local adventures: snoqualmie

i don't know about you, but some days just beckon for outings. you know those days. days when you should be responsible, tackling that long to-do list, getting things done...but instead, you blow it off for some fun. well, that was totally yesterday. the sun was out, the day was warm, and i felt like doing a little adventuring. i figured math, writing, and all the usual table work can wait another day. it was time for a field trip.

i was trying to think of a place we haven't been to before (or been to in a while), but that also wouldn't require us to spend a whole lot of money. i had a few places in mind, but many required admission of some sorts. not quite what i had in mind for my impromptu field trip. so, 50 minutes later, we ended up in snoqualmie. the last time we were there, we only made it to the falls, before the projectile incident (a.k.a. kid throwing up in the middle of the people bridge on the way back to the car). needless to say, we never got a chance to explore the rest of the area. i'm so glad no one got sick this time around! we were able to spend some time exploring the falls again, and then had enough time after to stop by the northwest railway museum, just 1 mile south of the falls.

january 2015 was the last and first time we were at snoqualmie falls. we went on a day shortly after some massive rains in the area, and the falls were huge! the roaring water sounded like constant thunder, and there was so much spray coming from the waterfall, that it felt like you were getting rained on when we were at the lower lookout point (even though it wasn't rainy at all).

yesterday's falls experience felt so different. the sun was out, we weren't shivering or getting soaked from the sprays of water, and the falls seemed tiny in comparison to the last time we saw it. we spent a little more time reading the signs, talking about the falls, observing, and practicing our nature knowledge of the plants we saw along the nature trail.

after a little lunch break, we packed up and made our way to the northwest railway museum. the museum is located in snoqualmie's historic downtown. just a look down the main street makes you feel like you just stepped back in time. restaurants, boutiques, and other shops make their home in historic buildings lined up and down one side of railroad avenue and the area around the museum. the depot at the museum also adds to that feeling of nostalgia and charm.

admission to the museum grounds and the depot are free. you can also get guided tours and train rides for additional fees, and they have a few train-centric events going on at the museum like railroad days, day out with thomas, and the santa train. the kids were happy to just roam the grounds. they loved being able to run along the tracks, hopping the rails, climbing up on the trains, and having time to just play.

we popped into the freight room, where we learned about some of the railroad's history, and the kids got to fiddle around with an old cast iron stove and an old machine showing the diagram of the tracks and signals.

i would have loved to stay a little longer to explore the shops (and snack on kettle corn), but i knew better than to stick around longer than i should and risk getting caught in traffic. side note: this here is my go-to site before we travel anywhere requiring a trip on the freeway. if there's a back-up, we know to take the back ways!

snoqualmie is an easy drive from seattle, so i'm pretty sure we'll make it back there again soon for another daytime adventure. i'm so glad we decided to take a break from our usual weekday grind. it definitely hit the spot!

rediscovering seattle: cherry blossom and japanese cultural festival

this past weekend, we decided to head over to the seattle center to check out the 40th annual cherry blossom and japanese cultural festival. the cherry blossom festival is part of seattle center's festal, which is a year-long series of cultural festivals all held at the seattle center.  there's quite a variety, and it's a great opportunity for the kids to get a taste of different cultures without necessarily having to travel the world (at least not yet, right?? *sigh* someday...). plus, an added bonus: i can totally count this for school!  can you say geography + social studies + history + art + music + science + whatever else you want to add?  oh yeah!

so, i was a little apprehensive about going at first, because festival type events that we've experienced in seattle before have always been packed.  i remember going to bite of seattle years ago, and feeling SO crowded, i wasn't really sure i wanted to deal with that.  but we decided to give it a go anyway.  we've never been to this festival, and wouldn't know how crowded it would be until we tried.  if it didn't end up turning out well, then we'll know for next year.

