Homeschooling in a Small Space

...and not going insane.

So... I was talking to a friend of mine who just got engaged. He has five kids, and will be adding 3 with the marriage to total 8 kids under 16y/o in their house. I asked if they would be moving, or staying in the area, and his reply was, "We'd have to move, with 8 kids we'd be on top of each other in this house." ...and they don't homeschool.

At this point I felt as though I'd been slapped with the silly noodle. Did he realize what he was saying? who he was talking to?

His house is 3,200 sq ft, has a recently finished basement complete with sauna, and a 3 car attached garage.


My family of six has lived in an apartment of 3 bedrooms; 1300sq ft for all of our 6 years of homeschooling. I recognize that in many parts of the world my home would feel extravagant and even luxurious with its amenities.

But still, I think I could redefine his idea of "on top of each other." He's a good friend and I am guessing that he just needed an excuse to leave the house his wife died in. Anyway, it got me thinking about things I do specifically with my day because of our space parameters.

Small Space Sanity Savers:

1. White Noise Machines- in each bedroom, before this it was me doing laundry every time I wanted to watch a movie without kids.
2. Headphones- for the piano and audio books
3. Keyboard- moveable piano!
4. Get out of the house--we take about a 2 hour break from 11-1 as this is about the time things start to fall apart and we are rolling on the floor eating each other's socks and growling like caged tigers. It also motivates us to get those brainy subjects done at a decent time.
5. Maps on table tops--under glass, or bully clipped to the coffee table day of.
6. An armoire for school stuff, in the kitchen-hides a multitude of sins.
7. Bins--"Math" bin," Language Arts" bin, and "Done" bin for all 3 kids stuff. I used to have bins for each child and realized it was redundant.
8. Lunchboxes-everyone in the small kitchen at the same time is madness, we try to take care of it earlier.
9. Bedroom with a lock--when things get really noisy and we just need 10 blessed minutes to finish the worksheet already!
10. Community Events & Memberships--we go somewhere just about every day. I know some people dread their busy schedules, but for us it's a lifesaver. We aren't at home breathing each other's air, making mess after mess, and we get out to experience quite a bit.
11. Clear Sleep, Wake Up, and Quiet Times-- I am not the best at this, but I see that where physical boundaries are small, we need more defined time boundaries to just get the space we need as individuals (and introverts).

Another friend was saying she felt she needed to be nearer her 4y/o son when he had friends over to play and make sure he wasn't being a bully. "You know?" she coaxed.

All I could honestly say was, "I've never had the luxury of that problem." Meaning, I am always within earshot of just about A-nything in my house, and while I dream of someday having a place to put bikes, and not have all my kids' clothes in one tiny closet because all the camping stuff is in the other, I know that it is far more comfortable than most of history's population, and can't bring myself to complain...too often ;)

15 Things I Wish I'd Known 5 Years Ago

Recently, I was panicking about my effectiveness as a teacher (a typical response 4-5 months into the school year). I voiced to a friend, "I just wish I could see 5 years from now and know it was all worth it."

My friend said, "Well, you've been homeschooling for 5 years now, what would you tell yourself of 5 years ago?"

This hit me hard, and a beautiful feeling of awe and gratitude came. I pondered this for all of December and realized there were a lot of things that had only recently been happening in the structure of our daily lives that would have made things easier a long time ago.

I list them for my benefit, because I am guessing many have figured these things out already.

15 Things I wish I'd known/started 5 years ago:

1. Don't compare other's best to my family's worst.

Easier said than done, but I am trying to focus on the whole child and a variety of well-rounded subjects. They might struggle with some of the same subjects they do with me anyway were they in a traditional school setting--who knows? If my child is reading later that others, or not in PreK--it's OK. Pogress is so varied at this time, and I'm taking an intentionally different route.

2. Make a top-heavy day and relaxing evening.

I am a morning person and by 8 o'clock I am completely DONE. My husband has a varied schedule, so for most of the week I am on deck from 8am-8pm, with little reprieve. I am also an introvert and so being with 4 needy people (whom I love) all day leaves me feeling completely depleted by then, and cranky if there's any delay getting everyone to bed (there always is.) So, I gave up on an evening poetry  read-aloud or constructive handicraft circle around the cozy crackling fire (which we don't have). Instead we all take this miracle sleeping pill called "Leave it to Beaver" just before bed. Its void of stimulating colors, its pace is slow, and it shows people listening to their parents; it puts us all into a settled comatose feeling of security--perfect for sleep.

