Advent

This year for Christmas Advent instead of buying those advent calendars with the waxy chocolate squares that are disgusting yet fun to eat because you get to eat chocolate first thing in the morning, I made my boys their own advent with things I found around the house.

I put some hooks on the wall (those 3M ones that go on and off the wall with ease), tied some string between the hoooks and hung up some old (but clean - I do have some class) socks up with clothes pins. Each clothes pin is numbered from 1-25. The clothes pins from 1-24 have a sock (or stocking if you prefer to call it - makes it sound more festive) hanging from it, and the 25th has a star that marks Christmas Day. Each morning I put something in the sock that corresponds with that day. The first thing the boys do in the morning is dig into their sock (stocking) to see what treasures and treats they will find. Even before they go to the bathroom, which shows me that they have an amazing amount of willpower - I can't do anything in the morning before I visit The John!

I Hate Crafts

Being a homeschool mom, there is a certain amount of pressure to be crafty. Children should be exposed to making things with their hands, experimenting with different mediums, creating something neat out of materials. I'm not very crafty and I'm not very creative. Every once-in-a-while I pull out stuff to make something out of. The kids get quiet. They know what's coming. A frustrated mommy is whats coming.

It's not that I don't like to make things. I DO like to make and build things. Cris and I built our fence all by our little selves. We measured, marked, hired a bobcat to drill the holes, set in the posts, mixed the concrete, leveled the posts this way and that way and the other way (they are perfect! I can attest to that!), marked this way and that way, put up all the runners, screwed in all the boards (some were done in the middle of the night with a flood light...I'm sure our neighbors LOVED us...but we were running out of available time!), and painted it inside and out. I single handedly purchased and hauled all the fence boards and 3000 lbs of concrete - one bag at a time - along with toting along 2 wee ones. I recall telling the boys that we had to go to Home Depot once again and Tove, who had just turned 2 at the time, cried out "No!! Not Home Depot!" We made many trips there.
This is the finished product:

Building this was a lot of work, a little frustrating because we had to squeeze in taking care of a 2-year-old and 4-year-old, kind of fun, and very rewarding. I liked building and creating it.

But "crafts"??? Not so much. I like creating things with a purpose and things that will last. I dislike the twaddle of meanial crafts.

Have you ever tried to work with Fimo? Don't try it with little kids. Waste of time. We did manage to create this "Eye of Horus" when we studied the Ancient Kingdom of Egypt, but it was frustrating, not enjoyable, and not rewarding. Fimo is the most annoying medium I have ever worked with. It's like trying to soften a stone by squeezing it.

We switched to clay when creating Ancient Chinese ming vessels, but I was annoyed when I opened the clay I had bought to discover I had purchased one white tub and one terra tub. So Elijah and Toviel had half as much clay to play with.

 In the end they produced these little things:

I hated every step of it.
I'm doomed! Doomed I tell you!
Either that, or my children are doomed to not learn how to properly create with their hands.

Mastery of Mathematics

One of the most difficult things about homeschooling is choosing an appropriate curriculum that is a good fit for your child. There are SO MANY options out there, and not all of them are excellent, although most are.
For math, you can choose from the more popular curriculums:
Math-U-See, Singapore, Saxon, Math Mammoth, MEP (totally free, which is really cool!), Miquon, Rod & Staff, Life of Fred (which we will probably use later on), Calvert Math, Abeka Math, Horizons, Teaching Textbooks, Bob Jones, McRuffy Math, Moving With Math, Key to Math, Christian Lite Math, LifePac Math, Kumon....
The list seems endless when you are researching for your own children.

I remember math as a child. I recall sitting in school, having the teacher demonstrate an algorithm one time, and getting it. I spent the rest of the weeks bored out of my mind wondering how we could still be reviewing such a simple topic. My dad taught me to add double and triple digits in church one morning. He explained it through once and that was that. From then on I looked forward to adding up his numbers every Sunday morning (he was an usher and counted the people in attendance). When it came time to learn this strategy in school the following year, I remember groaning, sighing, and putting my head on my desk in boredom. Needless to say, I never struggled with math concepts in my early years. But I did have a bad habit of counting. I think we were supposed to memorize the arithmetic, but I couldn't be bothered. And I also did not have a good visualization of quantities and numbers, which affected the way I researched math programs.