as it turned out, it wasn't overly crowded at all. parking was a little more full than usual around the seattle center, but not so bad that we had to park blocks and blocks away.  we also got there around 11 a.m., which was an hour after they started, so there weren't too many people there yet.  we noticed that when we left at around 1 p.m., there was quite a bit more people, but it was still a manageable crowd to navigate through.

the festival was held in three locations at the seattle center: the seattle center pavillion, the armory, and the fisher pavillion (along with the outdoor space right outside). the event itself is free, and the only thing you have to pay for is parking and food. i can't believe that this event has been around for 40 years, and we've just now heard about it?? where have i been (besides the 8 years we were out of state...ha!)?

we really liked getting there on the earlier end of the festival, because it allowed us to explore and try things out without having to deal with much of a line.  there were a few booths/stations set up in each of the buildings, with the bulk of the booths set up in the fisher pavillion. the older kids also picked up a "passport" shortly after we arrived, which they took around to various spots to get stamps.  while they didn't get all their boxes stamped, it was a great way for them (and us) to participate in some of the activities and learn new things about japan.  you can check out this year's schedule here to get an idea of what events and activities were offered.

we discovered the seattle kobe sister city association booth on the second floor of the armory, which hosted a kimono/yukata dress up. the girls were immediately drawn to it, and got a chance to try one on.  they had some for men and boys too, but our boys didn't seem too keen on trying one on.

after dress up time was over, emma was set on getting her first stamp so we stopped over at the seattle go center station, where she learned (and mommy and daddy too) how to play the ancient game of go and got a stamp in her passport. i've never heard of the game, but we thought it was very interesting, despite its seemingly simple appearance.  there's quite a bit of strategy involved once you really get the hang of playing, but the game itself is simple enough to learn that the kids would enjoy playing it.  i can see this being a fun family game night.  we just have to get the boards and stones (or make some temporary ones in the interim).  if you are interested in finding out more about go, you can check out the american go association.

using our handy-dandy festival map, we decided to head over to the fisher pavillion to check out the goings on there, and get more stamps of course.  by this time, there were more people at the event, so it was starting to get a little tricky to navigate through with all four kids.  side note: typically, i would wear the youngest kid (backpack style) for events like this one, but i spaced out on bringing my mei-tai for some reason.  i hate taking strollers to any event that draws a crowd, because it makes it so much more difficult to get around, so i've always worn the littlest. add on 2 or 3 additional kids to keep an eye on, and wearing the youngest really does simplify things (i think lani has ridden in a stroller twice in her lifetime just because it was always easier to wear her). anyway, back to the cherry blossom festival and the fisher pavillion...we made our way there and were taken by the outdoor bujutsu demonstration.  there were swords involved, and this particularly had gibson quite captivated.  especially since he's currently taking tae kwon do. i think watching the demo gave him a little inspiration.

more stamps were needed in the kids' passports, so we finally made it inside the fisher pavillion for a stop at the origami booth.  emma has recently taken an interest in origami, so having the origami booth at the festival was perfect timing.  and mommy also enjoys doing a little origami so that was a bonus for me!

as it neared the lunch hour (as indicated by the mass of little hands digging in the bag for snacks and any form of edible yummies), our plan was to make our way outside to finish the snacks we packed, and let the kids kind of run around in the grass before heading home. but we couldn't just head straight outside, because there still many things going on inside that drew our attention.  so, the next stop as we tried to make our way out of the building was a booth on traditional japanese toys. this one was a fun one for all the kids, and the people at the booth were so sweet and patient with them. i love that the toys were all wooden and simply designed but engaging at the same time...my favorite kinds of toys.

after prying our kids away from the toy booth, we tried to re-direct everyone (including the parents) towards the exit, but another activity caught our eye.  there was a sword sharpening demonstration right across from the toy booth, and we spent some time observing the gentleman as he began the process.

and once we made it outside, we were entertained by some awesome music by a taiko performing group.  this group was unique (at least to me), because i noticed a couple of its members were quite young, close to emma's age it seems. i thought that was pretty neat, and loved that the kids got to observe other kids participating in unique activities (and not just sports...nothing against sports, mind you).