3. No screentime Monday -Friday.

Let me clarify, no screentime that they get to choose or ask for. On Friday they each get a card with 10 minutes repeated around the top and bottom,  for 60min a weekend. When they want to play a game or watch a show they bring it to me, tell me the time they are using, and we both set our timers. If they are late--I mark off an extra 10min. Before they can have screentime, they must vacuum their rooms and finish their schoolwork on Friday, and have done their Saturday chores the next day. Then my husband and I see what they've already done and there's zero arguing about it among themselves.
This gives us incentive to get outside more, which I should really do with them more--like daily.

4. 1 hour of Quiet Time a day.

I forget about this on busy days--until it's 7pm and I'm exhausted. I've had to decide what this time means to me, and concluded I want them reading for at least 30min, but mostly it's for my sanity to have us all apart for a while--sort of a spacer in our day...audio books are our friend...

5. Take personal time 5-8am.

My wonderful husband guards me from little people until 8am. During this time I write, shower, exercise, or maybe just sleep. Since he is gone most of the day, and once I am visible I am available--right, right?--this is another needed space that gives me the bit of solitary I need to carry me through the day. He is so much better at producing a warm morning where as I am more suited to a military drill method of waking children--no it didn't work well...

6. Have the kids make their own lunches every morning after breakfast.

We have these sort of bento boxes, a list of how to make a lunch, and several trays/containers/bins that I pull out for them to choose from. I check it before they put it in the fridge. They can eat from them pretty much anytime they want to and travel well. If we are  on the go I can just throw them in a bag or fabric cooler.

7. Multiple calendars are not redundant, but necessary.

My husband and I coordinate on google calendars, I detail my day in a paper planner, and a huge chalkboard calendar tells me general appointments at a glance. A separate school planner with a shopping list template plans our learning. In the summer I have a calendar for possible events, and another for what we will actually do. I like to calendar...

8. Weekly prep of 3 hours--alone.

I just can't do it effectively with anyone in the house--there are too many interruptions and my 3 hours turns into 6... Again, my wonderful husband has agreed to take the kids somewhere 3 hours every week so I can get abreast of the upcoming week and write out their assignments. *A membership to the Rec Center and a children's museum preferably 30min away is just perfect.

9. Plan meals ahead, shop for them every 2 weeks.

I don't have to explain this one either. It takes discipline but the immediate freeing up of not only time, but brain space has me sold.

10. Have one Kitchen Helper with me to make dinner every night 5-6pm.

Those who aren't Kitchen Helper do dishes afterward. I do this for a couple reasons;
 1-I get resentful if I am the only one doing the work that-let's face it- sometimes is unappreciated.
 2-Children eat better when they make it, if only because they see the effort it took.
 3-I like the company and I want them to feel comfortable in a kitchen and learn to cook.

All my kids have to be home by 5pm, then I am not chasing down people, and we are on schedule for bedtime (that magical time).

11. Take off December and 2 months out of summer.
Do a 4 day school week, with classes/field trips on the 5th day usually.

This is the first year we've done this and it made such a difference for me. Starting school in July or August isn't really that big a deal. In fact, it's a great motivator when friends are calling at the window to play- eh, he, he. Our home is 1300sq ft and we always get a real tree after Thanksgiving. By the time that's up and decorations are out  (ours are limited) and the kids drag out wrapping paper to wrap their gifts all 3x each (no joke) I'm ready to crawl the walls if I've got to navigate all that and do school. It just gets too crowded in our common areas. Taking that month off gave me necessary space in more ways than one.

12. 1 hour of teaching alone with each (older) child, each day.

We go in a locked room, with a table and the kids rotate through Watching Canary (now 4), doing Independent Work, or school with me. My Y6 and Y4 have their own planners to check off with me by 3pm.

13. Group time with quick rotations of 10-15minutes per book/topic.

These are accompanied by snacks and little art projects for Canary.

