Educating Crumpet

Best School Day Ever!

2012-01-03T00:12:00.002-05:00

Well, today was supposed to be our first day back to school. Instead... Crumpet Sr. and I went to the Humane Society and came home with a surprise!
(She kept getting up when I pulled out the camera so Crumpet was keeping an eye on her and hoping she wouldn't move - thus the goofy face!)

This is Kyra. She is a 2 year old hound mix, and so far, she is a perfect fit for our family. The cats are disgusted, but she really hasn't hassled them, and I'm sure they'll get over it!
Crumpet is thrilled! He keeps telling everyone that "She is ours to keep. We aren't just borrowing her!!" We babysat so many dogs this year, and he was so sad each time they left. We finally realized that a boy needs a dog. His mom too! I've missed having a dog around!

Cruise Post

2011-12-27T21:17:00.001-05:00

I've posted the story and pictures of our cruise on my travel blog if you are interested. It's a long post, but it's mostly pictures! Enjoy!
Crumpet Moves to Paradise

Practicing Gratitude: Gifts 751-780

2011-12-26T21:29:00.009-05:00

Oh so many gifts! It has been a wonderful month.
751: Finding old pictures on my cell phone.
752: Christmas lights.
753: I finally got around to making this craft with Crumpet. I've had it on my list for the last several Christmases...
754: Seeing this cat so happy when we set up the tree every year.
755: Seeing this cat so happy with Christmas wrapping every year.
756: Mellow cats who have been through so much in their years with us that nothing phases them anymore.
757: Crumpet has been a crafting maniac this month. We made LOTS of Christmas crafts.
758:Christmas cards containing photos of friends.
759: The joy of a 5 year old at Christmas time.
760: The fun of pulling out all of our Christmas ornaments and remembering where we got them.
761: A chance to go on a cruise.
762: We have seen all of the Hawaiian islands that we wanted to visit during our tour here.
763: We got to ride in 2 helicopters.
764: We survived our helicopter rides.
765: We saw flowing lava.
766: All you can eat buffets.
767: Towel animals.
768: Dolphins.
769: Hot tubs.
770: Wrinkled mountains.
771: We saw silversword plants. These are extremely rare.
772: I don't live in a cold climate!
773: Crumpet is a great traveler.
774: Accidental meetings with acquaintances in unexpected places! I ran into my yoga teacher at a bathroom in a wildlife refuge on Kauai!!
775: Double rainbows.
776: Finding this one morning:
777: The endless giggles caused by living with a silly 5 year old, AKA Christmas Dude:
778: The world is full of interesting places to explore.
779: And fabulous sights to see:780:So many creative people - this was a Christmas village made out of gingerbread that contained all of the beautiful buildings of downtown Honolulu.

Our best learning is happening now, while school is out..

2011-12-26T21:07:00.011-05:00

Lately, the craziness of life has been affecting our school time. We have so many commitments and appointments... We end up squeezing our book work into the few hours of down time we have each day, and it always feels like we're trying to 'get it over with' so we can go run the next errand.. It's nothing like I pictured homeschooling.
This week, though, we've used our usual book work time to go learn outside while having fun, like I planned it..
Friday, we took Crumpet Sr. with us to the beach and flew kites and had a picnic. Then we went wading around in tide pools to see what we could find. We ended up with a bucket of little fish, snails, and piles of little hermit crabs. The weather was beautiful, the waves are huge, and the surfers are fun to watch. Crumpet was so excited to be outside, studying nature. It was bliss. There is no other word.
Today, Crumpet and I headed out to a park we've been wanting to explore. The next science lesson in our book was about learning to identify local plants and birds. We took A Hiker's Guide to Trailside Plants in Hawaii with us.
This was a great lesson in using the table of contents and the index of a non-fiction book. In the park, we chose some plants to identify and found almost all of them in the book. We took lots of pictures and brought home a few leaves and seeds to dry so we can make a booklet to refer back to.
While we were out, we found a geocache. Then we played on a huge wooden model train engine located in the park.
We pretended we were characters from Puss in Boots. It was so much fun, and Crumpet had no idea we'd spent the afternoon doing school work. I need to find a way to do this more often.
This week, I'm noticing that Crumpet is finally more willing to ask 'why' and come up with a hypothesis. He's willing to wonder, and discuss possibilities. He's learning to think for himself. It is so exciting to watch, and it makes him so much fun to talk to.
Life is good.

(P.S. I just looked back at my blog, and one of my recent posts was about all the fun things we were doing in November when we weren't in school... Maybe I need to relax and stop stressing so much about the daily requirements of life and remember the fun bits more? )

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-24T16:14:00.002-05:00

Merry Christmas Everyone! Have a wonderful holiday!

Fun Restaurant Activity

2011-12-13T12:54:00.003-05:00

We're back, and and we had a wonderful time. I have several blog posts to write, including a couple of travel posts, a post about A Thomas Jefferson Education, a school update, and of course, a huge gratitude post. And I have a million of your blogs to read... I'm guessing it will take me til after Christmas to catch up!
For now, I'll just post this randomness:
We had lunch at a pizza place on Kaua'i. Instead of the standard coloring sheet and crayons, they hand out a ball of pizza dough to keep the kids busy while they wait for their food. I thought, "Oh, how odd", until Crumpet spent hours playing with it, during lunch, and in the car afterward. It's better than playdoh because it holds together really well. We will definitely be using this idea at home!

Scholastic Books Warehouse Sale

2011-12-03T00:58:00.002-05:00

Have you heard about the Scholastic Books Warehouse sales? Check out this link to see if there is one near you! We went to one that happened to be 10 minutes away from our house, and we found some good deals. Maybe not as many educational books as I planned, and a few too many Star Wars books, but Crumpet and I both left happy. Apparently, these sales take place a few times a year. We'll definitely be going to future events!

Odds and Ends

2011-11-28T17:31:00.004-05:00

We've been plugging away at the school work, and it looks like we'll be able to take a winter break when all of the neighborhood kids are out of school. I expected to have to keep working then because we've taken so many extra breaks this year, but somehow, we are all caught up to where I'd hoped to be by the end of December.
Here's what we've been up to when we aren't doing bookwork...
Crumpet's favorite local musician came to the library for his annual show. He is amazing, and the kids go wild:
We discovered an awesome, free children's garden 15 minutes from the house. We will definitely be going back!
We visited the garden with a friend we hadn't seen in ages. The kids were so excited to see each other.
Crumpet tried rock climbing at an indoor gym. He did great!
We went on a LONG, beautiful hike over the weekend (had to work off that big turkey dinner!!) There were a couple of scary stream crossings, but we made it.
There were also some cool old army bunkers that made for great army games:
Crumpet and our dog visitors collapsed when we reached the car:
Next week, we are headed off on a cruise of the Hawaiian islands. We're so excited. I'll share pictures when we get back!

Fall Crafts

2011-11-21T20:42:00.002-05:00

Crumpet has been in a rare mood to craft. Hurray! Of course, having a fun holiday theme to work with makes it easier. Here are a few of his Halloween creations:
We found these turkeys in a free Thanksgiving packet from Curriclick. We plan to share them with some of our favorite Meals on Wheels ladies who have a habit of spoiling Crumpet with candy and cookies...
And I adapted this project from one I saw at Tired, Need Sleep here. I was thinking we'd do all of our Christmas cards like this, but I'm guessing the glitter wouldn't survive the mail... So perhaps this will be what we hand out to people on our Christmas Meals on Wheels route.
(Do take Nicole's hint to do this project outside seriously! I remembered her suggestion - right after Crumpet accidentally dumped an entire jar of glitter on the dining room table.. ah glitter. Glitter in the breakfast, the lunch, the dinner, the hair!! It's a good thing we all like being sparkly!)

Practicing Gratitude: Gifts 716-750

2011-11-19T22:56:00.004-05:00

So far, November has been a lovely month. One with many blessings:
716: Lavender really does repel ants!
717: APEC is over - the traffic was outrageous here, as many world leaders (including Pres. Obama) came here to discuss the world economy.
718: APEC is not held in Hawaii every year!
719: My dad is finally feeling better after a terrible case of pneumonia.
720: I found the perfect Christmas present for my dad.
721: My husband irons his own clothes.
722: I had a wonderful visit with an old friend.
723: Crumpet had a wonderful visit with my friend.
724: The friend built amazing, whole-room forts for my astonished child.
725: I am grateful for my friend's husband, who stayed home in Florida with 4 small children so she could come here to visit me and have some time off!
726: Long chats with a fellow homeschooler.
727: Mango margaritas.
728: A delicious dinner out without kids.
729: Swimming with sea turtles.
730: Being able to help a friend in need.
731: We unexpectedly have our 2 big dog friends visiting for the next 2 weeks.
732: Crumpet is overjoyed at having dogs to play with again.
733: A friend who is willing to help with some of my crazier charity projects.
734: Crumpet Sr.'s job is about to calm down considerably.
735: Crumpet Sr.'s shoulder is drastically improved.
736: Sweet best-friend moments.
737: Daddy and Son nights out, so I can have a little quiet time.
738: White, billowy clouds.
739: Learning not to judge others.
740: Honesty.
741: Chocolate covered macademia nuts.
742: It's that time of year again!
743: All-in-one printers.
744: The hot dog dance.
745: An ice maker that makes ice.
746: I don't think I'll have to grocery shop til after Thanksgiving.
747: A chance to make all of my favorite dishes and share them with a friend.
748: Constantly being surprised by Hawaii.
749: We introduced another friend to geocaching last week, and she's hooked!
750: The dogs will give me an excuse to start walking again - I've been terrible lately...

Practicing Gratitude Gifts 676-

2011-11-09T00:33:00.007-05:00

Well, it's November and Thanksgiving and all. I guess I really should be adding to my gratitude list!!

676: Halloween activities
676: Candy
677: Face Paint
678: Homemade ice cream
679: Huge bags to hold library books
680: Interlibrary loan
681: Coloring pages from the internet
682: I stocked up on crayons during the school sales
683: The calming effect music has on Crumpet
684: Stickers
685: Horseback riding lessons for Crumpet

686: Mended fences with old friends.
687: New friends
688: Quitting Facebook means that I'm interacting more with actual humans!
689: Having a 5 year old in the house on Halloween - so much fun!
690: The radar thingy that parks near our house every once in a while. We call it "The Bubble".

691: Rainbows

692: Hand me downs
693: 2 awesome birthday parties.
694: A chance to try out boxcar racing at one of the parties

695: Take out food
696: An interesting new business opportunity
697: Crumpet had a (very careful) sword battle with a (seated) Meals on Wheels recipient and she laughed so hard she cried. This is a lady who hasn't had anything to laugh about in a long time. It was beautiful to watch.
698: Crumpet's protective instinct toward the above lady.
699: The rainy season has begun here, but it's mostly raining at night.
700: We have a visitor arriving tomorrow.
701: We completed the first level of All About Spelling.
702: We're on track with the rest of our studies.
703: Crumpet and I had the most wonderful day at the zoo...
704: I'm nearly done with Christmas shopping!
705: We found a replacement stuffed bunny for Crumpet after nearly a year of looking for the lost one...
706: The neighbors stopped leaving their new, barking dog out all night.
707: Leis
708:Orchids
709: Boursin cheese
710: I found canned pumpkin and stocked up - that is not an easy thing to do here.
711: Crumpet's gratitude list. It's very entertaining!
712: Crumpet's cutting skills are finally improving.
713: Our Georgia tenants plan to stay a little longer...
714: We have enough.
715: The cats are enjoying the cooler weather, and they are very funny to watch...