we had a great experience at this festival, even though we only stayed for 2 hours (the parking meter said it was time to go, and we kinda didn't want to pay $10 for parking), and the whole thing was very budget friendly for our family of 6. there were a few other booths and stations we stopped at that were not mentioned here.  and certainly more things we wanted to try out but didn't have time for like the kite making, the paper airplane contest, and i kind of wanted to try the japanese calligraphy. but it's a good thing they have this event every year, because i think this is one we'll probably come back to again next year.

learning together: AOY3 // AOY0 {week 4}

ok, i know i just got started posting these weekly school roundups and i already skipped one week.  i have no good excuse except that life happens.  on the plus side, there's not really a whole lot you'd miss in one week.  we try to stick to a routine, and these weekly roundups are really for my records so i know these posts aren't very exciting to read.  

maybe one of these days i'll write a nice narrative about our typical week of learning.  one of these days...

EMMA

history (books in brackets):

emma read about france explorers who sailed to the new world, and settled for a little while in florida [this country of ours].  this was an interesting read, particularly because the topic of cannibalism came up at the end of the reading (don't worry, it wasn't graphic).  the french explorers who had settled in florida pretty much didn't want to hang out there anymore (because their captain never returned as he had promised), so they decided to build their own boat to sail back to france.  you can guess how well that turned out...and out of desperation they drew straws to see who would be, umm, dinner.

and then there was king henry and his 6 wives [our island story].  she did very well on her narration, and we had some good discussions on king henry's character. emma was not overly impressed by king henry's choices from this section of reading, and thought he was kind of a selfish guy.

natural history/science:

emma read chapter 4 in Pagoo, and i had her list 4 facts about a hermit crab that she learned from her reading.  she loves that book, so that comprehension activity was pretty easy for her.  but i love that she's excited about her school books, and that she's read the whole thing through already yet is willing to re-read it a little bit at a time for school.

language arts:

i ordered a print practice and cursive practice book for emma through handwriting without tears.  i decided to order the 2nd grade print book for her as a quick refresher course on print writing.  we're breezing through it (she even likes to do extra pages), so we'll be starting cursive soon enough!

emma's been alternating between doing the HWT print book and copywork from her copywork notebook.  her print writing has actually improved just from a few weeks of doing the HWT book.

this year, i doubled the number of spelling words emma has each week.  we are on the second week of spelling, and still using mcguffey's eclectic spelling book to source the weekly word list.  this weeks words are belt, deer, dear, whine, wine, quite, quiet, bear, bare, beer.  we discussed the "qu" sounds, letters that make the long e and the long i sounds, and rule-breaker words for the long e sounds (a.k.a. jail words). 

math:

emma did a couple more chapters from her life of fred book, and i two worksheets from homeschoolmath.net focusing on solving for missing addends and place values (larger numbers).

poetry and literature:

we have been lagging in our daily poem readings.  i suppose i can just have emma read one to herself, but i do enjoy reading it to her.  plus, they're pretty short, and reading them together gives us an opportunity to discuss the poem together afterwards.

she read about pecos bill from her american tall tales book.  i had her tell me 5 questions she would ask pecos bill if she were to interview him.  i wish i had written down the questions, because they were pretty creative, and showed that she understood the reading well.  she also went on and narrated many parts of the story...i think she enjoyed learning about pecos bill.

she read chapters 10 and 11 for the week in The Princess And The Goblin.  she was looking forward to reading more, but we had a pretty busy week so there didn't end up being enough time to read ahead.

she read the mechant of venice from the book Tales From Shakespeare.  she narrated pretty well, but had difficulty remembering everything that happened.  the story was pretty long, and i should have had her spread it out over a few days.  that would have made more sense, and she would have retained more of the reading that way.  oh well.  next time!

ballet (p.e./performing arts):

things are going well, from what emma has told me, and she's halfway done with her 7 week session.  the studio is on the upper level, so there isn't really any space for parents to watch, and i don't think they really like parents peeking either.  i don't blame them.  i usually didn't care for having parents watch during class time, because it can get distracting for the students.  according to emma's latest class update, they practiced tendus, and "ballet" skips (a.k.a. skipping with pointed feet).  she has made a sweet little friend in class, and i'm hoping that they can stay in the same class for the new session.  