We started off with Math-U-See because so many people had raved about how easy it was to use and how well their children did with it. It was a complete flop. Elijah and I trudged through it for a year, completed a total of 2 years worth of math in that time. He hated it. I hated it. It was boring & monotonous. Every time I brought it out I could feel my shoulders slump over and I felt as though I wanted to cry. Elijah did too...and many a tear were shed, poor little guy. Math is anything but boring and monotonous! The patterns that emerge with numbers alone are totally cool.

For example, have you ever realized that if you count by 3's....

 3             6             9
12           15           18
21           24           27
30           33           36

Do you notice anything with this pattern?

I'll give you a moment....


Look at the first column. The digits all add up to 3.
The second column, they all add up to 6.
The third column, they all add up to 9.

How cool is that?

On top of that, mathematics is not just about numbers and algorithms.
We need a math program that taught more than arithmetic. *I* needed a math program that taught more than arithmetic. So after investing $300 (ouch) in 4 years of materials, we made a switch.

Enter RightStart Math.

I have yet to talk to a homeschooler in Canada who is familiar with RightStart, which boggles my brain. How can an amateur 2nd year homeschooler know about this when all the seasoned homeschoolers do not?
I have had to start basically right back at the beginning with Elijah since Math-U-See taught him nothing except how to combine numbers. I will say that it was effective in teaching him place value - they use a cool visual called "Decimal Street" with each place value being a house. But it is a rather abstract way to teach something that could be taught in a much more straight forward way.

RS Math uses the 2-toned abacus as the primary manipulative. This is absolutely my favorite teaching tool!

When we were still struggling through Math-U-See, we were using the abacus as a supplement to the blocks.

Right Start also uses more of a spiral approach, introducing many topics and frequently refreshing and reviewing it throughout the next few years instead of relying on the mastery approach which bored my poor artsy little Elijah (ie drill & kill until you get it, and then move on).

Toviel is 5 and LOVING math. LOVING it! When I say, "It's time for math," he drops everything and comes running. He will tell you the difference between parallel and perpendicular lines, he will explain how a square is not just a square, but it is also a type of rectangle and quadilateral. He can solve problems by mentally add numbers together and recognize patterns that I overlook. He loves to play math games, which is what we do instead of worksheets.

For anyone trying to find an excellent math program for their elementary-school-aged child, I highly recommend looking into Right Start Math. And no, sadly Right Start Math hasn't paid me to say this.

Sugar Sprites & Other Delights

Last night, while most children were being bathed and sung to and tucked into bed, this is what my children (and husband and I) were doing:

I have not explored a whole lot of areas in Edmonton, but so far my very favorite place to explore in is the Whitemud Creek Ravine. It is absolutely huge. There are well-travelled and maintained trails as well as the less travelled trails (pictured above) that started as animal trails. We explored the ravine for 3 hours, and then we lost the sunlight. It was handy to have a flashlight to make our way out of the ravine. I was impressed that we didn't get lost. Or wet.


On another note, Halloween is fast approaching. My boys LOVE Halloween. They love to dress up (almost daily), and they love trick-or-treating. Yes, we are one of the few Christian families who trick-or-treat or acknowledge Halloween in any way. If you ask my boys what Halloween is about, they will answer "Halloween is all about the candy!!!" And, seriously, it is all about the candy for us. Woot! If you know me, you know I LOVE candy. So don't send me any hate mail about how pagan I am because we knock on doors asking for candy.

We have started a new tradition this year. I just found out about the Sugar Sprites. I didn't know about them until just a few days ago. The Sugar Sprites survive in the summertime by gathering nectar from the flowers (and I suspect they also get into the hummingbird feeders). But come winter, their struggle for survival increases as the months progress. A long time ago they heard that human children gather candy on Halloween night and they started visiting houses of generous and kind children to gather candy for their families to last them the winter. Now, the Sugar Sprites go from house to house looking for candy that is left out for them. They take the designated candy and in it's place leave a small token of thanks - a toy, a book, or even $5.
This year my boys will be collecting candy mainly for the Sugar Sprites. They will select a few pieces of candy to enjoy and give the rest to the sprites. And in return, the Sugar Sprites will show their gratitude with a gift in return. It's win-win.

Spread the word about the Sugar Sprites! They need our help!

Thanksgiving Dinner

While the majority of Canadians were eating turkey and stuffing and all the trimmings in their cozy home surrounded with family and enveloped in love, we were trapsing about in the forest, looking for treasure, exploring the great outdoors, and freezing our hands and feet off. It wasn't intentional, it just sort of happened.

If you look closely, you can see us weaving in and out of the brush.