Well, I'm blank for now. Maybe I can get to 800 by Thanksgiving? I've been doing this list forever, and I still haven't reached 1000! Someday...

All About Spelling Level 1 - Complete!

2011-11-04T00:21:00.002-04:00

Well, he still doesn't like it:
but today, we finished Level 1 from All About Spelling. AND... today, Crumpet took the pencil out of my hand as I wrote the words he was spelling orally (he doesn't like to use the AAS tiles)... AND he wrote them himself! This is a different child than I started the year with. It is amazing to watch.
I have purchased the next level from All About Spelling, but we won't start it until January. For the next 2 months, we'll review the rules from level 1 and practice the phrases provided in the book. We've done some review, but nowhere near as much as the company recommends, because, as we all know, Crumpet hates review. So now we have lots of time to do it slowly, with no pressure.

Halloween 2011

2011-11-02T14:40:00.004-04:00

Halloween was a lot of fun this year! Crumpet counted the days for weeks beforehand...
We had 4 pumpkins to carve. Crumpet still won't touch the pumpkin guts...
But he did help carve for the first time this year! I held his hand with the knife most of the time, but he did a lot of it. He was so proud! (This a really bad re-enactment of the carving by Crumpet...)
Look what we found in one of the pumpkins! Sprouting seeds! I don't think I've ever seen that before. Of course, we planted them...
The finished products. The one on the left is the one Crumpet carved - lots of easy straight lines. The one on the right is the one he wanted to carve, but couldn't quite manage, so Crumpet Sr. did it for him.
The ghosties are mine, and the witch was Dad's...

We had FOUR Halloween events to attend, so Crumpet got to be many different characters, which was good because he just couldn't make up his mind about a costume. At one event, he arrived as Grievous from Star Wars:
But left as Spiderman, because he had his face painted...
There were bouncy castles...
For the library party, Crumpet was Darth Vader. In the end, he chose to be Vader for the actual night of trick or treating, as well. He wore black pants to complete the costume...
For another party, Crumpet went as Darth Maul from Star Wars. Dad went all out with the face paint..
Crumpet was so proud of this look. Unfortunately, paint removal took forever, so he decided NOT to be Darth Maul again for Halloween night. Too bad - this was my favorite costume.
Here he is with Crumpet Sr. They both believe "the scarier, the better.."
There was LOTS of loot at the end - we should have candy through next summer!
It poured all night, after Halloween fortunately, so we saw this fabulous rainbow in the morning.
It's so fun to have a little on in the house for holidays! Hope you all had fun too!

Bits and Pieces

2011-10-30T14:06:00.002-04:00

Just a few snapshots from our life this week:

Dance Parties Galore. These are SO funny to watch!
Horseback riding lessons. Crumpet is doing so well with these!
Math review. Seriously! This was math. And Crumpet had no trouble with the concepts he's been struggling to learn during our regular lessons. I have to work on a way to teach with toys more often...
Halloween Events Galore:

We are also reading lots of books by Audrey Wood. Have you discovered her yet? She is so incredibly original and imaginative. We are loving her stories, and the artwork is almost always stunning...
I am reading A Thomas Jefferson Education, and being completely blown away by it. I'll have a lot more to say after I read it and have a little time to digest.
That's our week in a nutshell. Have a great Halloween. Crumpet has been counting down for weeks, and is so excited that it's only one more day!!

A good school day!

2011-10-24T21:54:00.003-04:00

This is just one of those good days where things seem to be coming together.

Crumpet has been very interested in his stickers this week. He has made a million pictures with them. He also decorated a bunch of old postcards so he could "mail" them. We have a bunch of the free stickers that come from Disney, Highlights, and non-profits... He used the animal ones that look like stamps and put them in almost-the-right spot for stamps. (I think he was afraid to put anything on the words on the postcard saying 'place stamp here'.)
When he ran out of "stamps", he cleverly asked me to help him spell the word stamp and he used his letter stickers to write it out in the correct place!
He used up all of our state stickers, and I was amazed at how many state names he could read. We've never formally studied the states, and many of them are not easy to read! We have traveled cross country though, and we use the U.S. map for a variety of projects, so he must have heard a lot of the names by now...
Crumpet also asked me to draw a map of the world, and he helped me identify the names of continents and countries that we've studied. Then he placed wild animal stickers in their proper locations. I LOVE these days when he shows me what he's learned through play!!
In addition to stickering, Crumpet is all about coloring today. He had me print out a bunch of Halloween pictures and he has been coloring all day. IN THE LINES! His control of writing instruments has improved so much lately! And he's interested in the process. Woo hoo!!
He wanted to name all of the characters in his pictures, so he started writing out their names! Writing. Voluntarily! He spelled some of the words properly, but he forgot many of the rules he knows because he was concentrating on the writing. That's ok - he was actually putting his thoughts down on paper all by himself. I know I'm overly excited, but it's just so nice to see the skills we've been working on come to fruition. He has fought me so hard, but he's learning. Phew! Also, this week, we've been watching some Bill Nye the Science Guy DVDs and enjoying them. We are also working on odd and even numbers. I found an easy card game to practice the skill - "Slap It". It's essentially War, but every time someone turns over an odd number, you slap it. Whoever slaps it first gets the pile underneath. I'm pretty sure he's going to LOVE this...

School Update

2011-10-17T16:09:00.004-04:00

What's this? A school post? No way...! We really have been plugging along with the school work, but it just isn't the focus of our lives, and I love that. We've been busy with visitors and life learning. Fortunately, school time has gotten much easier, and Crumpet is willing to work with me when I say it's time. This is what school often looks like in our house:
He'd been building a fort, so we did school there.
Hmm, how is the learning going?
Reading is going well. Writing is actually one of his preferred subjects now. I never would have believed that a couple of months ago... Spelling is going pretty well. I don't think Crumpet really knows the rules though - he just intuitively spells the words right now. It will get more challenging soon, I'm sure.
In math, we are working on adding 2 digit numbers. This is not going terribly well. I'm not convinced that he really grasps the concept of place value. Some days, it seems clear to him, and some days he has no idea what I'm talking about. I think we'll take a break and move onto the next topic, and then revisit the subject.
I have slowed science down so we are just doing one topic a month. We do a lot of reading about the subject during the month, and I try to discuss it during the day when appropriate.
We are VERY slowly working through our Artistic Pursuits curriculum. Sadly, art is always the first thing to be skipped when we get busy. I really do like this book though, and Crumpet is willing to try the projects, which is something of a surprise! This was his first pencil drawing. It's a picture of his best friend with a crab and a mouse...
A pigeon using water color crayons:
I loved the crayons, but it annoyed Crumpet that adding water totally changed the look of the picture...
And a bowl we made using air dry clay:
We have also been working on history. We just finished the first part of our Egyptian studies. We turned one of Crumpet's tiny teddy bears into a mummy. Being a boy who loves gory stuff, he loved the study of mummies!
I am having some issues with our history studies. I bought Pandia Press' History Odyssey, and
I don't think I like it... They tend to jump around the Story of the World book, and the order they use isn't making sense to me. I like a few of the extra projects they use, but I think we will stick to the Story of the World and its activity book for future history studies.
We are also having a problem studying both geography/world culture and history. Crumpet seems to be getting confused about what country we are studying, and what happened where. I am seriously considering putting history on hold for a year while we work through our Expedition Earth curriculum. I'm not sure how much history he will truly retain at this age anyway. I'm not as concerned about the geography that he remembers, as long as he gains an interest in the world around him, and begins to understand that there are many different cultures and beliefs in the world.
Outside of school, we've been very busy! We had visitors and we got to do a few new-to-us touristy things. We toured some movie sites. One of them was the site of Jurassic Park! (You can read about our recent travels at my other blog, Crumpet Moves to Paradise, if you are interested.)

We rode through a haunted lagoon at the Polynesian Cultural Center. This was the kid's version, but it was still borderline too scary. Crumpet is just between that little kid fear of spooky things, and that big boy fascination with horror... We checked out the medieval family day at our local art museum and it was a blast. Crumpet built a shield and a working catapult that is awesome! He will be starting a month of horseback riding lessons this week. And we've been doing a lot of this:
Life is good!

Practicing Gratitude Gifts 651-675

2011-10-11T19:02:00.004-04:00

Wow, where have I been?? We had visitors a few weeks ago, and it's taking some time to get back into the swing of things...
I have so much to be grateful for:
651: Visitors!
652: I finally got to hug the good friend who lost her mother in May. It was SO good to spend some time with her.
653: Having a friend who understands me and has the same thoughts at the same time even though we live thousands of miles apart. I could not live without this friend.
654: We got to visit some tourist sites that we had not been to yet.
655: Hand feeding wild birds.

656: Great books and time to read them.
657: My dad is out of the hospital.
658: I've been married 8 years today!
659: The fall t.v. season has started.
660: Netflix is not splitting into 2 companies.
661: An all in one copier-scanner-printer- fax machine. Who knew how much I needed that?
662: Fresh macademia nuts.
663: Great, crazy tour guides.
664: Caramel flavored calcium chews.
665: I gave up Facebook, and it feels good to be free!
666: Friends gave us an ice cream maker - I'm excited to use it!
667: Unlimited texting.
668: School is easier these days.
669: New swim fins for Crumpet - he can swim across the whole pool with them!
670: Leftovers.
671: Exciting vacation plans for December!
672: Another visitor will be here in November!
673: Good chats with my mom.
674: My grandparents just turned 85 (on the same day!).
675: Discounted gym classes.

Dolphin Tale

2011-09-25T13:01:00.003-04:00

We went to see the movie Dolphin Tale when it came out on Friday. Crumpet and I have been watching previews for months, and as total animal nuts, we couldn't wait. The movie was also highly recommended by the Homeschool Movie Club, so we had high hopes.
We weren't disappointed! We loved this movie. In fact, Crumpet pronounced it 'the best show ever'. There were so many great messages, and a dolphin. It had to be good.
There is a little girl who is homeschooled in the movie, and I could see Crumpet's ears perk right up. It was good for him to see someone else who is homeschooled - right now he doesn't have any friends who are schooled at home. There is a lesson in the movie about life experiences being as important as anything you might learn sitting at a desk in school, and it was nice to see.
One character is a young man who comes home from Iraq, injured, and we learned a bit about disabled veterans. Yesterday, we went to the airport to welcome home a sailor from my husband's command. He was returning from a stint in Iraq, and when we explained it to Crumpet, he said "Oh, like in the movie?" We said yes, but this soldier wasn't injured. Crumpet thought a good way to welcome the young man home would be to let him come stay with us for a while so we could spoil him. I love my Crumpet! He has such a sweet heart.
The children in the movie end up organizing the adults in order to save the dolphin and the aquarium she lives in. It was great to see children make a dream come true, and to have the adults support them.
There was some brief talk in the movie of having to euthanize the dolphin, and Crumpet's first question when we left was "Why were they going to kill that dolphin?" He was MAD. Given my history as a veterinary technician, the fact that we foster animals periodically, and the fact that we plan to volunteer at the animal shelter, I figured we would have this discussion soon anyway, and I think it's an important one. He handled it well, especially because they saved that dolphin.
The real life dolphin who inspired the movie lives in Florida, and she has become an inspiration to many, many disabled people. At the end of the movie, they have real footage of people with disabilities getting in the water to swim with her. And yes, I cried... And, yes, now that's on our list of "Places We Have to Visit"!

