whoops!

OK, you got me. I haven't been keeping up with the blog ummm... at all.

Now that doesn't mean that we haven't been learning, discovering, traipsing all over, reading, visiting, and pluging along. I just haven't been putting it down in any record.

Right now I am gearing up to start our first official year of homeschooling. I will be mailing in "The Form" to DPI this fall and our family will be officially counted among the ranks of homeschoolers.

I hope to begin to post a little more regularly this fall. I do like having a weekly record of our school year as well as a place to share pictures and stories with friends and family.

That being said, I make no promises! I will blog without obligation, that's all I need, one more thing I can't get to!

Weekly Report: October 13th - 16th

Yes, it was a 4 day week over here at The Swirling J. With a nearly non existent 4th day and a very light 3rd say at that. I had to work Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, I got sick Wednesday night (it was probably sooner, but I was pretending it was just allergies and hoping it went away) then we had to pack up & leave for an out of town wedding with a 6 plus hour drive on Friday. No, it wasn't a pretty week.

I'm consoling myself with the fact that we listened to the original Peter Pan in the car for part of the drive, but if I am to be totally honest we also watched plenty of the Disney Channel in the hotel room & other twaddle in the car.

Not that I regret the trip! The time spent connecting with family and celebrating together is priceless and I am happy that our school days are flexible enough to accommodate that. I however could do with out this stupid cold that has been hanging on for far to long... Well enough with the complaining.

I am going to try and move art & music to Monday along with catching up in the Burgess book of birds. I know no one is watching to make sure that I am completing a chapter a week, but the kids love it, so I don't think two chapters this week will be a problem.

We did have a breakthrough in Reading last week. We got over the "what" "with" sight word block that we had been having Fancy girl really enjoyed both the HOP & ETC exercises we did.

Math also went well. We moved on to concepts like long, short, tall, wide, thin. All concepts that Fancy Girl has down pat so the review is pleasurable for her. I took the opportunity to add in lots of living math picture books and those are always a hit around here.

We read lots about Jurassic Dinosaurs and plan to make a poster next week.

Map work continued this week with the high point being using the map at the zoo to find where we were and how to get where we wanted to go. It was so much fun and I think it connected a lot of dots for Fancy Girl about using a map.

Handwriting has been progressing well. I can't wait to get to lowercase letters, I think with a few small pointers and her work in learning to read, Fancy girl is close to writing her own thoughts at will! I know it sounds silly, but I consider it a big developmental leap and I'm excited to see her learn the tools she will need to make that jump!

WE did lots of snuggle on the couch and read together time this past week and I think we all really enjoyed it. I want to make sure I am doing lots of that as well as providing good quality reading for those times.

Well, there we are, another week documented. No pictures though, you'll have to use your imagination. See you soon!

Weekly Report: October 6th -10th

Yes, another week has come to an end and I for one am glad to see it! I've heard "I don't like school!" plenty this week. It has made me want to revise the approach I am taking. I think I really need to thin out our schedule. I plan on dropping story time and swimming soon. The last swim class that we have signed up for is next week and I am not registering for the next session. We will try to do some family open swim at the local school pool, but that would be more laid back and easier to fit into the schedule. Story time is over for Fancy Girl and Mad Man has three more & then we are done. I'm not going to sign them up for the next session. I don't think they need practice sitting quietly on a carpet square and we read and do projects plenty at home!

Math this week was a review of writing numbers 1-10 and some review of qty. more. I used a Dorling Kindersley math workbook to give a different approach. Fancy Girl liked it some days but then fought me on it others. I think she has most of it down cold & I just wanted her to work on the skill of writing the numbers. It was interesting though, because I learned she didn't know the number 6 100% of the time. I think by the end of the week she had it so I'm happy we took this week to strengthen these skills.

We began to memorize a new poem with the months & seasons. It has a good rhythm to it and I think she will have it done by the middle of next week.

Handwriting was X & Y which weren't a problem at all! I used this week to stress the importance of writing your very best letter each time we write in the Handwriting without Tears Book

We hit a bit of a wall in reading this week. We learned three more sight words (has, With, What) and that has presented a challenge when we work them into other reading. So we worked minimally with those words everyday this week and continued to work with the Explode the Code book. We did lesson 1 in Book 1 1/2 It was a review of lessons 1 & 2 from book 1 but it was still challenging in its own way. Fancy Girl didn't always like doing it but I have seen real improvement in her writing and decoding in that book.

I managed to work Spanish back in this week with some commonly used phrases. The kids really do like Spanish and I think I just need to give consistent exposure at this point and maybe next year I'll splurge for a solid curriculum.

Science & Social Studies didn't have much zip to them this week. I'm planning on doing more fun things next week.

We had a great nature study time at the park on Wednesday. We found several beaver dams in the little creek at the far side of the pond. The kids had a great time exploring in the taller than them grass and figuring out how to get a better view of the beaver dam.

Music this week was investigating percussion instruments. We listened to fife & drum music, read a few books, made our own shakers, marched around the block with them, played the pot lids and compared how the sounds of the different sized lids sounded (the big ones made a deeper sound, the small ones made a higher sound). It was lots of fun for everyone, until mommy's head had to say noooo mooooore!

Art was a look at Degas works and making our own study in the motion of a rolling pumpkin. We read "Marie in Fourth Position" and looked at some of Degas pieces focusing on how he was interested in movement.

Well, I'm going to go join the kids outside and do some reading. Hope you all have a good weekend! We'll be pumpkin picking and football watching.

Homeschool memoirs, Post 1

So, I'm going to give this a whirl... it sounds like it might be fun. The idea is to get to know other homeschoolers and to stretch my blogging mind a bit.
The first theme from back in August is all about me. I probably don't say much directly about myself when I post here but that doesn't mean that you all can't learn a lot about me by what I choose to say.