GIBSON

so, our printer head for the black ink is a little mucked up, and i couldn't print out the sheets to make his letter of the week notebook page.  booo.

fortunately, that didn't hold us back.  gibson continued a few more pages in his HWT print book.  like emma, he is really enjoying doing his handwriting practice.  the HWT books are different from the typical handwriting books i've seen, and the kids love it.

we also did a little math.  nothing big, just adding some numbers with 10 as the highest sum.  gibson started adding numbers before he could write them, and i came across the best idea online (i wish i could remember which blog it was i saw it on) to encourage kids who can add, but haven't quite mastered writing them yet.  i use little round stickers with the answer to individual addition problems written in each sticker.  all gibson has to do is find the correct number that matches the answer to the addition problem and stick in the blank.  that way, they're not slowed down (or discouraged) by their lack of mastery in writing the numbers.  it's a pretty brilliant idea.

CASH and LANI

these two babies are going to end up starting school at the same time.  they do well playing on their own most days, and sometimes they'll want to join in with big brother and sister so they'll pull out some papers to draw or a coloring book to color in.

lani thinks she can use scissors, so she sneaks in my room and digs around in the school supply box until she can find the scissors to cut things.  so far, she's been trying to cut just paper.  i'm hoping that's as far as she goes right now, and doesn't move on to cutting hair!

ALL KIDS

bible:

this week, we read from Luke 2:1-40, Exodus 2:11-16, Acts 7:23-34, and Hebrews 11:24-28.

our memory verse for the week was Genesis 2:7, and since we're using this system for scripture memorization we also review memory verses from previous weeks.

french:

i've been trying to make sure we do french at least 3 times a week, and we managed to fit a french lesson 4 times this week (we were out and about more than usual this week, and that pimsleur audio cd really came in handy).  some new and old words/phrases that stood out this week include j'e vais bien, comment allez-vous?, tres bien, chaud, merci, bonjour, quest-ce que c'est?

nature walk:

i kept lessons short on thursday, and we spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon exploring volunteer park.  there was some drizzling involved in our stroll, but the kids were totally excited about it because they got to use their umbrellas (which the boys sometimes turned into weapons *ahem*).  the park is quite big, with plenty of places to explore.  i will have to save a more detailed post about volunteer park for next time.

we also took some time to check out the park's conservatory, modeled after a victorian area glass greenhouse.  the building reminded us of the book misss rumphius, which is currently one of the children's favorite books (it was one of mine when i was a kid).  it was actually really neat to come home and look at the illustration of the conservatory in miss rumphius, after experiencing a real-life conservatory.

inside the conservatory, we had the opportunity to observe plants that aren't commonly seen here in the PNW - many unique, tropical plants that thrive best on year-round warm, humid conditions.

it was an excellent nature day.  sometimes, all we need to refresh us is some good, quality time outside, with freedom to explore, run, and experience at your own pace.  i'm glad we played hookie that day!

a taste of the farm life

last week, my sister asked me if we wanted to take a tour of a friend's farm with her and her family. how could i resist? a tour of a local farm?  heck yeah!

i get excited when we can learn more about local businesses and how we can support them.  especially when it comes to food.  whenever we can, and when our budget allows, we love supporting local farmers by sourcing as much of our produce locally through a CSA, the farmer's market or local grocery co-op.  i have learned a lot about food from participating in CSAs, and have become better aware of what foods are in season and which ones are not (i'm far from being a pro at this, but it's getting easier every year).  our whole family is also exposed to produce that may not make it on my grocery list if we hadn't joined a CSA (think fennel, fava beans and raddichio).

