Day Forty-One

I thank God for my husband and his mad pumpkin-carving skills. The boys drew out their designs on paper and Papa carved them into the pumpkins.

Day Forty

The boys got to don their costumes and we headed out for the annual trick-or-treating fiesta put on by the Downtown Corvallis Association. Since I don't get in the photos often, I asked a kind woman to snap a picture. Not bad. :)

Day Thirty-Nine

The bulk of our day was spent in finishing up the Halloween costumes. I don't know if I'll ever be motivated to do this again. And yet, the reaction from the boys was worth it.

Aidan "Mama, thank you SO much for sewing my costume."

During my breaks from sewing, I gazed at our maple tree. It's pretty amazing.

Day Thirty-Eight

Today we visited Airlie Hills Farm for a fun day romping about in the country. They have quite the pumpkin patch/harvest festival set-up. If you haven't made it there this year and you're in the area, go. It's awesome. We were there for hours and the boys still didn't want to go home. Mud, tractors, hay pyramid, slides, mazes, a turkey, a couple of sheep, and a cool, but dry day. We couldn't have asked for more.

Now, back in my junior high and high school days, this place was simply known to me as "Kennel Farm" or "Jeremy and Aaron's house" and Aaron now helps to run the place. It was fun to see faces that I hadn't seen for many years. It was great to re-connect. Aaron and Sarah, you've done a great job with the place and the kids had a blast!

I took a kazillion pictures, so I'll share more of those on the other blog.

I liked this particular photo because after both Simeon and Dominic had tried separately to pull the wagon on their own, they decided to work together.

We had a simply joyous day.

Cheers to fall!

Day Thirty-Seven

The joy of open-ended play.

Day Thirty-Six

I'm realizing that posting a photo daily is probably not going to work out so well.

So...we'll see how long this "365" blog takes.

That said, today I introduced Dominic to Cuisenaire Rods. We used them for both our math and letter sounds practice, as modeled by THIS BOOK. As an added bonus, he got to build an airplane, alligator, and apple tree. It was a huge success. I'm praying that he continues to be engaged with the hands-on learning I'm trying to lay out for him.

Day Thirty-Five

Oh, Fridays. We love Fridays. The highlight of the school day (quite honestly) was Simeon ASKING me to bring his potty along when we took a trip in the van.

And then, even better... he told me, "I need to go potty, Mama."

And he went.

"It was just a wittle bit, but I did it!"

Hooray Simeon!

Day Thirty-Four

Dominic has been very interested in the moon lately. After reading some books about space exploration, we decided to build our own space ship.

When asked what we should bring along when we went to the moon, Simeon decided that frozen blueberries were a must. Aidan laughed and explained that they couldn't do that in real life. We decided to let them on the ship though.

Day Thirty-Three

This photo is my favorite of the day for many reasons.

1. Dominic and Simeon are playing together.
2. It shows the reality of life with schooling AND a potty-training toddler.
3. This is a fun little learning game that we've made up to teach colors and counting. We call it "Bears on Squares". Sometimes we match colors and bears, sometimes we make a pattern with colors, sometimes we make rows and count by 2's....the "rules" always change.
4. You can see a couple of Dominic's stuffed animals (which, if you know him, are always close by).

Day Thirty-Two

We've been learning about wetlands, lakes and rivers in our science lessons for the past two weeks. What better way to take advantage of a sunny day than to visit one of our local wetlands? Jackson-Frazier Wetland is a must-see spot in Corvallis. There's really nothing like it around here. Winding through the wetland is a wooden boardwalk that takes you on a tour through the land of cattails and aquatic plants, reedbeds and cool trees with funky root systems. Its' such a magical place. Since we frequent this spot, the boys were amazed to see how dry it was at this time of year. The last visit we made, it was still very soggy near the path. Early in the spring, when you walk through, it's as if you're walking on water. On this visit, the boys hopped off the boardwalk and discovered that the wetland is also home to the ever-endearing wooly caterpillar. The place was quite literally crawling in them.

Cheers to hands-on science (or science ON your hands in this case).

