Is that the school bell, again?

Julia, Kiley, August and Emily

We started back to school, yesterday, the 10th. I still can't wrap my mind around starting school so early, but I don't get to choose. Fortunately for us homeschoolers it doesn't make too much of a difference. We can do school anywhere.

I stayed up very late the night before making four of the girls a schultuete for their first day.  My husband's mother is from Germany and I want to incorporate some of that culture into my children's lives. I had more elaborate plans for these originally, but my procrastination wouldn't allow for that. There really are some amazing ones out there on the internet. The girls were thrilled with them, so that makes me happy. Traditionally, in Germany, the schultueten are given to 6-year-old children starting first grade, but I had to make them for the older girls as well, since they had never had one. 

My mother-in-law on her first day of school. Isn't she just darling? 

All set up for the morning surprise.

First day of 9th Grade

Kiley's first day of high school

Julia's first day of first grade

Emily's first day of first grade

August's first day of high school

Juila and Emily, holding their first day of Kindergarten photo. They've grown so much!

Opening the goodies

Who could resist?

Play me a tune

Julia and August

We are now the proud owners of a piano. Emily has shown interest in wanting to play for a little while now. The older girls play violin and we were preparing for the youngest two to start those this year. Emily said she really would rather play piano. We had one problem, no piano.

I searched for a couple of months on Craigslist and Freecycle. There are many free pianos out there but finding one in acceptable condition is not as simple. Each time I sent a message to someone they informed me the instrument was already taken. We all prayed about it and just trusted that we would get one when the time was right.

We have learned that you can pretty much get any large item for free if you’re patient enough. People would rather give away something than try and move it or sell it. We’ve received many nice blessings this way. A king-sized-bed, hot tub, double BOB jogging stroller, wheelbarrow etc….. And so we waited.

Two weeks ago I finally received an answer to a free piano Craigslist Ad. There was no picture, which made me nervous. Adam stopped by the man’s house after work to check it out; he called me and said it looked perfect. It was older but looked nice inside. It is smaller, I don’t know much about pianos, but I believe it’s called a spinet piano.

This past weekend we were able to pick it up. It fit perfectly in our minivan after the seats were all removed. We are professional piano movers now, you know. *wink* I was a bit impressed with it when I saw it. It was much nicer than I had expected. I was told the brand was a good one too. I really know nothing about pianos, but this one is a Story & Clark.

The kids are all very excited. August and Kiley got right down to learning how to play themselves. They already know how to read music and have said the piano has been easy to learn. They have been nice enough to show their little sisters what they’ve learned so far. It still needs to be tuned, but sounds pretty good considering. We are very thankful for God’s blessing and Emily can’t wait to start lessons in a couple of months. I will now have three violinists and a pianist. I really enjoy listening to my children play music; I have always had this dream of my children playing Canon in D  for me on their instruments. I can't wait for that day. 

Photographers in the making

Kiley and August took a photography class this year through their 4-H club. They learned a lot about colors and subjects. They both have simple Kodak digital cameras. August is saving her money to buy a Canon SLR. We bought a refurbished one a few years ago for $400 less than the cost of a new one. We love our SLR, and haven’t had any problems with it.

Both girls submitted photographs to the County Fair this year. As you can see, the fair is kind of a big deal around here. It’s our 3^rd year entering stuff. It’s great for the kids. They get to see their work displayed, they are rewarded for their hard work with ribbons and prizes and they get free entry to the fair. This year they are working at the fair 4 different days. 3 of those days they will be working at the 4-H Cake booth and the other day they are working a fine arts booth where kids can make projects and take them home. The make-it-and-take-it booth is another area where they can win something for 100% attendance. We think friendly competition is a good thing. They learn to work hard to achieve their desired prize. We also think volunteer work is very important. All of their “working” is unpaid and simply just to give of themselves and their time. It creates selflessness and teaches them more responsibility.

Oh, sorry, got off track, back to the photography. Here are the pictures they submitted. Please take into account they are still learning. I’m curious to see where they place in the judging. The last picture was not submitted to the fair simply because we didn’t realize it was on her camera. It’s my favorite. I like it so much; I’m planning on taking it to have it printed onto canvas so I can hang it in our home.

Kiley took this on her cell phone by accident. She wanted to submit it just for fun. I'm curious to see what she gets. She titled it, "Starburst" 

This is Augusts, rule of 3rds photo. She titled it, "Paradise Trio"

This is the blue jay that lives in our backyard. August had a hard time getting a close enough shot of him.  She titled it, "Blue Jay on the Fence"

And this is the one I fell in love with. August took this while we were driving on a windy day, through the hills. I want this printed on canvas.  Maybe she can submit it next year.