so, an opportunity to tour a local farm is exciting for me, because i get a chance to see where some of the fabulous local produce is coming from.  as it turns out, our farm tour was part of a bigger event put together by sno-valley tilth, an organization that connects local farmers in the snoqualmie valley to the surrounding communities and metropolitan areas.  sno-valley tilth was organizing farm tours of many of the farmers in the snoqualmie valley along with an amazing sounding farm faire and pig roast (aaah!) in the evening. coincidentally, the farm where we have our CSA share was also participating in the farm tour, so bonus for us!  this would be an opportunity to really see where some of our food actually came from.

the drive to the "country" was surprisingly short.  it took us only 45 minutes, which was only 15 minutes longer than if we were to drive to the zoo (and that's in the city). our first stop was oxbow farm, which is where we have our CSA subscription.  oxbow farm not only provides weekly veggie shares through their CSA program, but they sell their produce through a couple of farmer's markets, some area independent grocers, and supply produce to quite a few Seattle area restaurants.  they also provide educational programs for kids and put on seasonal events.

we missed the guided tour, but we were free to explore on our own.  they have a special kids' farm area where you can "guess the veg" in the children's garden, or run through a "living" tunnel made from gourd plants growing right over your head.  our kids were in heaven, and this is where we spent most of our time at oxbow.

they climbed and jumped off tree stumps, and snacked on crunchy apples and sweet strawberries they picked themselves.

there was a little picnic area placed underneath an awning of grape vines, with grapes you can pick off and eat. it felt magical to be standing right underneath it.

and there was a huge teepee like structure with some sort of bean plant growing around the poles, providing shade and made you feel as if you were really inside a tent.

there was so much imaginative play going on, and it felt good just being able to let the kids do some natural exploration on their own.

our next stop was local roots farm where we met up with my sister and family, and had the opportunity to meet the owners/farmers, siri and jason. they're a smaller farm than oxbow, but still provide amazing, quality produce through their CSA subscription, farmer's markets and to many Seattle area restaurants.
  

the kids had a blast hanging out with their cousins and new friend, siri and jason's sweet little boy, and i gained a greater appreciation for the work that these farmers do to provide food for us to eat. it was a privilege to get a small glimpse of what life is like for them, and thankful that they are willing to share what they do with us.

it was a saturday well spent.  full of learning, fun, and new discoveries.

learning together: a new school year (AOY3 and AOY0)

so i've done a horrible job following through on my plan of posting a weekly school recap this past school year.  yes, there was that whole moving across the country thing, but really, that's not an excuse.

with a new school year starting this week, i think it's a good time to reattempt that plan.  the recap's mostly for me.  if i do this consistently, i'm hoping to have a nice record of what we've done for the year.  we'll, though.  we'll see.

we're still following the charlotte mason method (please look here if you're curious about what that is), and will be using the ambleside online curriculum again.  emma will be in year 3, and i'm planning on introducing gibson to year 0 (which he'll be in through part of age 6, or maybe longer if needed).  as a side note, each year doesn't necessarily correspond to grade levels.  if i recall correctly, completing year 10 (the curriculum goes up to year 12) is actually sufficient for high school graduation.

okay, here's a review of what we did for the first week of school...