I am a busy lady who takes on way too much from time to time and can be prone to burn out for that reason. I am trying to find a happy balance in my life to prevent that and also to think about how my busyness may just be a perception, and not a reality. After all, if the things I am busy doing are filling my cup up and not just emptying it all the time then I can keep on going, right?

My husband & I have been together since I was in High School and I say sometimes that we "grew up" together. I think we both became the people we are today in large part because of our early relationship with one another. I have two lovely children and I really feel like I was born to be their mom. I take my roll as their mother fairly seriously and I hope that it will pay off in the end.

I came to homeschooling through a path of attachment parenting. I came to attachment parenting after I decided I wanted a natural birth with my daughter. Lots of reading, reflecting, and trying to be in the moment with my children have taught me that I am in fact the person best suited to lead them through their education.

Politically I'm a liberal tree-huger and proud of it!

I volunteer for La Leche League and try to help mother's find their own answers to make breastfeeding work in their lives.

I am also a part time waitress to make a little coin and still spend the max time I can with my family.

If you need for something and I can give it to you, I will. If you want for something, well you are probably on your own.

Well, there I am, kind of...

Dare I let politics creep into this blog...

I thought I would share a poll that I came across, vote as you wish!

PBS has an on-line poll posted asking if Sarah Palin is qualified. Apparently
the Republicans knew about
this in advance and are flooding the voting with YES votes. It will be reported
on PBS, picked up by
mainstream media and can influence undecided voters in swing states.

Please do two things -- takes 20 seconds.

1) Click on link and vote yourself. Here's the link:
PBS Poll

2) Then send this to every single Obama-Biden voter you know, and urge
them to vote and pass it on.


The last thing we need is PBS having to say viewers think Sarah
Palin is qualified.
Thanks.

Weekly Report: September 29th- October 3rd

Well another week has almost zoomed by us. I have really felt frazzled this week. not so much by the work we do, as by the extras that are stuck in everywhere. I just don't know what to make give. I've been thinking a lot about a friend who recently had a tragedy occur. I can't figure out what I can do for her but her sorrow has been filling my head quite a bit. I think in many ways that has contributed to my feeling overwhelmed this week. Also, as I said it is the "extras." This week we had a nature class with Fancy Girl's favorite, Mr. Howard, swim class, gymnastics, an organizational meeting for daisy scouts, Library story time, and our homeschool group park day followed up with a trip to the ER. By yesterday all I wanted was to stay home in my jammies all day long. Of course we didn't, we walked to the farmers market and back and I went to the grocery when Daddy J got home but that was much more low key than the rest.

Well, enough with the complaining, on to the good stuff we did accomplish.

Math this week was discovering the quantity more or less of two sets of objects. I posted earlier about wanting to flesh out math a little more. I've started to add in more Living Books that have math concepts and really upped the amount of time we spend using manipulatives that illuminate the topic we are covering.

For reading we did some review of Hooked on Phonics that we've already covered and then we went on to the sound "O." Fancy Girl is beginning to recognize some words by sight as well as using the pictures in the stories to help figure out the content. All very good things! ETC has been a challenge this week. I think we will probably finish up with the books I have and switch over to the ETC online.

Handwriting was the letters V & W. We are not doing as much of the mastery that HWT encourages, but we are practicing and I think both kids are enjoying it!

For read a louds we've been doing classic Winnie the Pooh and I think we are all enjoying it much more. The more involved chapter books can wait a year! I've also gone back to lots of picture books to augment the content areas we are studying. I felt like I got away from that the past few weeks and I've been happy with the increased snuggle on the couch time we have gotten this week.

We are beginning our map study in Social Studies this week. We read "There's a Map on My Lap" and made a map from our house to "favorite park" a few blocks away. We focused on assigning symbols to objects on the map and making a legend to identify those symbols.

Our study of dinosaurs for Science continued with a focus on the Triassic Period this week. We read about that period in our spine and investigated further with the book Triassic Dinosaurs. We also made a poster of the Triassic Period that we will add appropriate Dino stickers to.


Music was a continuation of learning about Woodwinds. We've listened to the Mozart Concertos from last week & I hope to get some instrument study in today!

Art this week is learning about Claude Monet. We watched "Linnea in Monet's Garden" in the van this week and read "A Blue Butterfly" a picture book about Monet. We are currently working on a water lilly art project and I have posted a print of Monet' s Waterlilies above the little desk.

Nature study was covered on Monday during & after our class at the nature center, but I do hope to get outside for a bit today as well!


Spanish has officially gotten away from me this week. I think I need a curriculum to follow...any ideas for a kinder and preschooler??

A Super Bonk!

Yes, that is what the doctor called it. Mad man fell at park day and wow what a bonk. A 3/4 inch tall hematoma rose up immediately after the fall. Ive never seen anything like it! We of course went to the ER. I told fancy girl, well OK I kinda shouted, that we have to go now and the poor thing thought I was blaming her for her brother's fall. Another mama, thanks J, helped to console her & explain the situation. While in the car I finally got a hold of my doctor's office and they wanted him to be seen. He never lost consciousness nor did he vomit, so those are all good signs. The doctor we saw at Children's was great with him and after an exam believes that he did not fracture his skull, yes that is my hard headed child!

So just to cover all my bases we took him to the chiropractor and dosed him with homeopathic Arnica Montana topically & orally. Mommy also took a little oral vino to help calm her nerves.

All in all it was more excitement than I needed for the day, but as an up side I didn't have to go to work...

Daddy J got a good pic of the bump I'll try & post later.