Mom & Pop Home School

Today was busy and fun. And different, which was much needed, I think.

We started out this morning with a field trip to a dairy with our homeschool group. It was a small family dairy that sells raw milk. We got to see the facilities where the milk is bottled, and we saw some cows getting milked. Then we went outside and got to see more farm animals. They had a lot of goats, as they sell both cow and goat milk, and the children got to hold and pet some baby goats. They also got to hold young chickens, and chase a poor free range turkey around a bit, and see some calves and piglets. A good time was had by all. Cricket did have a little bit of trouble with the smell, especially in the milking room which had a number of cows in a pretty enclosed sort of space, and that combined with the crowd of parents and children and a few flies buzzing around was a lot for him to handle. But he was able to verbalize his troubles and find a solution (”Can I wait for you outside that door?”) even under stress, which is SOOO much better than a meltdown. Hooray for age, experience, practice, and maturity! Woo hoo! Sunshine was particularly enamored of the chickens, and Cricket wants a goat. They are both disgusted with the city for not zoning our house agricultural. (Whew!)

After the dairy trip we picked up some nibbles, including some goat milk cheddar cheese from the dairy and some bannanas and rolls from a grocery, and had a picnic lunch at a nearby park with some of the other homeschoolers. Social time galore. Those park days are hard for Cricket. He has trouble recognizing a person from a previous encounter, and the kids are all strangers every week to him. I’ve been trying to identify some potential friends for him, but it’s not been easy. Sunshine, on the other hand, views all people as friends. Strangers are just friends she hasn’t met yet. But she does have one particular little girl with whom she has become buddies at park day, and she’s always happy when that little girl comes. They’re very cute together, though the other little girl does seem to have a little trouble with asking to use other people’s things rather than just taking them when nobody is looking. At any rate, it’s a good time to practice social skills and coping mechanisms.

On the way home from our outing we stopped by the homeschool store. I wanted to pick up some HWT workbooks because I’ve started both of the kids on the kindergarted pre-writing stuff (I don’t have the blocks, I made the shapes out of craft foam and they work fine for us) and I think they’re about ready to start with the pencil and paper in the workbooks. I’m really glad they don’t put grade levels on the workbooks. Sunshine is LOVING learning to write, though I’m not sure her Kindergarten teacher will thank me in the fall, since I’m fairly certain they use a different program with different strokes for the letters, but she’s just so darn HUNGRY for it that I can’t say no and make her have to just watch while Cricket gets to do something she could be doing too. Cricket is finally starting to make the letters using the same sequence of strokes each time, rather than remembering the letter as a shape, and “drawing” the symbol a different way each time. If we can get the letters to be more automatic I think we may see more willingness to do writing assignments. Also increased legibility. When I hold up the children’s slates for daddy to see, he can’t tell which letter was drawn by the 10 year old, and which by the 4 year old beginning writer. Argh! But progress is occurring, and for that hooray!

Anyway, so we stopped at the homeschool store, which didn’t have the right level of workbooks anyhow so I’ll either have to wait for them to get them back in stock, or just order them myself. While we were there, Cricket found a computer program about inventors that he HAD to have, and since it was not terribly expensive I said ok, as long as he put the inventors on the timeline as he learned about them. Sunshine found a LOT of things she HAD to have, including Sculpey clay, a ballerina music box, a flocked plastic unicorn, and a Noah’s ark book. But she settled for a set of four hand puppets–a pig, a penguin, a panda, and a shark. I was not sure exactly what sort of story might include that particular cast, but they have been a big hit all afternoon and evening, and the kids have made a puppet stage, scenery, and a script which included a wedding (panda and penguin–the penguin was the bride in case you wondered) and an intermission with a dance troupe entertainment. Pop and I sat on the couch and watched, wide-eyed, applauding at the appropriate times–which were mostly discernable because Cricket would say, “Now clap!” in an encouraging sort of way, not because the script made any really discernable sense. So, it wasn’t great theatre, but they were working together and having a good time, so I call it a good purchase. The software, on the other hand, didn’t work. Cricket and I went and returned it, and he picked out a book about ancient Greece that came with a little plastic Parthenon model to assemble. He put it together after we got back, and is contemplating starting a “collection of famous building models” now that he’s got the Parthenon from Greece and the Colosseum from Rome. Could be fun. We’ll see if it goes anywhere (like maybe it could replace all those bug containers!!!)