Matt Damon speech on education

2011-09-19T23:00:00.003-04:00

I copied this link from Fairy Dust Teaching. It is video of Matt Damon speaking at a Save Our Schools rally, and it really is worth watching. It is a touching tribute to teachers and how much of an effect they had on his life, as well as an indictment on the current culture of testing...
Matt Damon's speech

What is THAT on the counter???

2011-09-03T13:53:00.002-04:00

Wanna know what this gross stuff is?

My husband sure did when he found it on our kitchen counter! It's paper pulp! We made our own paper this week from old newspaper. It was a science project I found a while back on the Scientific American website, but it fit in really well with our history study about early writing. We talked about writing on stone, clay, and finally papyrus.
We shredded newspaper and put it in the blender with some water. Then we spread it out and let it dry. It actually dries into a nice thin layer that you can sort of write on. (Please ignore Crumpet's less-than-happy face. He got a bit tired of being my model during the photography class!)
So, we still like history. Science is also going really well. We have actually flown through Nebel's book... I only meant to do 20 of the 40 lessons this year. We have already done 10, so I thought I'd start spacing it out and doing monthly lessons. However, Crumpet is asking to do more science, so that's not going to work. I'm afraid that if we get too far into the book, the concepts will be beyond him. I guess we'll just plow through until he gets confused, and then find another science program to keep us busy until next year, when we can pick up Nebel again.
Writing has suddenly become Crumpet's first choice subject every day! He is very very proud of the fact that he can make letters and numbers! Hurray!
I'm hoping to have the same breakthrough with spelling soon. I learned yesterday that I can put the spelling words into sentences about Star Wars. He spells the whole sentence, and the idea of writing his own Star Wars stories soon is huge motivation... I'm thinking it will be great for handwriting practice too. He can spell the sentence, I'll write it, and then he can copy it!
Reading is going well. He still hates Explode the Code worksheets, but when he's reading, I can see him automatically applying the phonics rules he's learning.
Math is math. It's going well. We just started working on minutes on clocks though, and that has him a bit confused. I think it will click as we work more with the topic.
There really hasn't been much else going on here. LOTS of Lego Star Wars on the XBox. My hubby bought it to keep them busy together while he was home recovering from surgery. I'm hoping to cut the play time drastically when Crumpet Sr. goes back to work next week. I've been going out on my own a lot while hubby was home too. It's been nice! But back to normal next week, and that will be nice too.
I tried to teach Crumpet to play tennis this week. I'll leave you with a picture of his favorite part of the experience - wearing the racket cover on his head. Of course...

The Week of the Ziggurat

2011-08-21T12:37:00.002-04:00

This week, we made a ziggurat as part of our Story of the World study of Mesopotamia. Crumpet was quite pleased with it. (Yes, it's very bright... ) It's so funny - I avoided these projects like the plague when I was in school, but now I really look forward to them. I'm guessing Crumpet won't remember most of the history we are learning right now, but hopefully, he will remember some of the projects... Or, at least, the time spent together.
We also made the leap to level 2 readers at the library. This was accompanied by much panic, and many "I can'ts", but what boy can resist a book about dinosaurs AND superheroes?? So, he joined me for a peek, and realized he could read almost all of this book.
Have a great week!

Practicing Gratitude Gifts 626-650

2011-08-15T13:56:00.007-04:00

I've been writing down my gifts for a few weeks now, and it's funny to look back over them. It seems like forever since each thing happened. I guess I'd better post before they are ancient history...

626: I get the majority of my Vitamin D from the sun.
627: Hubby had a colonoscopy, and they found a precancerous growth. They removed it all.
628: I was able to share some baked yummies with friends, rather than eat them all myself.
629: We saw Harry Potter!
630: Crumpet had his first sleepover, and it went well!
631: Crumpet has been very snuggly lately and tells me loves me constantly.
632: I'm getting lots of sweet kisses too.
633: 'Girls only' shopping trips.
634: Clean hands!
635: School started for the neighbors. It is SO much easier to do schoolwork ourselves with no one ringing the doorbell to play at 8:15 am.
636: We have met Crumpet's new teacher twice now and she is amazing!
637: I bought lots of shorts for Crumpet before "winter" starts in Hawaii and they no longer sell shorts til "spring"... (It's ridiculous, but last year, I could not find shorts and we were desperate.)
638: I bought myself a swimsuit before they no longer sell swimsuits for 'winter'.
639: Crumpet had an ear infection, and we saw a doctor the very same day. Wow.
640: The ear infection is gone now.
641: Hubby had his shoulder surgery, and it went well.
642: Hubby has been home healing for almost 2 weeks, and we are not driving each other too crazy...
643: Dreams for our future trip around the world.
644: The kitty only has arthritis, not something disastrous..
645: I'm enjoying my photography class.
646: We explored a new botanical garden this weekend, while taking pictures for my photography homework.
647: Crumpet is doing better with handwriting!!
648: My first ever broccoli from the garden.
649: My first ever eggplant from the garden.
650: It's corn on the cob season!

Breakthroughs!

2011-08-15T13:34:00.002-04:00

We are settling into a routine of sorts here, and school is going quite well, most days. Two wonderful breakthroughs have taken place. The first and most exciting is with writing.
We've been working slowly through our Handwriting Without Tears book. Each day, we wrote a whopping 4 letters. Not 4 different letters. No no! 4 written characters, total. Everyday, there was yelling and throwing of pencils. Then, slowly, the yelling stopped, and the pencil throwing was halfhearted. This weekend (yes, we were so busy last week that we had to do school on Saturday...), we were working on some math problems, and Crumpet took the pencil from me and wrote the answers himself!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They were a mess because we haven't gotten to numbers yet, but he wanted to do it!! Yay! Then he wrote a whole page of letters during our handwriting time. He is so proud of himself, because he's getting so much better. It is a beautiful, fulfilling thing to watch.
Our other breakthrough has been with narration. We are using First Language Lessons, and we've only done 2 story narrations and 1 picture narration, but Crumpet is starting to get the hang of it. He's learning to organize his thoughts, and tell me about the story he just heard. It definitely helps that they are familiar stories in a shortened version...
On other fronts, we finished up our prehistory studies with a trip to the Bishop Museum. They have a dinosaur exhibit right now, and we had a lot of fun there. It's so interesting to see the changes in science since I was in school. The baby T-Rex at the museum had HAIR. They now think maybe the juveniles had a bit of fur... Pluto isn't a planet... I have to relearn everything, right along with Crumpet...
Here's Crumpet with the apple pie we baked for our Expedition Earth intro to geography:
He was so excited for dessert, and then he didn't like it. Poor guy!

I hope you are all enjoying your new school year, and having exciting learning breakthroughs too!!

First month of first grade

2011-07-26T14:03:00.005-04:00

Well, we've been in first grade for almost a month. I guess it's time to write something about it! The books trickled in slowly, and now we have all but one book. We just slowly added new subjects into our days as books arrived and it seemed to work well. It was a gradual adjustment to what our year will look like.
I can say that, in general, I'm very happy with what I've ordered, and how things are shaping up. Crumpet, on the other hand... Sigh. He is just not an easy kid, and really, he's meant to be unschooled. I'm not able to let go of all control though, so we will continue on this path.
I'm looking forward to having his best friend go to kindergarten next week for 2 reasons:
1) T arrives at our house at 8:15 every morning ready to play, and I have to send him home several times during our school morning until we are done and Crumpet can actually play.
2) Crumpet will see that T spends 7 hours 5 days a week at school, while we spend 2 hours 4 days a week, doing school work. Maybe, just maybe, it will click that what we are doing is not child abuse. Probably not though...
Anyway, here's what we've been up to:
Language:
Explode the Code 4: For several subjects, I found the ordering websites difficult to navigate and difficult to figure out Crumpet's level. When this arrived, I got nervous because it looked to be way above Crumpet's abilities. He has done beautifully on the first lesson though, and I think it will work out fine. We are only managing one lesson a week because Crumpet hates worksheets, but really, a lesson a day would be possible for most kids...
All About Spelling: Crumpet HATES this program. It's all about repetition and review, his biggest enemies! Spelling requires repetition and review though. Sigh again. I like the way the program is put together, and the fact that it combines several styles of learning. Unfortunately, we end up skipping a lot of it and he just spells the words for me. So far, he knows them all but I'm sure this will come back to haunt us later.
First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind: I love this program. So easy and such short lessons. Crumpet has memorized the first poem and done the first narration, and we are learning about nouns right now. It's a nice, gentle approach to grammar. I'm not entirely sure if Crumpet is learning any of the grammar, but we'll find out in time...

Handwriting: Handwriting Without Tears shall not be without tears for us. Every day, something gets thrown across the room, or torn to shreds thanks to a certain someone's hatred for handwriting of all types...

Math: I don't know if I mentioned that the charter school wouldn't let me buy the Horizons math program I had chosen. Apparently, Horizons is a religious curriculum. What?? How can math be religious? Anyway, I found a way to buy McRuffy's first grade math through the school, and honestly, I'm relieved. It's what I'm comfortable with, and I know we like it. Also, having seen that half of the Horizons manipulative set consisted of flashcards, I'm pretty sure I would have had trouble selling the program to Crumpet. The McRuffy manipulatives arrived and were greeted with great joy because they look like toys. I think it will be a better fit for us.
By the way, we spent the summer working with the Funnix math computer program, which they were giving away for a little while. We really enjoyed most of it, and it gave us some different ways to think about numbers and addition. We only made it 1/4 of the way through the program before our McRuffy books arrived, so we may return to it later. Our only complaint is that the lessons move really slowly and there is, um, a lot of repetition...

History: This is our last week of our homemade prehistory study. We've read tons of books, seen some movies, and visited the fun Ice Age exhibit at the mall that they set up for kids during the summer.
We will be visiting the dinosaur exhibit at the local museum this week, and creating a timeline of what we learned. We've enjoyed this topic immensely.
Our Story of the World books have arrived. I went WAY overboard and ordered most of Pandia Press' History Odyssey activity books for history, as well as the Story of the World activity books. We can't possibly do it all, but now I have plenty to pick and choose from. I think we are going to love history this year.

Geography: We ordered Beginning Geography, which is a book of worksheets, but they are fun worksheets, and so far Crumpet is enjoying them. I also decided at the last minute to order the Expedition Earth curriculum from Erica at Confessions of a Homeschooler. This is a fun curriculum full of the info, activities, and recipes that I tried so hard to gather for ourselves during the last year. I could never keep up, though, and let geography slide. Now, I have it all done for me! We purchased four of the extra books she recommended:
Encyclopedia of World Geography by Usborne (Geography Information)
Living World Encyclopedia by Usborne
A Trip Around the World by Carson-Dellosa (Country Activities)
Another Trip Around the World by Carson-Dellosa (Country Activities)
I LOVE the Trip Around the World books! Great projects and recipes! I wish I'd known about them before! The encyclopedias are also great to have.
Our first craft of the year was a papier mache globe. This was so messy that it challenged even my mellow attitude to craft mess... But Crumpet loved running his hands through the glue and adding paper strips to our globe. The final product is a bit goofy looking, but it was fun to make!
This curriculum has a serious religious component, but it's easy to turn it into a secular program, if you want to. Geography will continue to be one of our favorite subjects.