This weekend is going to be another busy one. Happy Fathers Day to the dads. =)

This n' That

Time has been moving at an exorbitant pace. We finished school on May 18th. Since that day the girls have been rushing to finish their 4-H Record books. Record books are the documentation of all the things they did throughout the 4-H year. They are incredibly time consuming if the child does not keep up with it throughout the year. Of course, my children started out the year with the best of intentions, but never followed through. I swore last year we would not be sucked into the tiring stressful madness that is, Record-Book-at-the-last-minute; yet here we were! We had a bigger advantage than last year being that is was not our first year and we had some idea of what we were doing. Kiley and August participated in many more activities and events this year; their books contained far more than before. Their participation and areas of community service and leadership earned them several awards. Last year they only received a pin for their first year participation. This year, however, they received 7 different awards. They were very proud of their accomplishments, and of course the pins they are now showing off on their hats. The 4-H hat is part of the uniform and all awards (pins and patches) are affixed to the hats to show to others. This past weekend the girls participated in the town Rodeo Parade with their 4-H club. 

August, receiving her awards.

Kiley, receiving her awards.

Julia and Emily with their friend, waiting for the parade to begin

My mother-in-law got to hold the banner in the parade. Lucky her!

August and Kiley with their djembe drums.

The girls' best friend hurt her foot and has to wear a cast. Poor girl.

Once they were finished with their books they had to get all of their entries to the County Fair ready to submit. August planned on submitting her quilt. I wrote about her progress here. I am happy to say she did finish her quilt by working long, exhausting hours. She is sad to have to give it up for a month after she had just finished it though. I'm hoping she gets a nice blue ribbon for her efforts. 

The quilt before the quilting and binding.

The back

The final result.

All four girls submitted art/painting entries to the fair this year. Emily and Julia were so happy to be able to do things like their big sisters. They are hoping for ribbons as well. Three of the girls are going to be turning in a table setting for competition. August is doing a Cherry Blossom themed setting, Julia's will be based on the book, "Are You My Mother?" and Emily's will be based on the book, "velma gratch and the way cool butterfly". Those aren't due to be submitted until next week, so I'm sure you can guess what we are working on this week!?!


In other news, Adam and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary over the weekend. Usually we go away for the weekend, but we stayed around town and ended up working instead. The kids were all with Adam's parents so we still were able to go out to eat a couple of times and be alone for a few days. He has been remodeling a house for the past several months and he had the backyard left to landscape before the job is complete. We are all looking forward to this job being over so he can move along to the next job. I got to learn to lay sod, it was actually kinda fun, like working a puzzle. 

The yard after we weeded it but before the sod

And after, didn't I do a great job? My husband is the best teacher.

Emily and Julia are taking swim lessons for the first time. For this week and next they will learn how to not drown. We are setting up an above ground pool this summer, so these girls need to know how to swim. Plus, by six-years-old, it's just not cool to swim in a life jacket all the time. 


I have more but I'll save it for another post. This one is long enough. Have a fun week!

Sonnets, Mat and Sam

I have finally reached a break through with Emily and Julia and their "reading". We have been working on the sounds of letters for well over a year and it's been challenging to say the least. We have not been as rigorous as we could have been, they don't have a wide attention span and part of the privilege of homeschooling is being able to have a custom fit education and move at their pace. It's much more fun to work math problems and play learning games than it is to drill them on sounds. They learn better when they don't think they are having to sit and learn; games and cards have been their favorites. I have tried several different approaches to teaching them to read and each time it seems frustrating for them, and eventually me too. I was feeling quite defeated and inept to teach my children to read. 


Sometime around Christmas, a family we know gave us several boxes of homeschool curriculum they were no longer using. Oh, this is where it gets better and we discovered BOB Books inside our new lot of goodies.

These books start with a few simple words and slowly progress adding more words as you go. In the first book  "Mat" it's as simple as Mat sat. Mat sat on Sam. Sam sat. etc 


We have already been working on learning sight words so am, on and at were already words they knew. To make a long story shorter, using these books they quickly began to understand blending sounds to read the words. When they each read that first book themselves it was a moment of sheer joy; I swear I heard trumpets sounding in the sky. *grin* They were so proud, I was so proud. Who would have thought hearing your child read, "Mat sat on Sam." would bring tears to your eyes? We are progressing with this system as it seems to be working wonderfully for us. 


