities and a good support system and decide to go through with it.

Accomplishment! And Loneliness..

Wow, have we had a productive day. Colwyn was really in a mood to do schoolish stuff, so he did about five or six workbook pages. In addition to the usual matching ones and mazes, he also did a few that involved circling the face with the appropriate emotion for a situation pictured, and one where he looked at a picture, then chose between two other pictures which one led to the original picture happening. If that makes sense. So, anyway, instead of the usual fine motor and math skills, he also worked on cause and effect, prediction, and social/emotional skills.

He also asked to play Reader Rabbit.. something I should let him do more often, but neither of us ever really think of it. He has so much fun with that game. Aside from the hand-eye coordination needed for using the mouse, he also worked on matching shapes and letters, and a few other miscellaneous games.

Then we worked on a few projects for Grandma's birthday coming up (sorry, can't mention them until after her birthday!). When the kids woke up from their naps, we took them out to Barnes & Noble, since the library was closed. I found a bunch of great books in the bargain section, including Mo Willem's Leonardo The Terrible Monster. We also picked up one of Laura Numeroff's books, and a dinosaur book from the "Let's Read and Find Out" series. What else.. oh! We got a new Kumon book of mazes and also a book of 1000 French Words or somesuch.

I'm hoping to introduce Colwyn to French sometime in the next few days, depending on when I have time to sit down and concentrate with him. He already knows a good number of signs, so he has the concept of multiple ways to communicate an idea. Hopefully that'll help when we start talking about French.

I know Spanish would be a lot more useful, but I remember quite a lot of French from the 7+ years I took in public school and college. A good part of teaching kids a foreign language is using it with them, and I don't really feel up to learning a new language along with them. At least I know that if I stumble across a word I don't know, I should at least know how to pronounce it.

The downside to today was that I spent a good portion of the kids' naptime looking for prospective homeschooling groups online. It sure is lonely being a mom of a homeschooled preschooler. It seems like either everyone else is sending their kids to preschool, or if they're not, they will be in the future. Those few people who say that they're planning on homeschooling are typically not very committed to it, which means that there really aren't any co-ops for kids Colwyn's age. I'm sure there are preschoolers in families where older children are being homeschooled, but those kids probably just get dragged along to the big kids' stuff, and their parents don't really feel the need for them to have their own activities. Which I totally get, but in the meantime, it sucks for us.

I started researching homeschooling over a year and a half ago, and I've gone through my phases of being overwhelmed and backing out of it. But now I'm pretty damn confident in our decision. While I still get overwhelmed sometimes and wonder how we'll handle some things, I know that it'll work out in the end, and that our family will be better for homeschooling. I guess that's kind of atypical.

Spring Thaw

We've had more nice weather these past few days, and I'm making sure we get to spend lots of time outdoors. I'm really looking forward to going on nature walks and catching bugs and fun stuff like that, but for now, just being outside is enough.

We spent about three hours outside yesterday. In the morning we played mostly on the deck while I finished cleaning up out there (Doug had done a lot of it over the weekend while I was at work). The kids enjoyed playing in the sand and in the clubhouse, but they also spent a good half hour dropping chunks of ice and snow over the railing and watching them smash into smithereens on the steps below. Early experiments in gravity and the properties of ice? Hmm. We talked about how water freezes into ice, and then when the air gets warmer out, the ice melts back into water.

In the afternoon, we played out in the backyard. We're planning on growing a nice big veggie garden, so I was trying to figure out where I want to put it. We examined the grass and I showed the boys how it was starting to turn green again. I'm sure it went a bit over Colwyn's head, but I also explained how the spots in the yard that have green grass are the warmest, whereas the parts that are all brown are still too cold for the grass to grow. I opened up our compost bin to see what it was like, and explained how we put the food we don't eat in there, along with grass and leaves, and it all breaks down into dirt. I'm really looking forward to this garden.. I think it'll be a great learning experience for Colwyn. As he gets older, we'll be able to incorporate all sorts of subjects into our gardening (math, science, geography, climate, etc).

We also went on a walk around the block and ended up seeing our neighbors (the elementary school teacher). The kids had a good time running around and Caroline and I got to chat. Homeschooling came up, and she asked when we have to start reporting, and asked, "So, do you have to talk to someone, like, once a week or something?" It was all I could do not to laugh. I explained how the law works, how we'll be reporting our progress, and how should the school department get the crazy idea that I'm not doing a proper job, that it's up to them to prove it, not the other way around. It was a nice conversation, but I thought it was so strange that she thought I'd have to check in so often. Because obviously parents aren't capable of raising their own kids, you know.