EMMA

if you're curious to see what year 3 will hold, you can go here and check out the booklist. i tried to keep it a little lighter for the first week back to our school schedule, so we skipped spelling, and only did 2 days worth of copywork (as opposed to 4 days).

history (books in brackets):

she was introduced to henry VIII [our island story], some of the post columbus explorers, including magellan [child's history of the world], martin luther [trial and triumph], and john cabot [this country of ours]. she will also be learning about leonardo da vinci, but i haven't gotten the book yet. we also traced the journey of the ship victoria (the only one of magellan's ships, and the first ship ever, to sail around the world) on our wall map, and found the location of where john cabot possibly landed in north america (either cape breton or the coast of labrador in canada, if you were wondering).  she chose to do oral narrations for all the readings, and was pretty thorough with all of them.

i also did a complete overhaul of her timeline binder.  i was doing terrible at helping her keep up with it, partly because it was so time consuming for me to prepare all the things necessary for her weekly timeline updates. as it turns out, i was making things way more complicated than they needed to be. ha! after doing some research on how charlotte mason actually had her students complete their timeline, i decided to start over.  there will be some catch-up involved, but since the timeline is actually quite simple, i don't think it will be long until we're up to speed.

geography:

she began reading the book marco polo by george makepeace towle, which took her to the city of venice.  again, she chose to do an oral narration of her reading.  we also watched the travel with kids: venice episode, to give her more of an idea what the city was like.  side note: we LOVE the travel with kids show!  it gets us all (as a family) excited to travel and explore the world.  it's aired on some pbs stations, but you can also find episodes on hulu and amazon prime.  sadly, our local pbs stations don't air travel with kids so we often use hulu and amazon to watch them.

natural history/science:

much of the nature study stuff will be covered a little bit further down, since we often do nature studies as a family. she also has the book pagoo to read for the next 2 terms, but i haven't gotten the book yet.  emma is a voracious reader, so i'm not too worried about being behind on some of the reading.  many of holling c. holling's books have short chapters, so i'm pretty sure she can catch up quite easily.

copywork:

i probably won't include updates for copywork every week, since it's pretty straight forward.  i'm trying something different this year, and giving her a comp notebook which will have all her copywork in it.  this week's copywork were excerpts from one of her literature books and a poem from her poetry schedule.

math:

she did 2 days of math this week, and it was a review of telling time. i'll be doing 1 more week of review, and then she'll be starting the next life of fred book.

poetry:

for term 1 (12 weeks), she will be reading poems by william blake once a day.  she only did one poem this week, which was untitled, but about the pied piper.  poetry is pretty straightforward as well. just read one a day!

literature:

she read part 1 from the heroes by charles kingsley, and chapters 1-6 from the princess and the goblin.  for the heroes' narration, i had her write out 5 questions she would ask on a test about this part of the book.  for the princess and the goblin, she verbally narrated chapters 1-5 (narration after every chapter...this wasn't done all in one day, by the way), and sketched out a scene from chapter 6.  she is totally loving this book, and asked to read more. this week's schedule only has her reading chapters 1-3, but if she's asking for more, why not?  and it always feels good to be ahead of schedule.

GIBSON

you can go here and check out what year 0 looks like.  it's actually pretty low-key. in these early years, and there is more focus on helping the child discover the world around him naturally. i think by providing many opportunities for kids to this, especially in their early years, helps prepare them for more formal learning in year 1.  what this looks like for gibs: plenty of time for play, but providing opportunities for more formal learning (i like using the term table work), when i see him express an interest. compared to last year, he has shown an increased desire in doing more formal learning, though i still try to keep it short.

we're continuing our letter of the week theme, and adding pages to his alphabet binder.  i use the alphabet lapbook print outs from here.  they're pretty simple, and only take one up one page.  this week's letter is the letter "G."  he was totally stoked, because (obviously) his name starts with a "G."  he completed his G notebook page to add to his alphabet binder, and practiced writing his upper and lower case Gs.

i didn't plan much for him this week (and i may not need to for the rest of the month), since he's been happy to work out of some workbooks i got him a while ago.  there have been many mornings where i've seen him working out of one of his workbooks (i got him 3) without any prompting.  it's pretty neat to see his interest in them naturally develop.  not that all kids will develop a natural interest in doing workbooks for fun.  i personally think it's genetic...i was that kid who really enjoyed doing workbooks.