14. Daily Routine posted.

When we get off track (everyday) I don't play catch-up anymore. I just look at where we should be, and pick up there. Our day is scheduled according to energy and attention span and learning a new Math concept at 2:30 never works.

15. Wash all laundry on Friday, and then fold it Saturday morning.

It's the one thing I can completely space during the week and end up with piles everywhere. This has been working. I sort it and it must be put away and drawers straightened before screentime.

Again, I'm not saying any of these should be prescribed to solve all or even any homeschool problems of course, but thinking harder about my space, my circumstances, and my support has helped me come up with solutions for my family-

and it only took me 5 years?!

How Art We Doing?

 

Mockingbird 8y/o Park Life painting

 

This is just a quick glimpse of 3 ways have done Art this year, so far. 

 

En plein air

 

One beautiful day we went to the park to paint landscapes. We tried to use the water from the pond to really 'capture' the environment as a one famous Japanese artist does (so famous I forgot his name), but the scum on top sent us elsewhere. In the water we saw the muskrat, goldfish, a Frisbee disc fly in with a splash, and somewhere in there Mockingbird saw lily pads....

 

I probably could have given more instruction for the landscape due to the frustration voiced, but live and learn and use up canvases collecting dust...

 

Mockingbird's Red Room about 12"





 

Artist Study

We are doing Matisse this term. After reading a few children's biographies during lunches, we painted his The Dessert; Harmony in Red (The Red Room) in acrylics and white chalk--because we were out of white paint... This is Mockingbird's picture again. Her work is pictured in this post a lot not because I favor her, but because she starts with enough enthusiasim to have time to finish it, and allows it to be photographed easily (unlike some people). But that's OK. This isn't for a grade or even the end product. It's for the experience, it's for fun--most of all it's for them (not me).

Painting is also a great chance for children to solve their own problems when they say, initially forget to draw in the chair--or paint over the fruit bowl and their mother refuses to step in and fix it (with mixed reviews). I love Harold and the Purple Crayon and once did a whole week of lessons in public school around him and his sword purple crayon, focusing on how he comes to a problem and his crayon leads him to solutions. (A child's version of the Hero's Cycle.) I do try to choose simple pictures by the artist that are big shapes, and might give some sense of success to young children in copying.

I gave them a piece of cardboard, chalk to sketch out the big rectangles we observed, and then paint to go at it. We talked about the curvey lines, the fruit repeating the yellow flowers outside, and where the center of the picture is. Kingfisher 5y/o painted his board a monster, all green, then all black. Mockingbird 8y/o cheerfully reassured him when he complained about his artistic ability only to (I'm not kidding) 2 minutes later, burst into song and dance about how she couldn't do anything right as she had painted something wrong. It was all I could do to not burst into laughter regarding the about-face...which worked itself out in 2 more minutes.

 

Art History

 

It's still early in the year for us (I keep telling myself) and so we have read only to Chapter 5 in Hillyer's A Child's History of Art. This book is a bit pricey and was admittedly a school gift to myself.  It has three sections; Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture. We are going to go straight through it--maybe in 3 years, maybe less.  It's wonderful; concise, applicable to a child's world, chronological, and informative- if dated. I finally went through and penciled in on a printed copy of the contents a little related project we would do for each chapter. Ambleside Online has a chart that also references the dates for me.

 

I made a big chart that has the general artistic periods running up the middle; Ancient, Middle Ages, Renaissance, Modern, Post-Modern. I found this outline from Art for Dummies helpful. On the right there is space to note Historical Events to help us relate. I found an old Janson's History of Art at a used book sale cheap enough to warrant cutting out the pictures to add to our poster as we read about them.

 

Typically, I show them images on-line, set them up to do a related project, and read the chapter to them while they work.

We do this on Sundays because they enjoy it and on that day we have the time to really spend on it if they want to work longer.

 

Related Art Projects

 

So far we have done Cave Art, where we drew with sidewalk chalk on brown butcher paper taped to the wall animals--some riddled with primitive arrows, some not.

 

Cave Art -Bowery Bird & Canary

 

We did Egyptian art, simply copying the front-eye, side shoulders stance.