Today we went to Cy Tenney with our homeschooling friends. We obviously hadn't been to the park in a while, because as we pulled up, Colwyn shouted gleefully, "Oh! The park! Oh! I love the park!" Poor kid. :) They had a great time running around, but there were a few rude families there, so we ended up leaving after an hour or so. We all went to Papa Gino's for lunch, which was quite an experience. Colwyn thought Miles was a riot running back and forth between the tables, and delighted in calling him a troublemaker (a term of endearment in our house, same as naughty devil).

We haven't been doing a whole lot of real homeschooly stuff. We do art projects every other day or so, and Colwyn constantly requests the eyedroppers. We've been talking about space a bit here and there, and dinosaurs, too, of course. We'll probably go to the library this weekend and get a bunch of new books.. I love our library trips. I'm such a dork, but I get a big kick out looking up books I think the kids will like.

We're Back on the Dino Again

Despite a short-lived fling with space, Colwyn really only has one obsession in his life again.. dinosaurs. We finished painting the planets (although Doug and I are still arguing over whether Venus is blue or red.. anyone know for sure?), but I still haven't been able to convince Colwyn to participate in gluing them to the display board. I even printed out little labels--they're still sitting on my printer tray. So for now, I have several half-planets taking up way too much space on what I call my Homeschooling Counter of Clutter. Here's a picture, just for the hell of it.



You can see our huge number of crayons, the bowl of polished stones we use as math manipulatives, the real math manipulatives (multicolored bears), our globe, a few workbooks, lots and lots of paper, our Dino ABC book, the states puzzle, some tongs, scoops, magnets, eyedroppers, magnifying glass, dustpan, lots of puzzles, a few board games, play dough, and the poor planets. For those of you with a good eye, you'll also see a book written by Doug's aunt.

You won't see the dinosaur fossils (they're hiding behind the stones), the majority of our craft supplies (they're on the bottom shelf, in drawers), or the two books on science experiments we just checked out from the library. We got Mudpies to Magnets and Flash! Bang! Pop! Fizz!. The first book I had heard about on MDC, but the second one was recommended in this book, which lists tons of great books. We haven't tried any of the experiments yet, but I've flipped through the books and can't wait to start.

Back to the dinosaurs.. last week we did a lot of activities with those ever-present reptiles. I drew a picture of a triceratops skeleton and cut it into pieces (tail, spine, ribcage, back legs with pelvis, front legs with shoulder blades, and skull) and Colwyn glued it back together on a piece of cardstock.



We've also been sorting his toy dinosaurs a lot. We'll sort them into herbivores and carnivores, or we'll sort them by species. Colwyn always wants to sort dinosaurs that we only have one of (like parasaurolophus), so we usually have a few T. Rexes stand in. He's also been playing this strange game that I think he picked up from Charlotte. He'll ask you to be a dinosaur and roar, and then he'll say that he's a race car and vroom loudly. When he vrooms at you, you're supposed to act scared. If you can fall over backwards, even better. Colwyn recently saw Charlotte and Mary acting out a scene from Cars, so I think that's where he got the idea.

Yesterday we took the kids to the Aquarium. I had a feeling it was going to be busy, and it surely was. It's funny, each time we go, the kids find something else to be totally fascinated with. This time, they spent a while looking at a tropical fish tank that had a unicorn tang in it. When we went outside to look at the seals, we noticed that there were some turtles in what we call the "sick fishy room." There was a big sign next to the window explaining how some baby turtles don't start swimming south soon enough, and get sick from being in the cold water off the Cape. They drift around until someone rescues them and brings them to the Aquarium. After getting nursed back to health, they're brought to Florida or some other warm place. Colwyn was quite taken with them, and loves telling everyone how the turtle doctor is going to make the turtles better, then bring them to Florida to see his Grandma and Lang Amma (although his stories include the turtle doctor running up to us and saying, "Oh my goodness!" even though we didn't actually see any staff in the "sick fishy room").

Last week we went over to Jen's house to play with Calvin and Miles and bake bread. The kids played really well together. Colwyn stuck with the trains mostly, but Lachlann had fun playing "tag" with Calvin and Miles. We kneaded the sourdough bread for a while, and after it was done, had a delicious snack.

Today we had everyone over here. Colwyn and Lachlann got to play with Calvin and Miles and Thomas and Aidan. Colwyn is definitely warming up to his new friends.. both Colwyn and Lachlann cried when they had to leave. I hate to see my boys sad, but I'm so glad they like the other kids. They all play together nicely, which is great because it lets us moms chat rather than breaking up fights or chasing the kiddos around.

Dinos: To Your Rockets!

We seem to be making a transition from the dinosaur obsession to a space obsession. Or (hopefully) if it's not a real transition, Colwyn is at least making room in his busy life for two obsessions.