Kiley and August are half-way through their last year as middle schoolers. Next year is High School. I wont lie, this scares me almost as much as teaching Emily and Julia to read. They are flying through this grade, they have finished more than half of their Pre-Algebra lessons. Their Physical Science has been a blast. We bought a curriculum that came full of different experiments and projects. It has been a challenge for them and I think that is fantastic. So far they have built, motorcars, steam boats, and wood gliders. With each project they have several lessons or experiments that go with it. It has definitely provoked their brains to step outside of their comfort zone. 


 Most recently they have been studying Sonnets, and had to write their own. They followed the   Shakespearean format with three quatrains and one couplet at the end. Like this: 


A
B
A
B
C
D
C
D
E
F
E
F
G
G


If you're an English expert please be easy on us, we're still learning. I'm not sure how well they followed the iambic pentameter, any nice advise or tips would be helpful. They are hoping to enter their Sonnets in the county fair poem contest. 

Escaping the Zoo

by August

The animals are escaping the Zoo,

Over there I saw a big, hairy bear

Oh no, oh no, what ever shall I do?

A hairy beast gave us all quite a scare

Next to get out, was the slippery seal

Slithering down was a serious snake

The child walking by gave a loud squeal

All of the creatures are making a break

They are all leaving except for the fish 

Swinging form tree to tree is that brown chimp

For this to go away, that is my wish

At lunch they decided to eat the shrimp

All of the animals have left the Zoo

Oh no, oh no, what ever shall I do?!

**************************************

Summer Walk

by Kiley

A nice walk is something you all should do

Just take  a breath and go outside to walk

You don't have to go someplace that is new

If you get tired just sit on a rock

When you're walking, take a look at the trees

Or take off your shoes to feel the soft grass

Go by the bay to feel the windy breeze

or the big city is a place to pass

And look up at the blue and cloudy skies

Get a better look and walk up a hill

When you reach the top just sit there and stare

And don't move a muscle be very still

But by then your eyes are heavy and deep

So just close your eyes and go right to sleep

I suppose that's enough for now. Yawn. Goodnight. I will post more soon and include some pictures from our Christmas. 

Eureka!

Monday, I took all of the girls on a field trip to Columbia Historic State Park. It's an old gold rush town about an hour and a half from us. We aren't studying CA history this year but we needed to get out and do something fun.

The old Main Street makes you feel like you are walking around back in the 1800's. They have the original Wells Fargo Bank along with the shipping station. The character of the shops have been maintained well. Some of the sidewalks were still wooden. The shop owners all wore costumes specific to that era.

They had a dress up room for children 

This was an old bowling lane with 3 small heavy  balls and wooden pins. 

Old 2 story school house. There was one room on each story

 

The school before it was restored

infamous dunce cap

The headstones in the cemetery were interesting. The old ones from the 1800's didn't have birthdates, but years aged instead. This one said this person was murdered. The headstones for small children didn't bear the child's name only son or daughter of the parents names. 

We are planning on going back again to do some gold panning. It was a fun trip and a nice day.

Starting Back to School

We started back to school on the 15th. August and Kiley started 8th grade, Haley 6th grade and my little babies are big Kindergartner's now. Oh where has the time gone? I was nervous about our homeschool days and how it would go helping Kiley and August and also doing Kindergarten with the little ones, but it has worked out fine.

Julia and Emily in their new 1st day of school clothes, with their new binders.
Big sisters drew Mario Brothers characters for them. 

Kiley and August, 1st day of 8th grade, Pre Algebra

All set to work. They are learning to their whole names.

 They are using flour in a cookie sheet to help them learn to write the letters.

see

August and Kiley are working on their Advanced Physical Science forces lesson.
They are building motorized electric racers.

Our first week back in school mode was tiring but exciting too. The girls were all ready to start learning again. I had an 8th grade reading list all ready to go; it included 20 different novels. Considering the public schools only read 4 a year, I figured 20 would be good. They have already read close to 5 of the books. I guess we will be expanding our list some. I have abandoned the text book thing this year, except for math. The books last year were so boring. We are doing a lot more reading with non fiction documentary books we find at the library. This provides a lot more detail into the things we are studying. 

Right now Kiley and August are learning about the Declaration of Independence. They have each chosen one of the signers and are researching and writing a report on that man. August chose John Adams and Kiley Chose John Hancock. Did you know that both Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died on July 4th? Neato huh? 

Our little kitty Nora is doing well, she is growing so quickly. We are trying to get her litter box trained, which she does fairly well. I am using a small aluminum cake pan because she is much too small to get into a full size one. She is still drinking formula from a bottle but I'm hoping to get her eating real food by next week. She is having fun being a kitten and is very playful now. She's such a cutie. The other day her brother came over for a play date. They were playing together liked they missed one another. 

Nora and Chino

This is Garf our big boy checking out little Nora

It's late. I'll write more soon. Good night and God bless.