 

Egyptian -8y/o Mockingbird

 

Then we did Assyrian art, drawing in clay an animal with a repeated decorative pattern. I gave them each a slab of clay and some little tools. For Kingfisher (5y/o) I drew the outline of a bird and let him fill it in, but this is again, is Mockingbird's work (remember, Best Beloved, not because I favor her more), it's only about 3x5".

 

Assyrian; Peacock -8y/o Mockingbird

 

 My goals with art aside from learning about an artist a term are:

• Exposure to different styles and understand how they fit into history
• Experimentation with those different styles and materials
• That's it. (I have to remind us all, myself included) It's not to create a perfect copy, memorize the dates of the period, or what part they played in their larger culture--just enjoy and someday further down the road, have a place to put more detailed information as it comes.

The Red Room

Mocking Bird's Matisse copy of the Red Room (8y/o)

 
 
 

 
 

Rocks & Fossils

Today we did Building Foundations of Science D-8 Vol 1.

After watching the Dinosaur Magic School Bus episode we learned about sediment and how dinosaur bone fossils are mold and cast formed. We made our own mudslide, let it settle, and as an after thought, Kingfisher stuck a desperate dinosaur in the middle... Later when I called him to do his journal he called out from within a pile of cushions on the couch, "sorry mom, I'm a fossil!" In other words, I was too late.

 

We looked at sandstone. We looked at how tiny clay particles that form shale can be by shaking up a bit of artist's clay in a jar of water.

We looked at limestone from our rock collection (fortunately labeled for us), and tested it and shells with vinegar for calcium properties. Shells fizzed a little, limestone OK, limestone tufa rock gave a more impressive response! (tufa; center above magnifying glass)

Then we watched these clips;

Fossil Rock Anthem  a music video parody, soo funny...

Dinosaur Days clip explaining fossil formation

Which prompted these science journal entries:

This is Kingfisher's (5 y/o) diagram of sediment with a dinosaur I drew for him. The caption he dictated reads; "Help! I'm sinking! What should I do? I'll just wait till I dry up then a paleontologist will dig me up-but that's terrible all my bones are going to get washed away!"

 

This is Mockingbird's diagram of how fossils are formed... see the Dinosaur Days clip for this girl's doppelgänger...

Schedules for Y5 and Y3

Here is the Y5 schedule we are using this year. Here is the Y3 one too.

Moral Tales for all that Ails

Me own mum confessed in true Catholic style the other day that if it weren't for the dear nuns and her early readers constantly concluding with some moral reminder, she'd have ended up like the rest of her siblings; self proclaimed "owl hoots and jaspers."

I found this telling, and went on to instantly catalogue what moral tales I was telling to my own impressionable little charges. They are good and plenty, a few for the record:

 1. The Book of Virtues by William J. Bennett and it's companion, The Moral Compass

It begins with a quote from Plato's Republic,

Anything received into the mind at that age is likely to become indelible and unalterable; and therefore it is most important that the tales which the young first hear should be models of virtuous thoughts...

One school year we were graced by one of these every morning after breakfast. It holds such chapters as "Responsibility" and "Courage" and "Work." I would give my children three of these categories and when I was finished they had to guess what the story was about, and why.

Some of our favorites are "Dust Under the Rug," a story about a girl who one day gets hurried in her housework for dwarfs and fulfills the title's foreshadowing, only to later have her conscience stricken and discover gold as she makes amends.

Another is the rollicking rhyme of "Matilda, Who Told Lies, and Was Burned to Death."
...Need I say more?

2. Mrs. Piggle Wiggle's Magic (and really, anything else by Betty MacDonald you are lucky enough to get your hands on)

Not only is this a great introduction to the world of illustrator Hilary Knight (male, not female) but a didactic classic with entertaining yarns of the familiar friendly neighborhood cure-it-all with-a-call, Mrs. Piggle Wiggle. We know her, we love her, go out and order yourself three.