I think I mentioned before that Colwyn likes the Magic Schoolbus episodes that have to do with space. He's also really liked the Little Einstein's episode where they visit the planets. Lately he's been pretending to be in a rocket and will take off to visit Mars or something. So, I decided to try to do a bit more with this interest. We're making a styrofoam ball model of the solar system, using one of those giant cardboard displays. Today we painted the display board black (and talked briefly about why space is black), and started painting the styrofoam balls I had cut in half. So far we have the sun, Earth, Mars, Saturn, and Neptune.



But dinosaurs are still a feature in much of Colwyn's play. Last night we used a 50% off coupon to get him a nice dinosaur puzzle at AC Moore. It's a 48 piece Melissa and Doug one. Here he is searching for that elusive piece:



Afterwards, he had to "hide" from the Allosaurus:



He really is quite good at puzzles, and only rarely needs help. Sometimes we prompt him with observations like, "That puzzle piece you're holding looks like it has part of a spotted dinosaur on it. Where might that go?" Reminding him to look more carefully at the piece in his hand is usually all the help he needs.

Actually, my mom and I got into a bit of a argument over the puzzle yesterday, as she insisted on giving him way too much help, or doing pieces for him, or cheering him excessively. I know that seems like a stupid thing to argue over, but the way I look at it.. what is he learning when someone tells him exactly where to put a puzzle piece? He's capable of doing it perfectly well on his own. As for the cheering.. we certainly tell Colwyn he's doing great, but we try to keep our level of praise consistent with his level of achievement. To us, putting an easy puzzle piece into place merits only a "Nice" if anything. Harder pieces, ones that he has to really think about, or finishing the whole puzzle gets more praise, like "Wow, Colwyn, look at how well you did. Aren't you so proud of yourself?" We really want him to have intrinsic motivation to do things.. that is, we don't want him completing a puzzle so that we'll praise him. We want him to feel proud of himself because he thinks he did well, not because we heaped on the praise. Plus.. I think laying it on thick when he hasn't worked hard for something kind of cheapens the comments, you know?

Well, anyway.

I tried to teach Colwyn to play Red Light, Green Light today (gotta get in PE somewhere, right?). We've done something similar in the grocery store before, where I'll say "Red Light!" if he runs too far ahead, and say "Green Light" when we catch up. He follows those instructions just fine, but today he completely ignored all my "Red Light" commands. I think he just really felt like being three. :)

We're having Thomas and Aidan over again tomorrow, and on Thursday we're going to Jen's house to bake bread with Calvin and Miles (Thomas and Aidan will be there, too). Wednesday is our other playgroup, and we're going to Lisa's house since it's school vacation week. Hopefully we'll be able to paint the rest of the planets sometime over the next few days and glue them onto the display board.

Co-Op Madness

Some weird things have been happening in the homeschooling co-op we joined. The short version is that everyone has left except for me and the two founders. The slightly longer version is that the people who were in the group were either not committed to homeschooling, or wanted something very different from the group. I think they're going to start advertising a bit and hopefully some new people will join. I think that as the kids get older, it'll be easier to find people who are sure that they want to homeschool (or are actively homeschooling), rather than just considering it.

We had a playdate at our house today with Dani and her sons, Thomas and Aidan (they're from the co-op). Colwyn is the type of kid to just play by himself in a large group of kids, so I wanted to set up a few one-on-one playdates so he could get to know the kids better. Colwyn and Thomas did so well playing, and didn't get into any fights. As they were leaving, Colwyn told Thomas that he loved him and that he could come back after Saturday. :) Dani and the other mom in the co-op, Jen, are bringing their kids here on Monday, so he was actually right about Thomas coming back after Saturday.

So, oddly enough, Colwyn actually enjoys doing worksheets. This is only slightly to my dismay. As much as I'd rather be doing fun, creative activities, if he's happy to do worksheets, I suppose that's fine. After all, I liked (like?) worksheet type things, too.

We played with the states puzzle for a while today. If I take out 10-15 states, he does great at putting them back, but if they're all out, he's a bit lost. He really likes pointing out where we live, where Mexico is, and where the space shuttles and dinosaurs are. We also played with some math manipulatives (a set of bears in 3 different colors and 3 different sizes), but after a bit of sorting - which he called making parades, he kept insisting that one of his bears was going to be mean and knock down my bears. So we ended that game.

I've started showing Colwyn some Magic Schoolbus episodes on TV. He really likes the one about the asteroid. I'd really like to get some of the books, though, as the TV show is just a little.. weird.

Well, Lachlann has a diaper that needs changing, so until next time!