Today we're doing a bit of research to find out of the caterpillar pictured is a young wooly caterpillar or another species. I decided to let the boys find out for themselves.

Check the other blog soon to see a lot more pictures. The days have been busy and my free time to blog has been spent here. Hopefully I'll have a longer post there soon.

Day Thirty-One

When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one teacher to dissolve the educational bands which have connected her to the school system and to assume among the powers of education, the unique situation to which the laws of education and a mother's intuition entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that she should declare the causes which impel her to separation. **

My declaration: Dominic would certainly be put into the category of an "active learner" and he needs this mom to teach him the ABC's without him having to sit in one spot for longer than two minutes.

I saw the four-square playing area and realized that it would be a great way to get him to learn the sounds of the first four letters of the alphabet. Flashcards are good. Jumping from square to square is even better.

I'm not only teaching Dominic, I'm learning him. He is unique in all the world, just like every one of us. And I'm glad that he's one of my students and one of my children....hard times included.

** A little re-writing of The Declaration of Independence (I hope that's not against the law).

Day Thirty

Today Aidan scored his first goal in soccer. The horrible part about it was that this was the day where we decided to drive two cars to the field. JJ took Aidan to the field early while I stayed with the other two boys so that we didn't have to rush through breakfast (it was an 8:30 game). However, since I tend to run a few minutes behind, I showed up late...and missed seeing his goal!!! At any rate, he scored a goal. And he was one VERY excited boy.

365, Interrupted

I'm not sure what's going on, but my pictures won't upload to the computer.

I hate technical difficulties.

Hopefully I'll be back soon.

Day Twenty-Eight

Today was an eye-opening day. JJ and I had a great conversation concerning a re-thinking what the school year will look like for Dominic. I am excited for the days to come and relaxing a bit about Kindergarten. I was starting out with bigger expectations than I needed to. Cheers to husbands and teamwork.

Today we harvested a whopping amount of tomatoes, beans, and cucumbers.

Simeon said to me, "I reawwy wike the garden veggies, Mama."

Day Twenty-Seven

Today we dyed rice to use for a project on Friday. Dominic did all the measuring (math) and used the funnel to transfer the vinegar and rice into jars (basic home skills). He also got to choose the colors for the rice and count out ten drops of food coloring as it dropped in (math again). Cheers to projects that help him to learn and don't require books and pencils!

If you want to know how to dye your own rice, it's really easy (and non-toxic and cheap as well). You can use it for all sorts of art projects.

Here's the LINK!

Day Twenty-Six

Today we did an art project with real watercolors. My neighbor gave us some of her daughter's old art supplies and the boys were thrilled. I must say, there's a big difference between real watercolors and the Crayola version. Huge.

We gathered some leaves in the morning as we took a short walk around the neighborhood. After we warmed up, we got to work on this project. I found the idea at Art Projects for Kids (my favorite site for...art projects for kids).

The best part about about today was once again seeing how Dominic comes alive and gets really excited with paints and paintbrushes. I wish that we could just paint all day.

While it's hard to choose just one photo, I'll show off Dominic's work this time. See the other blog soon for a more detailed post about what we've been up to for these past few weeks.

Day Twenty-Five

Today was...Monday. Certain kids were a bit unruly. We managed to get our work finished and then made the short drive to the Yoder house for some play time. The older boys are working on memorizing poems and passages of scripture and if they memorize five things that I assign to them, they get to choose something from...*** drumroll please.... *** "THE PRIZE BOX". Simeon was, let's say...mildly offended that he did not have a memorization chart once he saw the older boys claim their prizes.

"WHERE is MY memory prize!?" He even added a little foot stomp to his protest, which I calmly addressed.

I caved in and bought him a prize at the toy store on our way to the Yoders. NOT because he threw a fit, but because when I asked him to recite the verse from Psalms that Dominic was memorizing, he did it.

Note to self: the little guy is totally capable of memorizing, and in fact, already knows most of what the older boys recited for me. He's listening.

The photo above is of the "two wittle bunnies" he picked out from the store.

Day Twenty-Four

Highlight of the day: jumping on Jackson and Jordyn's trampoline. Whee!