CASH and LANI

these two love to be a part of "doing school." while lani is happy to have markers and a sheet of paper to draw on, cash sometimes will insist on getting his own worksheet.  much like last year, i used a "worksheet" from here, and i corresponded the print out to the letter gibson was learning for the week.  cash also enjoys cutting and gluing things, and both cash and lani like to use stickers.  LOTS of stickers.  they're definitely working those fine motor skills.  i have a feeling that i'll probably end up having these two start school at the same time, since they're so close in age.

ALL THE KIDS

bible:

this week we read from exodus chapter 1, and did a short discussion on the reading.  sometimes, i'll have emma do a worksheet to go along with the reading, but since she's already familiar with the chapter, i didn't think it was necessary.

memory verse:

this week's memory verse is genesis 1:1.  i'm trying something new with verse memorization this year, and implementing this system.  we have been fairly inconsistent the past few years in verse memorization, and that's really my fault.  i don't think i had a good system, and i was inconsistent in having us review the verse every day (probably because i didn't have a good system!).

nature study/walk:

we are going to try and follow ambleside online's nature study schedule, plus a weekly, weather permitting, nature walk.  for the fall, AO has cultivated crops on their nature study schedule, and this week's crop was the green bean.  emma did a lovely sketch and watercolor of some the handful of green beans we harvested from the garden.  and then that night, we cooked them for dinner! we'll probably focus on as many crops from our garden first, and then continue to things we find at the grocery store.

we went to seahurst park for our nature walk this week.  heading to the beach is one of our kids' favorite things to do, and thanks to some amazing weather, we were able to do a pleasant stroll along the water.

french:

we're using the pimsleur language program to learn conversational french, and a free, online language course through our public library called muzzy.  like last year, we listen to the pimsleur cds in our car when we're running errands, and watch a few video lessons from muzzy on our home days (a.k.a. the days we don't need to use the car in the morning).  this week, was review since i did not do any french lessons over the summer.

composer study:

for term 1, we will be listening to music by hildegard von bingen.  this week and the next, we're listening to antiphon, o quam mirabilis.  this music sounded much different from the music we studied last year.  emma observed that there were no instruments, just a voice singing, but it didn't feel like you were just listening to a singing voice.

aaaannnd...that's a wrap! thanks for hanging out until the end!

wordless wednesday {sort of} :: outdoor school

it has been such a great spring here in seattle.  our first spring back in the PNW, and we've been treated with more sunshine before july than i would expect. 

i'm definitely not complaining!  on sunny days, we've often cut our table work (i.e. any school work that requires being inside, sitting at a table) short in exchange for some outdoor learning, playing, and exercising. we love sunny days in seattle!

join the fun! more wordless wednesday here and here.

remembering the man that had a dream

for the past few years, i've tried to plan a little something on martin luther king, jr. day.  since we homeschool, we really don't get a day off for this holiday, so we could easily let the day pass by without even bringing it up.

but i feel it's important for my kids to know who he was.  the man with a dream.  a dream that made such a great impact in our country.

i always have grand plans for activities we can do together...after the fact. but simpler does end up being better, and i'm glad i didn't make things too complicated.

we watched three videos together.  the first one was a brief kid-version synopsis of dr. king's life.


the second was more of an audio-book type video from the book, martin's big words.


the last video was of his "i have a dream" speech.  we didn't watch the whole thing, but i think being able to see him in action made an impression.


we talked a lot about how people look different from the outside, and how God made each of us unique and special. we talked about how within our own family and among our friends there are people with different colored skin, and how we treat one another.  my favorite example that i use every year is about their daddy and his arm-covered tattoos.

i tell them that when some people see a person with lots of tattoos, they automatically think he/she is bad and/or mean.  "is that what you think of your daddy when you see him?"  i would ask.  just watching the kids' expressions, seeing how they're working it out in their minds, is amazing.  the response is always a resounding "no," with a look of shock on their faces-why would anyone think their daddy is a mean person?

our activities were simple (i got some from here).

