A peek at our week

We're battling yet another head cold, so we've been mostly trying to rest/avoid total boredom from not being able to do a lot. It's a fine line.

Wanting to get back in the groove of things and back on the preschool track after a little hiatus, I tried to be more intentional with some of our activities this week.

On Monday, we opened up Johnny's new science kit (gift from the grandparents!). I previewed the contents and instructions by myself the night before, and I was disappointed at the "70 activities" the box advertised. Some of the activities are nothing at all. Many of them build upon the prior.

We used fizzy tablets to make the 3 primary colors in test tubes, mixed the colors, used pipettes to move water around, and added some sort of polymer crystals to the colored water. The crystals swelled up and turned into a jelly-like blob. Kinda fun!

Wednesday, Vivie threw a fit while at Hobby Lobby, so we had to leave before buying anything (big sad! Arg! but ya gotta do it). We came home and she took herself a little nap.

She doesn't nap much anymore, and I'm not sure what this will do to her bedtime, but Johnny and I took the opportunity to have some one-on-one time.

I practiced my fine motor skills (hee!) while cutting out some more felt figures from our new Betty Lukens Through the Bible in Felt package. This is gunna take me awhile.

Johnny did a few pages in his Kumon books -- a coloring page (just coloring in the white circles), a folding page (made a zebra), and several pages in his maze book. Two or three pages to go, and he'll complete the maze book.

It seemed like we should have stopped a few pages back, because he started getting discouraged when his crayon crossed the black line, or if he couldn't immediately see how to get through the maze.

Next activity: We opened up his new Mighty Mind game (gift from the grandparents for Christmas, yay!). It's a tangram activity and he did a good job trying to get the pieces where they should go in the little plastic tray thing. Again though, he got discouraged and said "it's too hard," and that's when I showed him the diagram, and we finished it together.

This "it's too hard" thing is new and I'm not sure where it came from. I'm going to try to keep my attitude positive. I'm definitely not pushing him too hard, so I'm wondering if he just didn't want to do it?

I think we'll put Mighty Mind away for a little while though, so next time will be fresh.

p.s. can someone comment? I don't know if commenting on these posts is easy or if you have to jump through hoops. I don't want it to be hard.

Teaching Spanish?

Do any of you have programs or some sort of method for teaching your child a second language? I'd like to teach my kids Spanish, since that's what I took in high school and college. I'm not fluent. I've had no real opportunity to practice. When I was in school, the focus was on translation, conjugations and more written language than spoken (ugh).

I think there's value in exposing young ears to second languages, so I'm interested in looking into DVD or computer programs.

I think I'd like Rosetta Stone when they're older (there's some reading involved, apparently, and it's more for the 6+ set).

I'm looking at The Learnables and Little Pim, but I'm definitely open to others. (Both are way cheaper on Homeschool Buyers Co-op).

Little Pim is available at my library (yay!), as is a Muzzy DVD.

Oh, and I just remembered about Speekee, which could be a good option at $7.50/month. A free one month trial can be had here.

Some Googling pointed me to a show produced by Georgia Public Broadcasting, called Salsa. There are 42 free episodes available for online streaming. (!!!) Each episode includes a pdf transcript, which has English and Spanish.

Other ideas?

Some takeaway points from The Organized Home Schooler

I picked up a copy of The Organized Home Schooler at Half Price Books the other day (what can I say, I got it for cheap!) and had a chance to flip through it.

I didn't particularly like the author's tone, and in general it wasn't my favorite book. I do think I'll hang onto it for review in a few years when I might need some help with house and heart reorganizing (this is a book written from a Christian perspective and has plenty of scripture references).

There were two points within that I thought were good takeaways. This is a paraphrase:

1. Make an accessible list of all curricula and resources you own. This is so you can make better use of what you've already got on hand. It should help from overbuying and from forgetting to use some great things you already own.

2. Decide what goals you have for each student, in each subject. What do you want to accomplish in a semester/year in each area? Figure that out on paper, THEN look at curricula to find a good fit. This approach is easier than starting with a curriculum and tweaking it endlessly, since you may not have chosen that item to begin with.