Social Studies: I ordered our textbook from Houghton Mifflin, but their website is impossible to navigate, and they are absolutely unclear about labeling each of their products. I ended up with the activity book instead of the textbook. When I called, their representative could not tell me what to order to be sure I receive the textbook. So I ordered what I hope is the right thing, and we'll see what arrives in a few weeks...

Science: We are using Nebel's Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding and so far, I'm happy with it. The experiments are simple and fun, and there is lots information and support for teaching the topics. I love that the book does not underestimate the child's ability to learn science. I love that it works in a sequential manner, slowly building on previously taught information. Every topic is connected. And I love the list of extra books at the end of each chapter. The reading is great reinforcement for what we are learning.
One of our first topics was the study of Air. We took the opportunity to go fly a kite! We found a phenomenal place to fly a kit here - I've never had any success before. At Sandy Beach on Oahu, you can sit on the ground, and the wind just whisks the kite up for you. Easy, and so pretty. People had some gorgeous kites! (We had an embarrassing Wonder Woman kite that we found in a geocache.. Very entertaining to watch my husband take a turn with it!)
In other news, we've been hiking
and getting incredibly muddy:

Crumpet has been loving tormenting our little dog visitor.
Crumpet had his first sleepover. His friend, T, spent the night at our house. We set up the tent and the 2 boys and I camped out in the backyard. So fun to see them have so much fun!

And we are renewing Crumpet's passport, just in case... Look at this amazing photo! He looks so grown up!
Wow. I haven't written about school in ages, so there was a lot to catch up on. I'll admit that school days can be incredibly challenging here, but we do have amazing, fun days too. There are moments that I think boarding school is going to be our only option for survival, but most of the time, I love watching this little boy soak up information, and I love being able to spend my days with him.

2011-07-25T13:42:00.002-04:00

I love these things... This is a meme that was started over at Making Home.

(Copy and paste to your blog, and put the things you've done in bold. Enjoy!)

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity

7. Been to Disneyland/world
8. Climbed a mountain.

9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked (in the Caribbean - it's different there!)
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29 Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33 Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41 Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal in a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45 Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60 Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Gotten flowers for no reason
64 Donated blood, platelets, or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66 Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67 Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London

77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79 Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a lawsuit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee

Practicing Gratitude: Gifts 601-625

2011-07-16T21:11:00.005-04:00

I've been struggling with gratitude lately. Things have been a little grey. Not black, not miserable, just grey. But I believe that is the most important time to look around and see the good around you. It helps brighten everything up, at least a little. It helps to remember that even when things are going wrong, so much is going right. So I've been trying.
Finally, I've come up with 25 things. Today was a particularly good day, so it's easy to put it down on paper today.
601: Baby cardinals
602: Dog squeak toys
603: Confidantes
604: A prepared hurricane kit
605: Lessons in personal growth
606: Very mild chicken pox
607: Crumpet's loving heart
608: Favorite beaches
609: Fireworks over Pearl Harbor
610: I'm signed up for a photography class in August!
611: Hubby will be home for the next 7 months, recovering from shoulder surgery. No sea duty!
612: We replanted the garden.
613: Our school books are ordered
614: We paid for only a few of the books
615: Comfy beach chairs
616: Thrift store shopping
617: Mango sangria. Bliss...
618: I am having a love affair with my food processor...
619: We have access to grocery stores with shelves full of food.
620: Our little visitor dog finally loves Crumpet as much as Crumpet loves the little dog.
621: Brand new, free sheets.
622: So far, school is fun.
623: I had lunch today with an old college friend that I hadn't seen in 20 years. She lives here on Oahu!
624: Reconnecting with old friends is amazing.
625: Facebook helps people find those old friends.

Homeschooling Affirmation

2011-07-12T01:34:00.002-04:00

So, today, we got an e-mail from the woman who was supposed to be Crumpet's teacher at the charter school. (Crumpet will attend 2-4 classes a month at the school, and then be taught at home the rest of the time.) She has decided that she will no longer be teaching at the school. And here is her reason:
She has been working at the school for seven years, watching others homeschool their children while hers attended public school. She has seen how well all of these homeschooled kids do, and how happy they are, and she wants that for her own children. So she will now be homeschooling her own children. I don't think you can get a better recommendation for what we are doing!

Blogging Burnout

2011-07-06T13:24:00.004-04:00

Lately, I just haven't felt like blogging. At all. Ever again.. . I'm not sure why, but I'm noticing lots of other people aren't blogging right now either. Maybe it's just summer. A few things definitely contributed to my ennui:
Blogger keeps failing, so I tried to start a Wordpress blog. But I just don't have the energy to learn a whole new system. Then I tried to turn the blog I have into a book using Blurb. It would be an $85 book... I can compress it and make it cost much less, and look better, but again, who feels like spending that much time on the computer in summer?...Fall is going to be utter chaos with appointments and classes. And, there has been a life changing something in our lives that is taking up all of my consciousness. We are ok, and maybe someday I'll be able to talk about it, but for now, wow. Blogging seems... oh, just too much.
I do so love having the blog to look back at though, so hopefully I'll get my act together in time to blog first grade.
We've definitely been busy. But I have no pictures to prove it... Sigh. What a slacker. We've tried lots of art projects. We've spent time with friends, and time outdoors. We've baked and baked and baked. (And gained and gained and gained weight!) Crumpet appears to have chicken pox. The fact that yeast is alive has clicked with him, and he's beginning to boycott bread products. Oh man, I should have known better. He had a pet cockroach for a day, and then it died. And he was devastated. We replanted the garden. We have the most adorable baby cardinals coming to our feeder. We have our sweet little dog friend staying for the summer, and we are all totally in love. The house is filthy. And we do a bit of school most days and it's going well.
So yes, we're still here, but we don't feel like talking about it! ;0
I'm still enjoying reading everyone's blogs though, even if I'm not commenting. Enjoy the rest of your summer!

Life School Results!

2011-06-19T01:17:00.007-04:00

Have you ever noticed that homeschoolers (and afterschoolers, I'm sure) talk differently to their children than other people do? We talk to them about everything; we're always explaining and pointing out new things. Everything is an educational experience. I've noticed it a lot when I spend time with other homeschoolers.
I have never specifically taught fractions to Crumpet. We talk about them all the time though when cooking, sharing pieces of things, etc.
Today, I cut a sandwich into four pieces instead of two for a change. He mentioned that the pieces were squares, and I said "Yes, I made four pieces today." Crumpet said, "You mean four quarters, Mom!" And yesterday we were baking, and he knew how to make half a cup using a whole cup measure.
Apparently, all of my chatter has taught him the concept of fractions without any of the stress of looking at pie pieces on a workbook page.
I love homeschooling!
And, because I have no pictures of a quartered sandwich, here's one of Crumpet learning basic car maintenance...

Curriculum Purchased!

2011-06-17T13:22:00.002-04:00

I placed our curriculum order with the charter school yesterday! We should have everything by the end of July. Most of the order was exactly as I expected, and wrote about, here.
However, I did decide against the Saxon Phonics and Spelling, because we will be using All About Spelling. I went with Explode the Code as a last minute decision for phonics. We'll see how it goes. The school wants me to have some kind of phonics program, so now I do. I ordered books 4, 5, and 6, which will hopefully take us through the end of the year.
I ordered Artistic Pursuits Book 1 for art lessons.
I also ordered the early books in the Mind Benders series to start teaching logical thinking.
And I ordered this cute Cultures of the World theme box from Lakeshore Learning to go with our geography lessons. (It is VERY fun to spend someone else's money on curriculum!)
The school gave us a year long pass to the history museum here, which we are very excited about. It's a great museum, but very expensive. Now we can go as often as we like!
And after all that, I still have $800 to spend for the year. Maybe on extracurriculars like swimming if the little man will cooperate. Maybe on more books? We have until December to figure it out.

In the meantime, All About Spelling has arrived, and I expect our science book any day. We'll begin those next week. We are doing some math online. I've created a prehistoric times history unit that we are working through. That way, if we are overwhelmed by the pile of new books at the end of July, we can slow down on work we began in the summer and focus on the new stuff until we adjust.

Yesterday, I bought all of our folders, notebooks, glue, etc because the military store is already having its back to school sale! So, I think we are ready. I'm very excited about the upcoming year. Crumpet is driving me crazy trying to open the new books, toys, computer games, etc that I've pulled together to add to our studies. Here's hoping we are both still excited in a few months!

More Summer Fun

2011-06-16T18:45:00.006-04:00

I've been really nervous about how we will manage to fit in all of the school work required for first grade once the books arrive... We tend to be out and about a lot, we have a few visitors coming this fall, and Crumpet has a very limited attention span. More than 2 or 3 subjects a day will be difficult.
We've been working at doing several subjects a day, just to see how it goes. Right now, it is only fun projects, so there is no whining or complaining involved. Whining and complaining can kill HOURS during a school day around here. So maybe this isn't a realistic test, but this week has been fun, and gone very well.

Reading: We've been reading a lot of early readers. This week, we also (finally) started working through the advanced section of Progressive Phonics.
Math: Funnix math was giving away their math program last week, so we downloaded it to see what it was like. We are doing a few lessons a day right now, because it's teaching very simple math. Crumpet seems to be enjoying it.

Nature: We went to a class about insects at the Hawaii Nature Center last weekend. This was a great class, and we got to go out to catch grasshoppers, millipedes, worms, and various other creepy crawlies. Despite having some trouble dealing with the group situation, Crumpet asked to go back every week. We are looking forward to future programs at the nature center!

Science: We are still working through the experiments at the Scientific American website. This week, we watched yeast breathe! This was a pretty neat experiment. (There was a good chance that it could have backfired - teaching Crumpet that something he might eat is alive could have meant that he would never eat bread again... We talked about a lack of brain, understanding and sensation though, and so far so good. He did want to keep the yeast as pets though. Hmm.)
We put yeast, sugar and water in a plastic water bottle and capped it with a balloon. Within a few minutes, our yeast started to produce CO2 and we saw bubbles in our liquid.

Within 15 minutes, our balloon was expanding and the bubbles reached the top of the bottle.

Shortly after, the liquid started to fill the balloon. When we removed the balloon, there was a lot of spitting by our yeast pets, and the room smelled like bread!

We also tried out the color changing dots experiment which taught a lesson about camouflage. Or was supposed to teach about camouflage. Crumpet turned it into a completely different lesson. But he did manage to use the hole puncher for the first time. His little hands are getting stronger!
Which leads me to
Arts and Crafts:
As part of their summer reading program, the military library was having crafts and movies all week. Crumpet colored this mask, and I know it's not fabulous. BUT it was the first time I've ever seen him take such care to choose colors (he was very into the pattern of colors on the teeth) and to stay in the lines. Progress on the writing front! Woo hoo!

This week, Crumpet also learned to use a screw driver. We had some extra wood, and he wanted to work with it. He and a friend spent a long time placing and removing screws. (I have a picture, but evil Blogger won't let me upload it without deleting half my post... Uggh) Later in the week, he put his new skill to work and helped me replace batteries in one of his toys.
History: We've started a unit on prehistoric times. I'm just pulling things together from the internet and the library. We are reading, watching DVDs and crafting. AND, there are 2 awesome field trips that we'll be going on in the next month that fit with the topic. Crumpet is all about mammoths right now! When we're done with it all, I'll write a post about the books and movies we used, and talk about the field trips.
Have a great week!