After supper we went out to look at some real estate. Pop thinks maybe he wants to buy a little office somewhere outside the house. He sometimes gets frustrated with kid noise in the background of business calls (we do TRY to be quiet), and interruptions, and he thinks it might be easier to focus if he had to get up and GO to work instead of meandering in whenever in his jammies, knowing the TV is just around the corner, just in case he gets “blocked” on his work. He may have a point. On the other hand, with gas prices what they are, you can’t beat the current commute. But in this area I’m not sure we’ll find something suitable that we can actually afford. We looked at 2 places, the first of which would need some fixing up and serious redecorating, and the second of which was built in 1920 and was really cute inside, but needed a new roof and possibly a little structural shoring-up in one corner of a small addition. That second one was built on a hill and had a cellar space downstairs that was accessed by an exterior door from the back “yard”. It spooked Sunshine and Cricket so bad that they had to go sit in the car, and on the way home Cricket wanted to know whether we were “a mile from that creepy place yet”—which we were, much to his relief. It took a while to get Sunshine settled down for bed when we got home.

But all in all, it was a fairly educational day, and we didn’t even have to crack a book. Sometimes we need days like that.

At lunch today, Sunshine declared that Cricket was smarter than Mom. (She currently thinks EVERYONE is smarter than Mom, the rotten little soul.) Cricket liked that notion, and to prove it, he asked me, “Whats a hundred times a hundred?” I promptly replied, “Ten thousand.” “What?!” he exclaimed, “How did YOU know that.” “I know lots of things,” I said, “Can you tell me what is eight times nine?” (I picked that one because I know he can never remember it.) He looked stumped. I informed him that it was seventy-two, and see, he did still have a few things he could learn from me.

Sunshine, not to be outdone, started quizzing me (as if she knows anything about multiplication). “Mom, what’s two times seven?” “Fourteen,” says I. ”Oh yeah, Mom, what’s two times eighteen?” (She clearly had picked what she considers a BIG number—she’s still working on counting past twelve.) “Thirty-six,” says I. She furrowed up her little brow, determined to stump me with a REALLY big number. “What’s two times a HUNDRED!” “Two hundred.” Now she was GOING to stump me if it was the last thing she did (before finishing her sandwich)! “Mom,” she announced triumphantly after a moment’s thought, “what’s two times TREE?” Ok, I did hesitate at that one a little….two times tree? (Does she mean three? No, she never says three that way…) ”Uh….” I said after a moment, “Two trees?” She looked crestfallen. “Correct,” she declared. Then wonderingly, “How did YOU know?”

http://whyhomeschool.blogspot.com/2007/04/carnival-of-homeschool-week-68.html

They’re going. Going well? Going better? Going off the deep end? Well, yes they are.

And if you don’t know quite what to make of that statement, take comfort in the fact that I’m not sure what to make of it either. It’s been crazy rollercoaster time around here. One minute things are going swimmingly; cheerful cooperation, even enthusiasm for school, helpful attitude toward sister and parents, generally rosy outlook. And then the wind shifts, or the barometric pressure changes, or a fly crawls up the wrong wall somewhere in Mosambique, and (more…)

Today I was poking around in the pill bug habitat to check the state of things. It got very, very dry for a while there and since we learned in science that pill bugs are crustaceans, have gills, and need moisture to be able to breathe, I was concerned that they had all died. I had watered it good a few days ago, and wanted to see if it had done any good. I noticed that all the flake fish food I had put in (the care sheet said to feed them this) had disappeared, so I thought something must be eating it, and began poking into crevices and stirring up the soil a little. Under a rock I found a whole nursery full of the cutest little itty bitty, teeny weeny pinky transparent baby roly polies. They’re adorable. When they roll up, they’re barely the size of a pin head. We admired a couple for a while with a magnifier, and marvelled at their tiny perfection. Then I popped them back in the habitat. Part of me is astounded and awestruck at the miracle of new life…and part of me is cowering in some back mental corner, shuddering and screaming, “They’re potato bugs, ya dope! What have you DONE?!”

Funny how things work out. Earlier today I wrote a post about how much progress I’ve seen in Cricket in the area of self-control. It vanished irretrievably in a flash technological flatulance when I tried to post it . This afternoon he flew into a violent rage the likes of which have not been seen around here in some time. Maybe someone was trying to warn me.

Pop says he thinks it might be related to the adjustments in medication we’ve been going through. He may well be right. Pop says impending puberty might also be a factor (Cricket will be ten in a couple of weeks, and has already begun to need deoderant). Pop may well be right. But somehow after spending Sunshine’s entire dance class in the waiting area treating the other moms to a fascinating demonstration of self-defense (or was it child abuse?) dodging flying fists, feet, head, knees, elbows, and stuffed penguin while trying to avoid being spit on or licked, wrestling him to his stomach on the floor, pinning his arms behind his back and sitting on him…I don’t much care what the contributing factors were. I just want it to stop. (more…)

The latest carnival is up. I didn’t submit anything this week, but check it out anyway. There’s some good stuff there.

http://alasandra2003.blogspot.com/2007/03/carnival-of-homeschooling-65.html

Well, I got brave again and submitted another post to the carnival. This week’s host did a really great job with the carnival, tying all the different post topics together with the theme of springtime migration. There are some very good, thought provoking articles and I definitely recommend checking them out. Click here: http://gottsegnet.blogspot.com/