Straightforward, but spot-on.

I am tending to be a curricula collector. If I see something that looks interesting at HPB or a used sale for a decent price, I'll buy it. If I find a hyped-up item for a good price on Amazon, I'll buy it (maybe with cash, maybe with a gift card). What can I say? It's true.

Unfortunately, I already have way too much. There's no way I can possibly use all that I have with both children (and I do plan to resell some items). But what's worse, since some of my items are hiding in a closet, I may forget about them when my kids hit the right age for something. That would be such a bummer!

So...I'm going to take inventory here. I'm going to list all of my resources, by subject. The purpose is two-fold:

1. Help me to keep track of what I've got, so I can make good use of it.

2. Share with friends. If you see something you'd like to look over in person, you'll know I have it ready and available for borrowing/browsing or maybe buying from me. Or if you're far away, I can answer more detailed questions about something.

These lists will be static pages with navigation at the top of this blog page.

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Such a fun day -- can we do it again sometime?

Yesterday, December 31, was such a fun day. It was just a regular day at home, and yet the kids were mostly cooperative and I was inspired. I want to record some more details of the day so I can look back and smile at how much fun this age is.

We started the morning with me in a grumpy mood due to little sleep (both of them ended up in my bed!). I realized that attitude was helping no one, and turned on my iPod to view the Bible verse of the day to get my heart on straight.

We made blueberry muffins (from a mix, whatever!) and Vivie had three time-outs in a row for not sharing/not listening. We're in that stage right now, but hey, she's 2 and she's learning. The muffins were delicious and messy.

I checked the weather and saw we were due for more snow in a few hours, and the temperature was a balmy 32. So, we bundled up and went in the backyard to try some sledding.

Unfortunately, with more than a foot of snow, it's hard to sled until you pack it way down, and we tried -- but it would have been easier if I still had an inner tube instead of a small seat-sled.

It was fun anyway, and the kids liked marching around, digging around in the snow and just being outside.

Normally, I am anti-snow and anti-winter. But sharing the wonders of the season with my kids makes it a lot more fun for all of us. Snow really is pretty neat, even if it makes roads a hazard.

After playing outside, we warmed up and had some lunch. We read some library books:

• You Can't Take a Balloon into the Metropolitan Museum

• I Am an Artist

And Johnny's new book, the Bearenstain Bears' Big Book of Science and Nature. I preordered this and with a promo code got a good deal. This is a three-in-one book and I think I have the Nature Guide book from when I was a kid.

I am on the fence about how I feel about regular books in the Bearenstain Bears series, but this book doesn't follow that same story structure. It's meant as a science and nature guide!

I was amused that the first book in the volume (an almanac) started on New Year's Day. How about that timing?

We only read a few pages (it's a huge book. It's also in the Sonlight curriculum for I think the 4/5 age set?).

We made a craft thanks to our first Kiwi Crate. I saw a friend share a Black Friday deal and thought it looked fun. It was absolutely worth the $8ish it was with promo code. Next month it will be $19.95 and I plan to order one more before deciding whether to continue.

Will write more about Kiwi Crate to come. We did the oil pastel/watercolor postcard activity.

We did some free play with their new toys (Vivie can't get enough of her Playmobil123 farm!) and they were so wound up around dinnertime, I couldn't prepare the meal.

So, I went to the garage and retrieved their ride-on train and trike and let them do laps around the house while I prepared our New Year's Eve dinner of appetizers and snacks. Heh. It worked! I don't think I'll do that often but it was fun to let them get the wiggles out.

Overall, nothing particularly exciting happened that day, but it was a nice one and I also appreciated how Johnny treated Vivie all day. He is usually so great with her, but he really stepped it up a notch. We have been talking about what to do when Vivie isn't sharing or isn't being nice to him, and how if he treats her as he wants to be treated it goes so much better. Imagine that!

I love watching them get along and being friends. Doesn't get much better than that!

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