3. Picture books; Pepe the Lamplighter, Princesses are not Quitters, Ruby and the Teeny Tiny Lie, etc.

These three came to mind most readily being ones we own.
Pepe the Lamplighter highlights an immigrant boy's "insignificant" job which ends up saving his little lost sister one dark night.
The next is a modern fairy tale of three princesses who are tired of seeing the servants have all the fun. It is so fanciful and silly that little girls are easily swept up in the magic of...work.
Lastly, Ruby loves to collect little things so much that she slips, just a little, and tells her teacher that a little camera she founds is hers, and pays for it with a big guilty conscience.

4. Biographies:Stone Girl Bone Girl, Minty, and Annie Oakley

This is from memory, but impressionable true-life tales always leave my children desiring to do something great:
Stone Girl, Bone Girl is of the young girl, Mary Anning, who discovered many paleontological firsts along the coastal shores of her British homeland, helping to support her struggling family and defeat personal ridicule from her peers.
Minty, was Harriet Tubman's childhood nickname. The illustrator, Jerry Pinckney also did the Harriet Tubman stamp. This beautiful bringing-up story made me cry, but made my children laugh (at the right places). Minty tells her homemade doll a lively rendition of Davy & Goliath she has learned from her mother, comparing Goliath to their master and ending it all with a feast of plenty at the 'big house'.
Annie Oakley is a personal favorite, followed up by the musical, of course. This talented female went from providing food for her family to touring the country and donating much to orphanages.


5. The Friend, a magazine

Yes, I'm LDS and so is this children's magazine that monthly brings to our home true tales of children who have come up against disobedience, laziness, bullying, viewing something their family rules deem inappropriate, etc. from others, or themselves at a weak moment. Sometimes they initially make the right choice, sometimes they don't; which in itself, is a lesson. As a side note, a wise mother once told me she tries to discuss with and prepare her children for issues they must face a full five years before they will even need to.

6. Among the Farmyard People by Clara Dillingham Pierson

This series of "Among the...People" is actually about animals, because animals are people too. Basing moral messages around actual animal behavior results in stories, for instance, of a lamb who shakes his long tale proudly at the others when his mother isn't looking--until it's cut off. Another of my favorites is the surprisingly abrupt story of a mouse who mistakes foolishness for bravery with an owl around. While it takes a bit to read the humor at times, it is consistent throughout and directed toward kindergarten age of long ago.

7. Works of fiction: The Trolls, The Hundred Dresses, and Gone Away Lake

Good fiction, should be blatantly fun and subtly enriching.
The Trolls is one of the most surprising and though-provoking books I have ever read. Its light-hearted family stories have a deep and even dark undertone revealed in the very last lines. I pondered it's meaning for days after...
The Hundred Dresses, I'm sure we're all familiar with this early portrait of bullying or excluding, and it's consequences.
Gone Away Lake is an adventure of discovery into another time as two siblings and a cousin meet living relics of a time gone by. As beautifully as that unfolds, it's also about watching out for your younger sibling, and what can happen if you don't.

   

8. Fairy Tales

I put this last, but really, isn't this a child's first introduction to the realm of stories-with-hidden-meaning? Just think back on these tales that obviously originated with that purpose in mind:

Cinderella
Little Red Riding Hood
The Little Mermaid (Please, I'm talking the real one here)
Goldilocks and the Three Bears

Obviously enjoyed by all ages, these references are all mostly geared toward younger ages. If you know of some gems for the older set, please let me know. I'm half-thinking of myself here, for they have helped strengthen my moral character as well.

Hiking with Kids

Discovery Trail circles the campground with kid-friendly kiosks and steel insect sculptures.

We recently went camping at Diamond Campground in Utah with my sister and the kids. Despite the borrowed 10-man tent that took us an hour and a half to put up, storms constantly threatening, and raindrops that had us convinced someone was pacing around our tent all night--it was a great trip!

The trail around the campground led us to a tee pee, beaver's work, and a river just right for playing in.

Our host was very friendly to his only campers that night and in less than 24 hours he swung by our site on his little golf-cart, roller bladed past listening to Hotel California, yellow-bicycled by, and later under pretense of walking his dog.The next morning we packed up everything, leaving our tent to dry in the sun and made our way to a picnic spot, where our host incidentally, drove by honking his horn and waving...

En route to the trail head we took a wrong turn and encountered  a hairy marmot (a first!) and two trucks full of kenneled hounds about to go bear hunting (hopefully a last).