I guess this is what happens when you live far away from family and the mom of the house (that would be me) doesn't not enjoy cooking or the clean up, nor does she really enjoy eating all that much. The effort put into preparing food is just too much to justify considering the enjoyment from actually eating the food is so low. "Okay....let's eat so we can get on with stuff!!" Don't get me wrong, I eat....a lot....but not for fun.

So, when the time came for me to go and buy and turkey and fixin's, instead of going out like a responsible adult to collect the items needed, I said to my kids, "Hey - would you like to go geocaching?"
They both looked up at me wide-eyed for a second before shouting back "YEAH!!!" I looked at my husband and shrugged.
"So, should we go?"
"I guess..." he shrugged back.

So off we went, into the Mctaggart Sanctuary.

Found a geocache!

We found several caches. 5 in total I think. Or maybe it was just 4. Usually we take the hard way (unintentionally) and end up bushwacking for what seems like miles and miles.

We spotted an old wasps nest and took it down to dissect:

The boys thought it was very interesting...

I love how perfect and symmetrical the hexagons are that bees and wasps make. Did you know that the hexagon shape is the most space preserving and structually solid shape of all time? The inborn knowledge to create these shapes is actually mathematically the best choice that they have. There is no better shape for this purpose.

Hexagons!!!

We geocached until the sun went down. We actually needed the flashlights we brought to find the last geocache.

That is what we did instead of thanksgiving dinner. And I gave thanks the whole time we were out, for all the things that I am thankful for. I also gave thanks that I didn't have to prepare a huge thanksgiving meal to prove that I was thankful.

Happy (Steroid) Harvest!!

Well, it is harvest time.  So begins (well, actually continues) the gruelling labor of plucking plump, ripe, fresh veggies from the ground. Ha!

This year (our 2nd year of having a teeny tiny urban garden) was our first year of growing zucchini. We harvested quit a few zucchini, to my surprise. Most of them were the size of pickling cucumbers - all but one:

I am not sure to what we owe the size variation.

The little zucchinis ended up in Cris' delectable cookies. The big one that obviously was on steroids ended up being sliced into coins and fried. Toviel and I smothered them in butter and ate it. The rest of the family was not too fond of it, but Toviel and I....we will eat anything that is smothered in butter. It was delish!! And for the next few days I mustered up some new-found energy to do some serious organizing and cleaning. So, I am pretty sure that zucchini was on steroids very good for me.

Fractals - Or Something Like That

The other day I was teaching both my sons some math and we were playing with equilateral triangles. We discussed the properties of equilateral triangles and played with different sizes of them that I had cut out of paper. I came across a side note in my guide saying that we were going to be discussing ten fractals the next lesson.
Frac-what? What the heck are fractals? And why are my 5 and 7 year olds learning about something that I know nothing about?

It turns out that fractals are geometric shapes that can be split into parts, each of which is a smaller size copy of the whole. And a tens fractal merely suggests 10 of the smaller = one of the larger. Well, it is way more complex than that, but for our introduction to fractals it was simple (thank goodness!)

The 3 of us made ten 10-fractals with equilateral triangles. Then we glued those all together to make one big fractal to show how 10 of these triangles with 10 triangles in them equals 100. Then, we were supposed to make 10 of the ten 10-fractals and glue those together to make one monstrous fractal, which shows how ten 10's are 100, and ten 100's are 1000 or that ten ten 10's are 1000. This process is way to monotonous with 2 boys who don't know how to switch off their imaginations to perform the tedious processes of life and 1 ADD mom who is easily distracted and has difficulty staying on task for more than a few minutes. So we just did one of the 100 triangles.

For the 1000 triangle we just used our imaginations, since those run rampant all the time anyways.

A Little Acedemic

Okay...

After that last post it makes it look like all we do is play all day with a few chores mixed in there.

I actually DO teach my kids acedemic stuff.

Last week we learned about linking verbs.
A verb is a word that does an action, shows a state of being, links two words together and something-something-something (I can't even remember).

Anyways, we were concentrating on the "links two words together" last week, and this is what we did:

Cool hey? See how the linking verb links the words together? For those of you less inclined to remember how we parse sentences, the linking verb is on the white link.
I thought it was a cool, hands on idea for reinforcing the concept.

No, it wasn't my idea (Thanks Jessie Wise). But I implemented it pretty well.

What We Do Instead of School

Last week the weather was so nice. Not your typical September weather. I felt bad for all the kids who had just returned to school and had to miss out on part of the sunshine, since we had such a wet and cool summer.