Summer Fun

2011-06-10T18:28:00.005-04:00

So many plans, so little accomplished... But we are very busy having fun! We are involved in 3 different summer reading programs so there is a LOT of reading going on here.
We also made our own clay and painted it like Anna did at Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns. Our neighbor friend joined in, and the boys loved the project. Crumpet made a lot of Star Wars ships (lumps of clay), T made a LOT of "snakes" (lumps of clay), and I made a few vaguely recognizable objects. I wish I had more artistic ability... We are STILL painting snakes a few at a time, and will be until fall, I'm sure.
We made homemade bubbles out of water, dish soap, and corn syrup. Then we used various cookie cutters and kitchen utensils to blow bubbles:
We read our most recent Click magazine, which was all about where things come from. We learned about the origins of foods, clothing, etc. And then we made our own butter from heavy cream! We filled a small baby food jar half full with cream and tossed in a marble. Then we shook it (ok, I shook it, but Crumpet was very supportive) for about 15 minutes. Finally, a glob of soft butter formed. We put the butter in a coffee filter and squeezed out the buttermilk.
And then we ate our fresh butter on toast!
Crumpet has been swimming in the neighbor's pool daily, and spending plenty of time playing with friends and being generally silly:
We hope you are having fun too!

Practicing Gratitude: Gifts 576-600

2011-06-03T13:33:00.005-04:00

A very good week, indeed:
576: Cheap flights to Hawaii! Tickets for fall are suddenly half price!
577: At least 2, and hopefully 3, good friends will be coming to visit thanks to the cheap flights!
578: One of the visitors who will be coming is the friend whose mother just passed away. I am so grateful that she now has something to look forward to, instead of spending too much time looking back.
579: State Fairs
580: Ferris wheels
581: Deep fried Twinkies!
582: Huge smiles on my little boy while he zips around on amusement park rides
583: Rereading favorite old novels
584: Sesame Street put on a free live show for military kids
585: Smoke detectors
586: Friends with a boat!
587: Four day weekends
588: A strong marriage.
589: A chance to help some newlywed friends having trouble.
590: Cheap summer movies for kids at Regal cinemas
591: Crumpet's new and improved attitude
592: Affordable strawberries
593: A new bed, before our old one completely self-destructed...
594: Summer reading programs
595: A new pregnancy for a dear friend
596: It looks like we may have visiting dogs for most of the summer
597: We finally visited the playground known as "The best playground on Oahu". And it was awesome!
598: A clean floor
599: Fresh zucchini from my garden
600: I finally found a tomato plant and added it to our garden.

School Like I Planned It - Week of 5/27

2011-05-27T12:41:00.006-04:00

There have been a series of posts at the Homeschool Classroom this week about the fact that sometimes, your homeschool just doesn't look like you planned it. You planned to make everything fun - lots of games, field trips, experiments - and instead, it's all textbooks and worksheets... Sometimes, I feel like that. We get bogged down, and there just isn't time or energy for the fun stuff.
This week looked like I wanted homeschooling to look though! We did two full days of school work without Crumpet realizing we'd done school. It was lovely. It can't happen all the time, but it's so good and reaffirming when it does!

Math: We worked on a few projects from Family Math for Young Children. This is a great book for teaching math concepts in a fun, "living math" way. I love mixing these games into our day. This week we worked on estimation, and using logical questions to find a hidden button.
We also worked on subtraction using our McRuffy math text. We used jelly beans for our manipulatives and an insane amount of sugar was consumed. However, Crumpet started out yelling "I can't do subtraction! Don't make me!" and finished a short time later as a total master of subtraction. He's got it!

Science: We continue to do experiments from the Scientific American site. This week, we used a variety of bird "beaks" to sample different shaped foods so we could decide which beak was best adapted to each snack. I'm not sure how much Crumpet was paying attention because he was too busy inhaling snacks... But he enjoyed it! Here he is, drinking like a hummingbird:
We also found iron in our breakfast cereal using a magnet. This was more for me, because I was fascinated by the idea, and I thought he'd be bored. He was appropriately impressed that there was metal in his food though!
Using a magnifying glass to look at the bits of iron we picked up on the magnet:
We also discovered that the magnet picks up silverware!
And while at the beach, we discovered these odd seeds that were starting to sprout. So we brought them home and planted them. We'll see if anything happens!
Writing: I picked up Games for Writing by Peggy Kaye from the library this week. I was sorry to see that much of the book is devoted to actually creating stories and essays, but there are a few fun exercises to develop letter formation. We used one of these games and had a lot of fun. It will be a good way to steer Crumpet towards writing each day, at least. And the rest of the book may be useful in the future.

This week, we also went geocaching, spent time at the pool with friends, played with playdoh and painted. Oh, and, there was no vomiting or screaming about our ears. Phew. A really good week! I hope yours was too!
For more posts about preschool, see Homeschool Creations!

School Week of 5/20 - The Week of Neverending Illness and a Little Science

2011-05-20T12:58:00.005-04:00

This was a very rough week. Crumpet Sr. landed in the ER for another bout with diverticulitis. We got him on the road to recovery, and then Crumpet came down with the worst virus he has ever had. He started out vomiting, and now has a probable ear infection. He is miserable. The military medical system does not handle sick people well, so our only option is to go to the ER even though this is not a life threatening situation. We went for anti-nausea meds mid week to get him to stop vomiting and start drinking before he dehydrated. At that point, he had red ears. Now he's crying because they hurt so much. So today will likely be our 3rd trip to the ER in a week. The best part is that there is NO parking at the ER, so you get to walk 1/2 a mile or more with a sobbing child, if you are lucky enough to find parking anywhere at all. I will say that the doctors we have encountered have been phenomenal, but it's very difficult to see one when you are sick. Right now, the little man is getting some much needed rest (I'm not ignoring him to write a blog post, I swear!) so I'll write about the fun science projects we did during his good moments:
A few weeks ago, I bought a few Lab in a Bag science kits at a huge discount:
Crumpet has been asking to make slime every day since then. So we made slime, and it was fun! There is a lot of shaking and mixing:
And then there is slime! Crumpet often won't touch gross stuff, but he loved this goo.
We have also been doing some fun science experiments from the Scientific American website here. They are posting new experiments for 6-12 year olds every weekday in May, and they are a lot of fun. So far, we have made meteors, and a balloon rocket.
Crumpet is really enjoying our week of science, and keeps asking for more projects!
When we are not doing experiments, we are looking for fun apps on my new phone (this is a sick new addiction... very dangerous time consumer!). My aunt was here and showed us that there is a lightsaber app, and now I don't get to use my phone anymore... Here is Crumpet as a very grumpy Darth Vader:
He has 3 actual lightsabers, but right now, this is way more fun. It does have great sound effects...
I hope you are all healthy and well. Hopefully, we will have a better week next week!

For more preschool posts, visit Homeschool Creations.

First Grade Curriculum Plan

2011-05-18T14:46:00.003-04:00

A while ago, a friend asked me about the curriculum I plan to use this fall. I'm finally getting around to writing the post. We get to purchase curriculum through the charter school in mid-June, so I'm hoping that you will all comment and recommend better choices for me to look into before then, so I can make my final decisions!
(Remember that our charter school, MBTA, is paying for most of the books. I'll comment on ones they don't cover. And of course, that just means that I'll probably spend all of our personal money on even more supplementary fun games and projects than ever...)

The charter school requires study in Language, Math, Social Studies, and Science, but we can add any extra courses that we want to.
Language:
First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind by Jessie Wise.
All About Spelling (I don't think MBTA will pay for this.)
Crumpet's teacher recommended that we also purchase some kind of Phonics program. She showed me Saxon Phonics and Spelling, which looks ok, but it is made up of a lot of worksheets, which Crumpet does not approve of! It may be a good starting point though? Any other ideas? We plan to continue with Progressive Phonics, but there are only a few lessons in their advanced section...

Writing: This is likely to be our toughest subject this year...
I am considering Handwriting Without Tears.
Progressive Phonics has a free handwriting section that I may try, and our McRuffy kindergarten reading curriculum had a pretty basic handwriting portion.
I also discovered that our library system has Games for Writing by Peggy Kaye. I have it on hold and am excited to receive it. Her books work wonders for Crumpet.

Math:
Horizons Math: We are going to make the switch to Horizons for math. I have loved McRuffy's program, but it only goes through 3rd grade. I don't want to have to make a huge change in curriculum in 4th grade. Also, MBTA doesn't cover McRuffy...

Social Studies:
This is a required subject for the charter school. I'm not sure what to cover for such a broad subject, so I'll probably go with the book recommended by Crumpet's teacher:
Houghton Mifflin Social Studies: School and Family.
I can't find a decent link for this, but it is a straight up textbook. I'm sure we'll add our own twist to it, but the book actually looks like fun. Anyone have better ideas?

Science: I want to do one more year of general science, where we will get more of an overview of all of the scientific fields. Next year, we will probably concentrate on biology. For this year, I was very excited to find Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding: A Science Curriculum for K-2 by Bernard J. Nebel. This curriculum gets amazing reviews . For me, science is one of the most important and exciting subjects, and I really want Crumpet to learn it well. It looks like this book will give us a really strong foundation on which to build our future scientific studies. MBTA will probably not pay for it, but the whole course costs $25, so I think we can manage!

Geography: Amber, at Refined Metals Academy, wrote a good review of Beginning Geography, and this looks like a great starter course in the subject.

History: This is not a required subject for first grade at MBTA, but I think we'll go ahead and begin using the Story of the World series. I plan to use the History Odyssey program from Pandia Press. We'll start with Level 1, The Ancients, and I'll be adding in our own study of Prehistoric times.

There are several fun supplemental resources from Didax that I hope to add in for reading and math. And I would LOVE to work on some Spanish, art, and beginning piano. However, I know my child, and I'm not even sure we'll get through our basic first grade program successfully. I probably won't try the extra subjects... For the same reason, I doubt that we'll be involved in many extracurriculars, which is unfortunate because the charter school would pay for many... We tried karate once again last weekend though, and it just didn't work out... Crumpet needs more time. And we have lots of it. So we'll begin first grade slowly and see where we end up.

Sea Life Park

2011-05-17T16:27:00.002-04:00

Ok, I've just written it for the second time since Blogger ate it last week... If you want to read about Crumpet's birthday trip to Sea Life Park, you can see the post here.

Praciticing Gratitude Gifts 551-575

2011-05-17T11:10:00.000-04:00

This was a week of near misses, that ended pretty well!

551: My thyroid disease is officially in remission!
552: I danced with a dolphin!
553: After months of work with one of my meals on wheels recipients, I managed to get her social security and medicare reinstated.
554: We have a real live babysitter. She is the daughter of a friend of ours, and Crumpet loves her.
555: Hubby bought me a fancy dancy new phone for Mother's Day.
556: The phone is still a pay as you go, so it fits into our budget.
557: I have internet access on my new phone. Is this good, or actually bad? Not sure yet...
558: I now own a food processor! A whole new world of recipes has opened up to me.
559: Bounce houses at the mall on rainy days.
560: We found an Italian restaurant we like. I've missed that..
561: Hubby is recovering well after a Friday the 13th trip to the ER for diverticulitis.
562: Crumpet stayed with a neighbor for the first time while we were at the ER, and it went well.
563: We had a lovely, if short, visit with my aunt and uncle.
564: A good friend of mine got the job she wanted.
565: Crumpet's first good fall from a swing resulted in scrapes and bruises, but hopefully, no other problems.
566: Nice dinners out with my husband.
567: Two girls' nights out in one week.
568: We continue to earn money from the housing association by conserving energy.
569: The first zucchini from my garden.
570: The massive sunflowers are about to open.
571: A fun day with Crumpet at the Honolulu Book and Music Festival.
572: Getting to see some of our favorite PBS characters.
573: Crumpet does crafts his own way. This is supposed to be a Clifford hat with ears that hang down...
574: Goofy cats.
575: Millions of pictures to document Crumpet's childhood!