Fortunately, the trail is largely shaded, if not a bit precarious in spots.

In preparation for the first long hike our family had done in awhile forever, I visited Just Jeff's Hiking Page, a wealth of helpful information not typically found on hiking with kids. The hike was 4 miles round trip and I wanted our 10, 7, 4, and 2y/o to have a nice time and reach our destination--for once!

I secretly brought along some chocolate covered raisins, and at one of our breaks (we stopped about every 20-30 min) I threw them in a pile near the trail and, per Just Jeff's instructions, tried my best to casually point them out.

"Look at that scat! You know, you can tell a lot about an animal by the way its scat looks, its size, and...how it tastes."

But before I could amaze them all by eating it--Bowery Bird (10) with arms crossed 6 feet away looked down her nose at me and said, "I saw you touch it, it looks like chocolate covered raisins."
 I was crushed.
So perhaps our Nature Study has gone a little too well for fun and games of that sort...but while Mockingbird (7) scarfed it down, Kingfisher (5) still wouldn't touch it. "No. way."

A wall of one of the hot spring pools--complete with algae.

Eventually, after an hour and a half packing a 2 1/2 year old, we reached the end; hot springs! We stayed to splash in the lower springs that had been contained in several walled-off, surprisingly deep pools. There were several adults nearer the falls who were clothed (for now), but I didn't want to risk anything. My sister, who was looking forward to seeing me "explain that one" was sorely disappointed, I'm sure. The wind picked up and more rain seemed soon inevitable, so we prepared to leave sooner than expected.Then we looked up, and our host was waving hello as he hiked past...(still clothed).
"Wow, that's service." my sister joked, waiting for him to tell us our tent was dry.

 The return trip is when I took another cue from Just Jeff, I pulled out a scavenger hunt to do. The deal was, a prize would come out once every one's was finished. The older girls and Auntie worked together on questions like:

• Find every color of the rainbow (lots of flowers out made that possible--whew!)

• Name 3 stages of the water cycle around you.




• Find something becoming food for something else. (This one proved a challenge, but not for long. Mocking bird pulled out some animal crackers and we all watched as she theatrically consumed.)

Although the beautifully eaten guard rails would have sufficed.

 

• Something in the wild you can eat.
• Something living in it's habitat.
• A baby, a teenager, an adult organism.
• Find something poisonous.



Poison Ivy-past experience gives me the shivers just looking at it



The younger scavenger hunt I helped Kingfisher with had us find:

• A dark place and a sunshiny place. What lives there?
• Something camouflaged. (Spider) Why do you think it is camouflage.
• Something shiny.(The sun.)
• Something that reminds you of something else (A rock like a bird head & driftwood like a Pirate Ship.)
• A baby something--where might its parent be? (we saw robin eggs in a nest earlier)
• Something that was once alive, what happened to it? (a brown leaf and we talked about the seasons)
• Water in 3 places (Rain, waterfall, stream)
• Something camouflaged, why is it hiding? (spider--to get eaten)
• An insect, what is it doing? (ant--looking for food)

This started out as merely a way to kill time. But it was such a great conversation starter, it helped us open our eyes to things that might have gone overlooked, and was an effective way to gage what they really understood about the natural world and how it works. It was a fun common goal that we helped each other with.  The reward? More chocolate covered raisins  scat.

And as if we needed consolation for having to quickly leave the hot springs--or maybe just to prepare us for a doubly drenched tent in our absence, a double rainbow came into view as we pulled back into our campsite.

Wasatch Mountains in the background.

* I was honestly surprised at how little "extra" things we needed to entertain us or keep us motivated. I had forgotten how stimulating and gorgeous and rich a simple hike, in the right location (read: with a cool destination) can be.

Bridal Veil Falls

Bridal Veil Falls, Provo Canyon, Utah

 

As an alternative to endless Davy and Goliath shows (our Sunday-morning go-to fare), we left this morning for the canyon and some nature study...or not.

 

I've included links to Wild Utah Plants which helped in identification and give additional information.

 

Mule deer scat

 

 

 

 

 

Wild Blue Flax
Linacea (Flax)
 

 

Choke Cherry Blossoms
Prunus virginiana L.