Well, today I feel like a good mom. And even a good homeschool mom, to boot. The day had a slightly less than stellar start, as I slept in–I’ve been doing that a lot lately, but on the up side I’ve been fighting off a cold recently. How is that an up side you ask? Well, I’ll tell ya. It’s an up side because all winter, anytime a germ even looked at me crosswise my immune system just rolled over and surrendered. This time, what with all the sleeping in (and taking vitamins, and trying to get more fresh air, exercise, and sunshine), my body is actually putting up a fight! And I think it might be winning! Anyway, back to my point. I slept in again. And by the time I got up Cricket had eaten two bananas, a bowl of instant oatmeal, and a small carton of yogurt. And Sunshine had eaten yogurt too (but she’s not the same bottomless pit as her brother). So nobody was hungry, but they were whiney. Whining to beat the band. Whining and complaining. And griping. AND it was Saint Patrick’s Day, so Cricket was on pinch patrol; fortunately my nightgown had a small band of embroidered flowers with green stems, Pop was already wearing a green shirt, and we clued Sunshine in before Cricket got her, but then he was mad because there was nobody to pinch. (more…)

4:30 pm- School is “over” for the day. Both kids are currently in the living room building a “castle tent” out of chairs, blankets, brooms, canes, couch cushions, several pop-up Playhut thingamajiggers, and who knows what all. It’s two stories tall, but the top floor is only for stuffed animals, I’m told, and NO GROWNUPS ALLOWED.

It’s been a good day. This morning we went down to the school for special ed (speech teacher had called earlier to say they had an inservice thing today, so we just did counseling today). While Cricket was in there, Sunshine and I waited in the school office and did a little Phonics Pathways. Normally she stays home with Dad while we go to the school but today the school had an assembly that I’d made arrangements for us to attend so she “came tooooooo”. As I had suspected, since we were AT school she wanted to DO school; thus the phonics.

So then we went to the “Mad Scientist” assembly, which was very well done and entertaining, and Cricket came home re-motivated (not that he was un-motivated) to be a scientist when he grows up. We learned some interesting things about air pressure. The “mad scientist” blew big old smoke rings–and had a child use them to blow out some candles–by stretching a piece of rubber over the top of a round waste basket with a round hole cut in the bottom, and securing it with a bungee cord (this was pre-prepped). He then used a fog machine to fill up the trash can with fog, held it sideways, and asked his young volunteer to smack the sheet of rubber like a drum. When he did, some really nifty smoke rings popped out the hole on the bottom and shot across the room. Very cool. He also made a small methane gas explosion in a water cooler bottle (do not try this at home), played some interesting games with vacuum suction, and had a small round hovercraft that one of the kids got to skim around the gym floor on a little. Possibly my favorite, though, was when he stuck a roll of toilet paper on a plunger so that it turned freely, and then used a leaf blower without the long tube thing on it (which he called “the Binford blowdryer”…chuckle) to blow on the roll in such a way that the entire roll unrolled and was streamered all over the gym. Woo hoo! A good time was had by all.

After the assembly we came home and had a “break” because Cricket was a bit overstimulated (crowds do that to him, which I knew, but I thought he could use a little practice coping in a crowd–he did great). During the break Cricket played Zoo Tychoon and lectured me about endangered animals.

Then we had a picnic at the park across the street for lunch, because it’s WAY too nice to be indoors today. We even managed to get Dad to emerge from his computer cave (aka office) long enough to eat a tuna sandwich at the park with us. After lunch, Sunshine played on the playground while I read a chapter of The Story of The World, Vol 1 (history) aloud to Cricket (often he reads them himself, but I like to mix it up). We did the review questions (orally) and the map activity (on a clipboard, which he thought was cool), and the narration activities–for which we used my new homemade fill-in-the-blank pdf notebook pages on my new laptop (because he’ll type much more than he’ll write), and discovered that we could connect to Pop’s LAN and print Cricket’s page in Dad’s office clear from the park (which I thought was VERY cool–I can get internet over there too, but it’s slow). Then we flew kites for a while and came home. Cricket did a page of math, and we called it quits for the day.

Now the kids are done with their castle, and Pop just came to tell me he’s taking us out for dinner tonight. (He’s feeling jolly over a new big client.) So I’d better go.

 A happy day!

(Ok, well, actually Cricket is showing decreased impulse control, and engaging in extended pointless arguments–whether or not anyone else is arguing back–and other forms of verbal perseverative behavior. He was more anxious than usual (usual for recently, that is) during the assembly, was more distractible and had a small melt-down over math–but not like yesterday when a more major melt-down kept him home from Cub Scouts. We can definitely tell he’s off his meds, but on the up side, it’s not NEARLY as bad as we had anticipated. This gives us hope.)