Practicing Gratitude Gifts 526-550

2011-05-06T14:34:00.005-04:00

Two weeks ago, my friend's mother was told that her tumor was shrinking. The next day, she got an infection in her chemo port. She deteriorated rapidly, and was moved into hospice yesterday. Today, she passed away. This post is dedicated to her.

I am grateful that:

526: She treated me like her daughter from the day she met me.
527: She sent awesome care packages in college.
528: She made the best carrot cake in the world.
529: She gave me the recipe as a wedding present.
530: We spent many hours chatting over cups of tea.
531: She had a great, no-nonsense attitude.
532:I knew her for 20 years.
533: She knew how much I loved her.
534: She provided wonderful care for soldiers through her work for the USO.
535: She always picked me up at the airport and spoiled me rotten.
536: There were always great parties at her house.
537: Her family became my family.
538: She raised the most incredible daughter, who has gotten me through many hard times.
539: Her daughter was there for her til the end.
540: She had an incredible love of family.
541: She got to be the day care provider for my friend's son, who was the light of her life during difficult times.
542: My last care package made her smile.
543: She had great faith in God.
544: She waltzed in the living room with her husband.
545: She cared for her husband at home through a long struggle with Alzheimers.
546: They are together again.
547: I am grateful for hospice care.
548: She is no longer suffering.
549: Her family can have peace now.
550: I am grateful for rain on days that deserve rain.

2011-05-06T12:49:00.004-04:00

Last week, there was no post, because we did...nothing... I kind of feel like we are done with kindergarten, so we can take a break. We will gently work on basic skills through the summer, until we are allowed to order our first grade books. They should arrive around mid-July...

This week was more productive.

Phonics: We finished the intermediate portion of Progressive Phonics. For a few weeks, we will read early readers, and then we will move up to the advanced PP books. We got the book You Read to Me, I'll Read to You after seeing it reviewed at Mouse Grows Mouse Learns, and we are enjoying it. The book is set up so parent and child take turns reading parts of a story. There are several of these books, and we are looking forward to getting more of them.

Math: We are working on fun addition games from Family Math for Young Children. We are also doing the occasional lesson from our McRuffy kindergarten math text.
Also, we pretended to go shopping in the pantry, and everything was priced in multiples of 5. That way, Crumpet had to pay me in nickels and practiced counting by fives. Poor Crumpet initiated the shopping game, not realizing I would turn it into a math lesson. Sigh. Life with a homeschooling mother can be a lot of work...

Science: We did quick units on weight and pushing vs. pulling. Now we are done with McRuffy kindergarten science! The store on base had a huge sale on science kits this week, so I bought several, and those should keep us busy during the summer...

Writing: Crumpet had a lot of birthday thank you letters to send out. I used a trick his new teacher taught me, and wrote his name in highlighter on each of them. Then he had to trace his name a LOT of times!

Art: I found these cute bunnies on Deep Space Sparkle. Crumpet said he wasn't interested, so I set up supplies for him, and then made my own bunny. He watched for a while, and then just had to participate. I love the way they came out. (And yes, I realize that I never progressed past first grade art abilities myself...)

Field Trips: We went to the children's museum this week, and we had a really nice time together. I wanted to get there before school gets out and it's packed all the time!

We hope you had a great week! For more preschool posts, visit Homeschool Creations.

Our Fall Plan

2011-04-26T00:21:00.006-04:00

At last, I finally know what our plan for the fall is! I know, it's months before fall will be here...But we've been considering this program since we moved to Hawaii, and never had enough details to make a firm decision. Now, all the pieces are in place and we've decided..
The state of Hawaii pays for parents to homeschool their children through 2 different programs. The first is the nationwide K-12 program.I've looked at that program, but it's not for us. At least not until high school, when I may reconsider... It's an online program, and there are set books for each class. Cookie cutter learning, which will not work for Crumpet. Or me.
The second option is called the Myron B. Thompson Academy. This is a charter school which mixes homeschooling with some classroom learning. I finally got to attend an orientation last week, and I'm excited about it!
The program gives parents $1500 to use toward books and extracurricular activities. There is a list of acceptable textbooks, and I was concerned that the curriculum I've been leaning toward wouldn't be on there. However, it's a huge list, and everything I was hoping to use is there! My books total about $400, which leaves a lot for outside activities. For extracurriculars, we are hoping to get Crumpet into swim lessons, and he is talking about going back to karate... We'll see how that pans out.
I was concerned about the grade level they would choose for Crumpet. He just turned 5, so technically, he should be starting kindergarten. However, we've been slowly working through our McRuffy kindergarten curriculum, and I didn't want to do it again! Yesterday, we met his teacher and she 'tested' him - he placed out of kindergarten, so we'll be moving ahead into first grade! She was excellent with my shy little boy. They talked for a while, and he enjoyed showing off his knowledge for her, once he got going. Then she let him play with Legos while she and I talked about how the school year works.
She holds 4 classes a month at the school, each related to a different subject. We will be required to attend 2 per month, but we can go to all of them if we choose. I was nervous about having to leave Crumpet, but she told me I could stay for the classes if necessary. After seeing him warm up so quickly to her, I'm hoping to be able to leave after the first couple of classes. There are usually 8 to 10 kids per class, which is nice and small. The kids will be kindergartners and first graders, which is good because he'll be in with kids his age, and those a tiny bit older.
There are also frequent field trips to science labs scattered around the island, and those sound like fun!
It was interesting to see how willing Crumpet was to write for his new teacher. He refuses for me. That is one of the reasons I'm looking forward to being part of this program. It will be lovely to have support from a teacher. She will be there for questions and suggestions anytime. We have to turn in a portfolio of our work 4 times a year, to be sure that we are on track. That doesn't bother me. It will be good help to keep me on a schedule!
I know we've had some trouble with Crumpet in classrooms before, but I'm hoping he will have matured a bit by fall and will be ready for this. I really do think this sounds like the perfect program for us! Just one more reason I am NOT leaving Hawaii... ;)

Crumpet is 5!

2011-04-25T11:54:00.004-04:00

Well, my baby is 5! He had an amazing birthday weekend! First, we celebrated with the neighbor kids on his actual birthday (Friday). I made a very simple Death Star (Star Wars) cake and we played games and opened presents.
On Saturday, we went to an Easter egg hunt on base:
And on Sunday, the Easter bunny came:
We also got to swim with one of these:
And this ray and these fish:
It was quite a weekend! Crumpet fell asleep at 4:30pm Sunday and didn't wake up til 5am Monday. We are all wiped out! Happy Birthday Little Man!

Practicing Gratitude Gifts 501-525

2011-04-21T23:49:00.008-04:00

501: My best friend's mother has cancer. She is like a second mother to me. It has been killing me to be so far away during her treatment, which is proving to be very cruel. However, we finally got news that the tumor is SHRINKING! :)
502: By homeschooling, I am already learning so many things that I either never learned or forgot I learned in public school...
503: The garden already has sprouts! (Rotten picture taken into the sun, but the zucchini is sprouting, the ancient tomato plant from the fall finally has little green tomatoes, and the sunflowers are gigantic! Stuff grows fast here in the spring!)
504: Everyone I know in the south has checked in and is ok after the tornadoes..
505: A great school plan for the fall.
506: Pitcher plants for fly control.
507: Royal weddings.
508: A second cup of coffee the day after staying up all night for a royal wedding!
509: A belief that everything is meant to be the way it is.
510: Funny one liners from my little man.
511: Beginning to understand what has been wrong.
512: Free activities for military families.
513: A beautiful view during dinner out.
514: Instant replays on the computer.
515: Sweet little surprise gifties.
516: Time to read.
517: After 2 months of no yoga, we had the easy teacher as substitute the night I went back! If it had been the regular teacher, I wouldn't be able to walk right now... I'm sore enough as it is.
518: Crumpet's teacher for the fall is lovely.
519: Car alarms don't honk forever...
520: Adorable birth announcements
521: A husband with a great attitude about a challenge we are facing.
522: You can choose to be happy.
523: Flax seed
524: Memories
525: Dustbusters

Preschool Week of 4/22/11 - Passover and Art Studies

2011-04-20T17:34:00.006-04:00

This was a fun week filled with Field Trips and Culture studies which are our favorite parts of school. We did a little traditional school work, too.

Math: Crumpet seems to have a handle on addition so I introduced subtraction this week. No problem. We also started using the book Family Math for Young Children, which has lots of fun math games for kids. We worked on estimation this week.
Writing: I continue to try to get Crumpet to tolerate writing. I found this great book by Mead:
I've used other writing prep books by this company and we love them. This one teaches kids to use stencils to draw shapes and then shows them how to combine shapes to create pictures. Crumpet thought this was fun and he managed to draw a tree and a rocket ship before getting frustrated and tossing the book on the floor...
Cutting: This is going much better than writing. I'm drawing different shapes on scrap paper and having him cut out one shape a day. He is now able to cut mostly on the lines.

Culture/Religion: We learned about Passover this week. We read a pretty good book, The Passover Seder by Emily Sper. We tasted matzos and macaroons, neither of which was a big hit with Crumpet. (I LOVE macaroons...) We read about a boy growing up in Israel in our Children Just Like Me book. We also watched the movie The Prince of Egypt. The movie was intense, and stirred up lots of questions, but it told the story incredibly well. Crumpet's favorite part of the week's study was to pretend to be Jews escaping from Egypt. He's very into packing right now, and packed lots of bags of matzos...
Art: We read Squeaking of Art by Monica Wellington this week. This is a great book about a group of mice that go to the museum. It introduces different types of art that you might see in the museum. (Thanks Natalie for the recommendation here at Mouse Grows Mouse Learns!) Then we took a trip to the Honolulu Academy of Arts.
Theatre: We went to the last production of the season at the Honolulu Theatre for Youth. It was called Where Do Things Go? and it was all about the fate of trash, water, etc. after we use it. It was so much fun, and Crumpet and I both loved it. We are eagerly awaiting the beginning of the fall season which will feature plays about Hawaiian culture.

My little man turns 5 tomorrow, so now we're gearing up for a weekend of birthday celebrations.

We hope you had a good week of learning. For more preschool posts, check out Homeschool Creations.

Practicing Gratitude Gifts 476-500

2011-04-20T12:45:00.005-04:00

Crazy stressful week... But it's all as it is supposed to be:

476: Honolulu Theatre for Youth
477: Our little dog friend is visiting again for 3 weeks.
478: Wet cold dog noses.
479: Tiny dog growls when we play tug - so goofy.
480: Patience.
481: Hand soap
482: Short lived fevers
483: New wall decor created by us
484: Multiple stressful projects are progressing. I thought they were done, but stuff keeps coming back to haunt me. But we are making progress...
485: My naivete didn't land me in jail this week. Don't ask...
486: Wild chickens
487: A possible homeschooling group to join
488: A really enjoyable chat with a stranger at a meeting.
489: Educational events at the library
490: The most comfy flip flops EVER
491: It's curriculum shopping time! Love it!
492: An interesting school opportunity.
493: A good friend who poured me a glass of wine and just listened.
494: Temporary peace for a friend in the middle of a struggle.
495: Silly greeting cards
496: The garden is planted.
497: Airplanes
498: Unifix cubes
499: An extra long, solo walk
500: I'm half way to my 1000 gifts!