Mule's Ears
Wyetia amplexicaulis

 

 

Hound's Tongue
Boraginaceae

Sagebrush in foreground

Water droplets by Bowery Bird

According to Mockingbird, this is a volcano about to erupt (our latest science study). Kingfisher wasn't falling for it, but still needed my confirmation.

What the kids were really up to--building a bridge across the huge mud puddle.

And finally, evidence of earthquakes...

Park Life can cover many subjects

 

 

Spring is not to be missed- we've been to the park twice this week to enjoy the weather.

 

GEOGRAPHY:

Bowery Bird and I made drew a huge USA map with sidewalk chalk. To work on the Webelos Forestry badge she marked the forest regions ( you can see a bit in Utah & Arkansas.)

She did great on the western half, I got a little sloppy on all the little eastern states- but they're so far away they don't matter anyway- jk!

 

 

NATURE STUDY:

Kingfisher found perfect deer tracks all over the sand.

 

 



 HISTORY:
Mocking Bird made sandcastles "Medieval ones so it still counts as school"

.

MORE NATURE STUDY & SCIENCE:

We saw the local muskrat-a busy and brave big guy.

And the slow bullfrog he disturbed.

 

HANDICRAFTS:

Made some bark boats with Maple leaf sails that were led by thread (see above).

 

 

POETRY:

I think that I shall never see,

a poem as lovely as a tree.

-Joyce Kilmer

 

 

And stared at ourselves in the water, working out the questions of the universe, why pigtails are so cute, and trying to gage whether or not we could beat the melt down bubbling up from the 7 kids I had in tow today...(we did.) Made it home in time to peacefully watch Disney's Mathemagic and the Composer's Series Rosissini.

Nancy Drew to the Rescue

"I want to go find a librarian and tell her my mom won't let me read a book!"- Bowery Bird

I'm a bad mom.
Today in between 5 dentist appointments Bowery Bird and I were across the street at the library. Holed up in a corner we were turning decimals into fractions and then marching them into ascending order (it sounds like magic was involved...and there must have been, to hold her back from stocking  up on Nancy Drews a mere 3 shelves away.)

Speaking of Nancy Drew, we just watched this killer of a film from 1939. I would recommend this any day over the modern version--and I haven't even seen that one yet.

This movie had action, adventure, and lots of humor. Even my initially bored Kingfisher was laughing with us as our heroine and her friends sang Nursery Rhymes for their supper in a Chinese Restaurant, and turned off the hotel sign lights to read "Bedbug Hotel." Then all three children visibly held their breath as the bad guy approached Nancy and Ted with their recording device in full view; 1939 recording device.

Not only a fun show for all ages with an upbeat attitude and lots of adventure, it was a peak at how life once was and made a great Saturday afternoon treat.

Our Muddy Mississip.

We don't get dirty enough. It's May, and I wanted to take advantage of having the outside to ourselves before school gets out for the summer and do a combined project.

So today for Geography we went to the vacant lot near our home (don't worry, I edited out the graffiti fence for our viewers) and made our own Mississippi.

First Mocking Bird Y2 and Bowery Bird Y4 did a plan, complete with smiley and sad faces, by looking at the maps in Minn of the Mississippi, a beautiful tale of a snapping turtle's journey along the Mississippi and life in general.

Then we took a bucket of water and some spades and dug in!

Canary is sitting about in Lake Itsaca, and Mocking Bird is stealing water from the "Hungry Gulf of Mexico." That's the Missouri River on the right, and Ohio River on the left of course. A gentle slope mimics the melting Minnesota snows...

She and Kingfisher scooped the water from the south and replenished the Northern Lakes to start it all over again. An impromptu water cycle application fit in here, then it started raining as if to drive the point home. After this we cleaned up and watched one of my favorite guys; Bill Nye's Water Cycle episode, where we all learned we are drinking in fact, dinosaur spit.

Here's a better view. We're going for the basics here. I think it was effective, eventually when, quizzed enoughMocking Bird what she was working she started saying "The Hungry Gulf of Mexico" with a look, instead of "...a big lake..."

And our other goal- to get dirty. But we could have gotten more...city kids...