Day Twenty-Three

Fall is here. The clover has returned with a vengeance. The flower beds needed some sprucing up. Fridays are our "easy days" as far as school work. They're the days we get to do time-consuming projects, take field trips, and sometimes just have fun (as long as we're not behind on our work for the week). I took advantage of that today and set the boys to work doing some weeding. Add a little monetary incentive and they work even harder. ;)

Day Twenty-Two

We're still working on finding our rhythm. I've been concentrating my efforts on trying to figure out patterns in our day. Schedules are good, but they don't always work. Homeschooling for me is about rolling with the punches lately.

Here's a photo of "reading time" which consisted of Dom and Simeon hopping into the fish tank box.

An overheard conversation:

Simeon: "See Gomick (Dominic), God is in my Bible!" He has a Bible with googly-eyed cartoon men and women in it.
Dominic: "That's not God, Simeon. That's a funny-looking guy with a beard."
Simeon: "It IS GOD!"
Dominic: "Not."
Simeon: "Yes, it IS!!!"
Dominic: "We don't even know what God looks like, Simeon."

Day Twenty-Two

We've been studying about oceans in Earth Science the past couple of weeks. The Yoder bunch joined our bunch and we drove to Newport to have a little hands-on fun. Today I'm thankful that we actually live close to an ocean and also that is was one of those amazingly beautiful days at the Oregon Coast. Four hours of playing in the sunny 70-degree weather did me good. And the kids had a great time.

Cheers to a wonderful sister, friend, and homeschooler. I couldn't do it without you, Jodi.

Day Twenty-One

One of Aidan's favorite things in Math is when I set up a store so he can purchase things. I mark all the items with tags. He gets to pay for them. He also gets a lot of practice in adding and subtracting within 100.

A few examples:

Choose two things that add up to less than one dollar. How much do you owe me? How much do I have to give back to you in change?

Purchase two things that add up to $.90.

He keeps a paper beside him and tallies up his items, adding and subtracting from 100. It was encouraging to me that he's actually doing a lot of it in his head now. Cheers to math!

Day Twenty

'S' is for Salt Box (you should check out the link). I found this great idea last week and I liked it as it's another version of the Montessori method of teaching letters by tactile experience. I made one for our school by using an old box that I had kept around because it was pretty.

I brought out the salt box this morning and Dominic formed an 'S' in the box. Proud mom moment. And a VERY proud Dominic.

Day Nineteen

Today was the definition of a perfect fall day. Sunshine, fall colors, family and relaxation. We went to Farmer's Market and picked up a chicken from Afton Field Farm, bought some fresh veggies and melons, a bunch of beautiful greens, and a few pounds of baby red potatoes. Then we harvested some zucchini and tomatoes from the garden and turned it all into a feast. The highlight for the boys was the 20 pound watermelon that I agreed to purchase. Thankfully, the kind man at the market gave it to us for $5 (a really good deal).

And...I also got to sit in the sun and knit for the bulk of the afternoon.

Thank you Lord for good food, beautiful days, and the family that I love so dearly.

Day Eighteen

On the first Friday of every month we have "Fun Friday" and don't do any schoolwork (or very little). Today we went for a hike with our homeschool group. Lots of kids. Lots of fun. I was sad that everyone couldn't make it, but we had a good showing. A brief synopsis: One child got stung by wasps and his mom had to rush him back to the car (not sure if he was allergic, like his daddy). No one fell in the lake! (This really surprised me). An older boy almost got caught under a log in our log-rolling adventure (okay, it wasn't even that bad...but HE thought so). We all packed lunches and ate with grimy hands. The moms had time to chat, often interrupted by having to direct the kids from doing (or not doing) X or Y. One of the girls caught a salamander, much to her delight. We saw fish, birds, a crusty old crawdad, and there was lots of free play in the woods. It's amazing how well the kids all seem to blend together and have a crazy good time. All in all we have 21 kids between the 6 of us. I love this group. I also love fall in the woods. Amidst the screaming and the bustle of kids, I was able to reflect and to enjoy watching the newly-yellow leaves fall down onto the forest floor.