Have a lovely week!

Preschool Week of 4/15

2011-04-15T11:27:00.004-04:00

Well, we had a lovely 2 weeks with my mom, and now it's back to 'Normal'. Crumpet loved having Grammy here, and wasn't shy with her at all. It was nice for him to have another person around who believes he is the center of the universe!
We managed to get a bit of school work done this week, in between running tons of errands and getting caught up on day to day life.
Reading: We started the last intermediate book of Progressive Phonics. I'm not sure where we'll go from there.
We are working through the printables from the new "You Can Read" section at 1+1=1. Crumpet is familiar with the sight words in this lesson, but the way she presents them provides an opportunity to work on lots of other skills.
Math: We read the book The Great Graph Contest by Loreen Leedy. This was a fun way to present graphs, and afterward, we created a few of our own graphs.
We also worked on some addition worksheets from Confessions of a Homeschooler here. Crumpet did great on these - I think the concept is beginning to click with him.
Science: We worked on a unit about "wonder". This was designed to get Crumpet thinking about how and why things might happen. We did a little study about thumbs and how useful they are, as well as one about things that bounce.
Art: This month's Click magazine was all about looking at art. We read through that and created some color mosaics with the squares they provided. We have a few other books we are planning to read, and then we will head to the art museum next week to look at some real life art.
Writing: It is time to get Crumpet to start writing. I just want him to lose his total fear of it. He tried drawing a square this week and completely melted down because he couldn't and didn't want to try. I insisted that he do it, and after breaking it down into steps, he drew his first little house. He was so proud. I think it was a bit of a breakthrough because he has been more willing to try some writing skills since then.
Other: We went to a mini-concert by a wind quartet at the library this week. It was perfect for us. It only lasted 45 minutes, and each musician introduced his or her instrument and played animal sounds on it. Then they played as a group. A great introduction to this kind of live music.
Also, Crumpet and I finally went to volunteer at the animal shelter. Unfortunately, I was not impressed by the cleanliness or order there, and really felt that it was one big animal disease petri dish. I used to work in animal hospitals, and this just felt wrong to me. So we need to find a new shelter, because Crumpet LOVED the experience. I'm having trouble finding any other shelters that will take anyone so young, but I'm working on it.
For more preschool posts, visit Homeschool Creations.

Practicing Gratitude: Gifts 451-475

2011-04-10T02:19:00.005-04:00

Wow, we've had a wonderful few weeks. I am so very lucky.

451: Two great weeks with my mom
452: Crumpet adored his Grammy.
453: Crumpet was willing to let me leave him with Grammy so I could run errands all by myself!!
454: For the same reason, Crumpet Sr. and I got to go on 2 lovely dates!
455: We discovered a couple of great restaurants.
456: The forecasted rain did not make an appearance until my mom's last night here.
457: 2 nights in a great cabin on the beach. This was my big surprise for my mom. The view from our patio:
458: Crumpet learns everywhere, even at events that we felt turned out to be a waste of time.
459: Our garden is ready to plant.
460: No cavities.
461: No government shutdown. We get paid!
462:New caulking for the bathtub.
463: We found a great new pool to hang out at.
464: Crumpet is beginnning to be ok with getting his face wet in the pool.
465: Tie dye hats.
466: Silly neighbor cats.
467: Rainbow cupcakes.
468: An awesome surprise for Crumpet's birthday - we're going to get in the water with dolphins and rays at Sea Life park! I can't wait!
469: A cute new purse.
470: Sweet neighbor kids.
471: Funky new vegetable finds... Okinawan sweet potatoes. Purple and awesome!
472: Financial stability.
473: The kids went on a snail hunt tonight and couldn't find any - that could be a good sign for my garden... Maybe something will grow??
474: Lots of fun plans for the next few weeks.
475: A really long, nice phone call with an old friend.

Why You Shouldn't Teach Your 4 Year Old To Read

2011-04-04T14:04:00.003-04:00

So, I'm discovering that there is a massive down side to teaching a 4 year old to read! We can no longer spell things to hide information from him... And he and I were in a public bathroom the other day when he read "Please do not flush sanitary napkins." That led to the fabulous question, "What is a sanitary napkin?" Oh joy...

Preschool Week of 3/25

2011-03-23T23:36:00.004-04:00

Crumpet asked to do school work this week, so I guess we've found our happy place for learning - for now.
Reading: I know I say this every few weeks, but: Wow, his progress blew me away this week. He's reading quickly and fluently now, stopping to sound out only a few words. Natalie from Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns told me that Anna's reading took off after book 13 of Progressive Phonics, and that's what seems to be happening here. I love watching this, and am so glad I got to be the one to teach him!!
Math: We played the card game War, but with an addition twist. I collected all of the cards numbered five or lower from a deck of cards and gave each of us half of them. We each took turns turning over 2 cards at a time and added our numbers together. Whoever had the highest sum kept the cards. He did very well with this.
Science: We finally did the simple machine experiment in Click magazine. Crumpet provided the effort by using his hand to lift the ruler and raise the can. We experimented with moving the marker, can, and Crumpet's hand, to different positions to see whether the job got harder or easier.
We also cut out some whirly bird toys from the magazine. We cut the wings to different lengths and dropped them from a height to see which ones fell faster. Unfortunately, they all dropped at the same speed - maybe we needed to be even higher?
I created a game to keep Crumpet busy this week while I cleaned for my mother's impending visit. I took a deck of cards and hid them all over the house in funny places. Then Crumpet had to go find them. This kept him busy for a while! However, you must know that it is very important to keep track of where you placed the cards. We are still finding them...

Isn't he adorable?
For more preschool posts, visit Homeschool Creations.

Don't Kids Play Anymore?

2011-03-23T15:30:00.003-04:00

We are having trouble finding friends for Crumpet. Partially because he finds it difficult to socialize, but partially because he actually plays with toys and pretends things. No one else seems to. We've had many kids come to play, and they immediately ask where the Wii is. When I tell them we don't have one (No Wii? What kind of weirdos are we??), they ask if they can play on the computer. That's a definite no. So they leave... Crumpet has a room full of toys, but after they dump everything on the floor to look at it, they aren't interested. Crumpet's best friend, who lives a few doors down, will play for a few minutes, but then he starts asking to play the Kinect. Crumpet really has very little interest in the Kinect. Yesterday, he had to beg the other boy to actually come play upstairs rather than stare at the blank t.v. until I was ready to start up the Kinect.
Don't get me wrong. Crumpet plays computer games. He watches t.v. Far more than I feel comfortable with sometimes. But he also likes to get outside and do other things. He loves to build with Legos or pretend to be a cat. He's 4. I feel like that is what he should be doing.
I'm hoping that in the fall, we will be able to join a homeschool group and perhaps we will find some other kids who have been raised with less t.v. and more traditional fun?
I guess I should also throw this in: it is mostly the boys who are so addicted to the video games. Many of the girls will try to play other games with Crumpet, but then we run into another problem. Crumpet is addicted to Star Wars and much of his pretend play revolves around that... The girls tend to tune that out! (Sexist? Perhaps, but this is what I'm seeing here...)

Practicing Gratitude Gifts 426-450

2011-03-22T23:36:00.004-04:00

So it feels like forever since I started this week's list. I'm not terribly consistent. The top of the list I've been scribbling on was of course, this:

426: We did not experience a tsunami!
427: We were remarkably prepared for the evacuation.
428: My husband and I are a phenomenal team in an emergency. Not always at other times, but in emergencies, we rock!
429: Our cats have learned much in 12 years of moves and chaos, and didn't even bat an eyelash when we dragged them 'camping in the car' overnight.
430: Crumpet, too, handled the experience without a blink.

Onto other good things in my life.
431: I finally finished the Maui blog posts. I don't write that many posts usually, so 3 in a week was overwhelming.
432: Having visiting dogs here means I get more exercise.
433: Having visiting dogs means Crumpet gets more exercise.
434: The dog beach. So fun.
435: A stack of new library books.
436: A new job for my brother.
437: A chance to help a very lonely elderly lady who was in dire straits.
438: Being told by the elderly lady that she loves me.
439: Crumpet is learning so much from Meals on Wheels.
440: A new book that is making a huge difference in my relationship with Crumpet.
441: My mom will be here in 2 days!
442: I have a plan for Crumpet's birthday cake.
443: We've decided NOT to have a big party this year for his birthday.
444: Dogs in the bed.
445: Tax refunds.

Preschool Week of 3/18

2011-03-18T03:47:00.006-04:00

This was a pretty relaxed week as far as school was concerned. I'm hoping they all will be for the rest of the year!
Reading: We finished Book 13 from Progressive Phonics, and we read several early readers from the library. While he still struggles with individual words, Crumpet has discovered that reading books is not so hard after all, and he is starting to zip through them easily. The context and pictures help him pick out words he is unsure of. AND, he finally read a book to Daddy!! His confidence is definitely building, and Daddy was suitably impressed.
Writing: I found this great Pathquest workbook from Mead (the stationery people) at a random store a while ago. (How helpful is that if you are looking for a copy?? Sorry...) It is a workbook that works on a variety of writing skills, but it's written as a series of adventures. You must help a diver in the deep sea, an astronaut, and an explorer in the jungle. Crumpet had no idea this was work and LOVED it. He did the whole book on the first day. I meant for it to last weeks...
Math: We played a few addition games from Mathwire .
Holiday Fun/Review: We worked through much of the St. Patrick's Day unit from the blog Musings of Me here. This was a nice gentle review of many skills, and Crumpet enjoyed it. I'm embarrassed to say that is the only thing we did to celebrate Paddy's Day. I lived in Ireland - I'm supposed to make a big deal of this! I'm trying not to beat myself up about it too much, but I really have to get my act together soon...
Other: We are babysitting 2 big dogs for a couple of weeks and it has been so much fun (and so hairy!!) We took them to the dog beach Wednesday, which was great.
We also went to a new (to us) farmer's market, which we loved. We had a shave ice (snow cone) at Island Snow which is President Obama's favorite place to stop when he's here. We are so cool... It feels like a long time since we got out and just explored here. My mom will be here in less than a week though, so we'll get plenty of chances to play soon! I probably won't be posting during that time, but you never know. Have a great couple of weeks!

For more preschool posts, visit Homeschool Creations.

Maui blog posts

2011-03-17T21:06:00.002-04:00

I just added several new blog posts about our trip to Maui on my travel blog. Check it out if you want to see the pictures! Crumpet Moves to Paradise Enjoy!

We are safe!

2011-03-11T11:32:00.002-05:00

Thank you thank you thank you for all of your kind thoughts and prayers! The tsunami seems to have passed us and we are grateful. We did evacuate just in case, and we're leaving the car packed in the event of more waves resulting from aftershocks in Japan. We told Crumpet it was an impromptu camping trip in the car and he thought it was a blast.
I am feeling blessed to have so many people around the world thinking of our safety. Again, thank you.

Preschool - Every Time I Open My Mouth, Everything Changes!