my favorite (and i think it was the kids' favorite too) was coloring a chain of people with different colors.  i love how each of them had their own interpretation of "different colors."

i'm thankful that my children love people for who they are on the inside, not by how they look on the outside.  while i may not judge people based on the color of their skin, i think that if i'm honest with myself, i can still be quick to judge people on outside appearances in certain situations.  sometimes i wish, i was more child-like in that respect, and not so quick to pass judgement on people merely on how they look.

i'm thankful for the reminders today brings me: the privileges we enjoy today that are often taken for granted, and what it looks like to really love your neighbor as God commands me to do.

happy martin luther king, jr. day!

learning together: W16Y01 and Y0

tax season! tax season! this means i'm gonna give you a rundown of week 16 as quickly as possible.  if you noticed, i added year 0 to the title for gibson.  he has been so responsive to learning letters and doing copywork these past weeks that i think it's time we make it "official."

you can go here to find out what year 0 is all about, and here to check out the booklist. we've read many of the books on this list (though there are still more we have yet to read), and all the kids enjoy listening to the stories.

bible:

we read 1 samuel 31 and emma tried her hand at a crossword puzzle (lesson 81 from the calvary curriculum site) for the first time.

our scripture memory verse was john 3:16.  this was easy-peasy for emma since we've had this as our memory verse before.  but reviewing it was nice, because it gave gibson a chance to try and memorize it.  we also watched the rizers video for this particular verse and the kids liked it a lot.

french:

the kids watched lessons 1-3 from youlearnfrench on youtube.  bonjour!

language arts:

copywork for emma was our memory verse for 1 day and an excerpt from the poem us two by a. a. milne for 2 days.

we went through mcguffey lessons 57 and 60.

spelling words this week were on, ox, lot, got and snot (this one got a laugh).  we only spent 3 days on these words.

similar to emma's letter of the month when she was younger, i will be doing a letter a week for gibson.  all of his activity sheets pertaining to that letter will be kept in a folder for easy access, and to allow him to work independently if he chooses to.

this week we did the letter g (i plan on going through all the letters in his name).  i'm primarily using these sites to put his folder together: tot school printables (also for cash when he wants to join in), raising rockstars and homeschool creations.

he has been so into doing his own school and wanting to trace and learn his letters.  i love it. and i'm thankful that this transition was low-key and painless (which i think it should be).  it was just 6 months (or so) ago that he was uninterested in learning letters or numbers...it's funny to see the change.

math:

we are almost done with the life of fred book so we only did one chapter (17)  this week to stretch it out longer.

history:

we read hengist's treachery from our island story.  new vocab word: treachery.  i forgot to read inchcape rock from fifty famous stories so that will have to be tacked on to week 17.

art and music study were the same as last week's.

literature:

we read the leap at rhodes and the wild boar and the fox from the aesop for children.  the kids listened to the sing-song of old man kangaroo from just so stories.  from beautiful stories from shakespeare we read as you like it.

we didn't read any poems from a. a. milne's book because emma had misplaced it somewhere.  we found it in the car hidden underneath a bunch of stuff on sunday.  yay!

science/nature study:

mammal of the week was a pig.  we read over some brief information about domestic and wild pigs, and emma drew her rendition of a domesticated piggy.  oink, oink.

we read peter learns something about spooky from the burgess bird book, and looked up some information about screech owls.  we listened to their sound and watched a couple of short video clips on them.

life skill:

emma continues to be a natural helper (for the most part) around the house.  she has been promoted to putting away the clean plates from the dishwasher so that gibson can take over her old job of putting away utensils.  now i just have to make sure to give them more opportunities to practice their new skills.

other things:

it snowed last week so the kids had some time enjoying the snow.

inside the kids busied themselves with books, games, and playing together and independently.

cash has been wanting to join in the table work fun, so i've been giving him his own sheet to complete. i think he is quite proud of his work.

more next week!  a bientot!