This is what we did the first week that other kids went back to school:

It was something like 35C or 37C out. We had only had 3 or 4 days this summer that were even close to being pool-worthy, so I happily filled the pool up and let the boys spend the afternoon splashing around and keeping cool. I usually add some bubble bath to the water and they enjoy some bubbles while getting clean.

When they were done and eating a 100% juice freezie, I announced that I was going to harvest some of our garden. Elijah protested and asked that I wait until he was done his freezie because he wanted to help.

He loved plucking the beets and carrots out of the ground. He also helped me with the tedious peas-and-beans-picking from start to finish. I was lucky that I was able to employ my mom (who was visiting for a few days) to do the shelling, cutting & washing of the veggies as that is my least favorite part of having a garden.

It was an enjoyable and relaxing end to the summer.
Now...on to fall....

At The Farm

The other day we went to The Ranch.

We played in the hay and straw for a bit....

...then we put Elijah to work.

He is a huge fan of combine harvesters. He is a huge fan of anything that is really huge, actually!

We drove through several fields (passing through one of the gates I managed to smash up our van pretty good...but we won't talk about that)....
We walked to the lake through millions of foxtails.

Toviel found a pretty hawk feather. He suggested we make a writing quill out of it...

...and when I cleaned up the table in the evening, this is what I found. He HAD made a writing quill out it.

Foraging For Food...

...in my back yard! My teeny-tiny back yard!

Our garden is bring forth fruit (and veggies).

Peas!

Green Beans!

Zucchini! (it is so teeny still)

Beets!

Red Onions!

There are SO MANY ladybugs in our garden this year!

The Harvest

Delicious Peas!

I love peas. Especially raw. I love peas so much, someone dear and close once called me pea-ness.
These peas are especially good, and especially raw.

I can tell you one thing, if I had to work this hard every day to get food to eat, I'd be a whole lot thinner.

Tablets and Scrolls

Last week we made some clay tablets and practiced cuneiform writing (ancient Mesopotamia-type stuff).

Here is Toviel's name in cuneiform:

Toviel also wanted to try his hand at this ancient writing:

I was getting ready to help Elijah write his name in cuneiform, but he stopped me. He didn't want me to write his name - he wanted to me write "mammoth". So I did:

And then he drew a picture of a mammoth with his tool:

We discussed some of the advantages and disadvantages to using clay tablets for recording information, then proceeded to make the more modern scroll:

Elijah wrote his name beautifully with paint in cuneiform script inside this scroll. Toviel slapped some paint on his and mucked it around a little (okay - a lot) with very precise strokes that seemed to me to be very random, but his level of concentration was too intense for it to have been random and willy-nilly.

Finger-Lickin' Good

We are studying ancient civilizations and are enjoying learning about mummification and pyramids and the like.
When I was younger and first heard about how the Egyptians preserved the bodies of the pharoahs I was totally grossed out. Why would someone do something so morbid as that? And why would they waste riches and goods on the dead? I'm guessing the pyramid robbers also thought the same thing as they were plundering the massive graves.

My boys are nothing but fascinated with the whole thing. Disciplines such as learning to read and write are rarely met with such enthusiasm, but the way that ancient civilizations have invoked intrique and interest in this house (did you get my alliteration there?  Pretty good, eh? I did that on purpose) has really surprised me.

I would suggest, at the horror of some, that history is the most boring subject ever taught in schools. The memorizing of dates and dry material brought me to tears as early as grade five. But here I am now in my late 30's actually learning about history with my 7 and 5 year old boys. They are loving it. I am loving it. It is definately, hands down, the best study we are doing right now. I think not having the pressure of passing tests and committing irrelevant material to memory has lifted the restrictions on my actual learning. I am glad that I am passing this freedom on to my boys at such a young age.

My boys made several intricate pyramids out of lego and then we built some pyramids out of sugar cubes. Tasty, delicious pyramids. Mmmmm.

An Oddity

Yesterday I actually had time to dust my baseboards!
Well, not all of them....but the kitchen ones at least!!
Look!!

Yet Another Homeschool Blog

*pop*

As if there weren't enough moms blogging their educational journey with their children, up pops another.

As a mom who works full-time, is the main childcare provider for her kids, keeps the house in order, homeschools and tries to get some occassional sleep, I am desperate to see some progress and accomplishments in the midst of total chaos. It was recommended to me (from a fellow homeschooling mom who I have never met or talked to) that blogging is a good way of tracking projects, ideas, and perhaps a little learning shoved in there somewhere.

Oh well, we'll see how long it lasts.