2011-03-11T00:03:00.006-05:00

Well, ha ha ha. I just wrote about the fact that I've started relying on my boxed curriculum almost completely. We are back from vacation though, and Crumpet is still totally against school books. Soooooooooooo......
I scanned the rest of the books, and I think we are pretty much on track to finish kindergarten by the end of summer, which was my plan (I'll write about the reason we are completing year K so early when I get some information about next year's plan...ooh, the suspense!). We are doing great with reading, and we really just have to work on addition and subtraction for math. Science is fun, so we'll carry on with experiments. So, for now, we'll close the school books. Here's what we did instead:
Phonics/Reading: Crumpet asked to continue the Progressive Phonics reading so we are still doing that each night at bedtime. During our school time, we are reading Early Readers from the library. He is doing very well with the simplest of these.
Math: We will play games involving addition and subtraction, and later in the spring, I'll try to add the symbols. It is the written equation which makes Crumpet panic. He can do the math in his head if he's not thinking too hard about it! He is constantly saying " Mom, how much is x+y?" and if they are single digits, I make him figure it out himself. For bigger numbers, I answer him and it annoys him that I usually have an answer. He's desperate to trick me!
Today, we used the book How Many Mice by Michael Garland to work on math word problems. The mice go out to gather food one day. They gain and lose different quantities of fruits and vegetables during their adventures. We used different colored unifix cubes to represent the foods, and worked on addition and subtraction. This went pretty well.
Science: My mom bought a subscription to Click magazine for Crumpet, and we've just started receiving it. It's a science magazine for young children. This month's topic was simple machines. I thought it might be a bit above Crumpet's head, but he really enjoyed it. Over the next week, we'll do some experiments demonstrating the work of the simple machines. I'll blog about it next week.
Other: We had a great vacation in Maui. I'll write about that on my travel blog soon. Slowly getting caught up... Slowly slowly...
Also this week: Crumpet has been to the dentist for check ups before, but this week, he had his very first xrays and cleaning. He was wonderful. We don't have cable, so when the hygienist turned on the Disney Channel, Crumpet opened his mouth wide and zoned out. I'm not sure he even noticed they were cleaning his teeth!
This series of pictures pretty much shows what life with Crumpet is like. No matter where we are or what we are doing, he is completely involved in his own little pretend world and is busy acting out a play from his imagination... These days, it's either Star Wars or Magic Tree House.

Have a great week! For more preschool posts, visit Homeschool Creations!

Practicing Gratitude Gifts 401-425

2011-03-10T16:31:00.004-05:00

Many things to be grateful for this week. First and foremost:

401: The amazing opportunity to take a vacation on Maui!
402: No need to cook for a week.
403: My new snorkel mask didn't leak and I got to see amazing underwater critters.
404: Happy hour mai tais.
405: Swimming in our clothes.
406: Waterfalls
407: New adventures.
408: Magic shows.
409: Whales, whales and more whales.
410: We survived the flight home in a tiny 9 seater plane in the pouring rain. I really wasn't sure we would...

Non-vacation blessings:
411: Scrap paper.
412: A dentist who let me in the exam room with Crumpet. Pediatric dentists in Hawaii are completely against this for some reason...
413: No cavities for my little man.
414: Silly sights like roosters being shipped at the post office.
415: Flexibility in schooling.
416:Being there for a friend on a bad day.
417: Fun new recipes.
418: Finding shoes that Crumpet will wear.
419: Living on an island where we CAN'T drive very far when gas prices are so high...
420: The plastic bag ban on Maui - I think it's great and I hope it spreads to our island!
421: A lovely Pay It Forward package in the mail!
422: Baby toes.
423: Crumpet is experimenting with new foods.
424: Being able to help a Meals on Wheels senior in desperate need.
425: Puzzle Buzz magazine - great for meals out and airplane rides!!

Preschool Week of 2/25

2011-02-25T12:38:00.003-05:00

Well, it seems that it's time for a break from school again. This was a somewhat challenging week. Crumpet learned two big new things this week, and both made him cry. His new trick in all things is to burst into tears to see if I'll back down, and he used it frequently in school...

Phonics: We started working on reading two vowels together, like 'ai' and 'ea'. He did ok with this, but now any word that looks like it might take some thought makes him fall apart.
Math: We started formal addition. Crumpet has been adding in his head on his own for a while, but now that it's written down in the book, it's just too much for him to think about.
Science: This, at least, was a lot of fun! We made a simple circuit and lit a light bulb with a battery. We both enjoyed this. We changed the placement of wires and battery to see what would happen. We also experimented with adding things into the circuit - a penny, a metal paperclip, a plastic coated paperclip - to see if the light would still shine. Very interesting!
(I'm sorry about my topless boy. I'm not a real fan of boys going shirtless, but Crumpet's best friend never wears a shirt or shoes, and now Crumpet wants to be just like him... Sigh. Choose your battles...)

Other Crumpet news: This week, we saw Gnomeo and Juliet at the movie theater. Very cute. It came at a good time too, because we had just read the Magic Tree House book about William Shakespeare, so I could explain the connection. This seems to happen a lot in our studies - we'll read about something once and then it's everywhere. Maybe I just never noticed before?

As for the afternoon rest I wrote about earlier in the week... well that has been challenging too. Crumpet is definitely ready for a break at 2:30 every day. But, if we go read and snuggle, he falls asleep every day. Clearly he needs the rest. Except that no matter how brief the nap, he is up til late at night, and wakes at dawn the next day. So, now I'm just trying a break in the socializing. I send his friends home and we read or run errands. It seems to help with the meltdowns, and he still sleeps at night. A work in progress...

We're heading to Maui for a week on Sunday. I can't wait! I'm hoping that school will be less upsetting for Crumpet when we return. If not, I may slow things down a bit. Maybe he just isn't ready for all these new ideas.

Practicing Gratitude Gifts 376-400

2011-02-24T13:06:00.004-05:00

More good things to be happy about!
376: We didn't drown when the tent flooded last week on our camping trip!
377: The library had a copy of the book that DID drown in the tent, so I can finish reading it!
378: My joints!(They are giving me trouble right now, so I appreciate them more when they don't hurt!)
379: We have a great substitute yoga teacher who is helping me modify poses to help with the joint issue...
380: We leave for Maui on Sunday!!
381: I have a new snorkel mask which won't leak like my old one.
382: A kind neighbor has offered to watch the cats while we are away.
383: A kind friend has offered to drive us to and from the airport.
384: Travel guides. I LOVE them.
385: The evil, screaming, swearing neighbor has moved at last.
386:Our new neighbors seem to be quiet and nice.
387: We have a new sprinkler system so maybe I won't have to water the garden by hand so much, and hopefully, less water will be used.
388: I have always been serious about conservation. Military housing has started giving a credit to those who use less electricity than the average family, so my husband is finally on board with my green ways. We used $100 less than the average last month. Not a bad payoff for turning off the lights!
389: I finally organized some of our closets.
390: I've discovered that Goodwill is the best place to shop for clothes here - best selection, great deals. Seriously, the clothing stores are no good..
391: Another year of life.
392: Birthday calls from great friends and family.
393: Hand me down clothes for Crumpet.
394: Crumpet's goofy jokes.
395: I discovered Magic Tree House reference books that go with the stories. We aren't quite ready for them, but I'm excited to know they are out there!
396: Birdsong in the morning.
397:The Valentine's chocolate is gone. Now I can start eating better again..
398: The right kitchen tools for the job.
399: Fun pancake molds.
400: I don't live in the Middle East. That situation is scaring me to death...

Preschool Week of 2/18

2011-02-18T12:08:00.005-05:00

Another week. Lots of learning.

Phonics: We finished the Progressive Phonics book on long vowels, and Crumpet is pretty comfortable with this new skill now. I love that our McRuffy book seems to be going along with the same topics at the same time. It reinforces the skills and often teaches reading rules in a more thorough way than Progressive Phonics.
This week Crumpet started reading entire pages of the Progressive Phonics, even when he should have had no idea what a lot of the words were. He's learning to sound out more difficult words, and he's learning to use the context of words to decipher them. Wow. He still has no idea that he can read things other than his school reading materials, but he's starting to come running to me screaming that he can read signs or the title of my book. (Or my e-mails. Aack.) Any day now, he will realize that he can read anything and the world is totally open to him now!

Math: We are doing great counting by fives, and we started working with nickels this week. We also read a cute book: Dollars and Cents for Harriet by Betsy and Giulio Maestro. This is a great book about different sets of coins adding up to a dollar, and it works on counting by ones, fives and tens.

Science: This week, we did some McRuffy experiments building simple systems. We built a basketball hoop from some random objects. We also built some ramps and practiced starting and stopping balls along the way using various tools. At first, this freaked Crumpet out - huge tantrums. He is not a fan of coming up with his own hypothesis about something, and I think it's because he hates being wrong. When he finally realized that life would go on even if we made a mistake, he had a lot of fun with these projects.

Art: We made these corn syrup hearts based on Nicole's directions at Tired, Need Sleep. This was so much fun! Crumpet loved it!In the end, it turned into a glitter horror show, but seeing Crumpet enjoy an art project made it worth the mess!Extracurricular: We spent some time at the botanical gardens with friends. We fed the ducks and fish, and then did some geocaching. We're going to try tent camping there this weekend.

We also went to another children's play. It was called The New Sense-sational show, and it was a magic show about the five senses. It was fantastic. We took Crumpet's neighbor friend. He'd never been to a play before, and he went completely bananas, he was having so much fun.

And, this week, we bought a Kinect game system for the Xbox. That will be a whole separate post because I have some serious mixed feelings about it... But the boys love it...

Have a great week! For more preschool posts, visit Homeschool Creations.

Thoughts on fixing our day...

2011-02-17T20:53:00.004-05:00

So, I've realized a couple of important things which I hope will make our lives run smoother.
1) I am not the kind of homeschooler I thought I'd be. I thought I would be creating fun games to play, bringing in extra topics, creating unit studies, etc. all the time. I thought I would hate using a boxed curriculum. Ha. I realized the other day that I haven't done a geography study in ages. Geography was really the only subject I was teaching using my own ideas, and I can't even manage that lately. Instead, I open the McRuffy textbooks and follow the lessons. Sometimes I even read their scripted teacher lines. Aack.
I find that I rarely prepare more than five minutes in advance. Life is just too crazy here. (And I'm lazy, I admit it.) As my excuse, (because I'm good at justifying my weaknesses)I'm going to say that we spend very little time doing actual bookwork, and spend most of our time going on field trips or learning while living our regular everyday life. Who has time to create lesson plans? Who wants extra school lessons in the classroom? That's great in theory, but Crumpet made it clear that even that minimal book time was not going to work for him if I didn't start mixing it up a little. He wanted to know when we were going to start doing some fun school stuff again, because school was getting boring. Oops.
So this week, I changed things a little. I start school with a game or a puzzle. This has been a huge help in getting our day moving the right way. We get up early and usually play for a while before starting school around 9am. It can be hard to get Crumpet to focus and change from the land of pretend to the land of math. Playing an educational game slowly redirects his mind. I try to use one of the many games I've collected over time, or pull one from the book Mathematics Activities for Home Schooling with Unifix Cubes. Then, between subjects, we play a short game from Games for Learning by Peggy Kaye. He loves these mini games and asks for them over and over again. It is making a huge difference in our schooling time. Here's hoping it continues to work for us!
2) Crumpet NEEDS a rest period in the afternoon. He's mostly beyond naps, and if he takes one, he's up quite late at night. However, after yet another major temper tantrum and ruined day yesterday, I realized that at 2:30 every day, things start to fall apart. My angry boy starts yelling about anything and everything. Today, when it happened just before we went for a walk with the neighbor, I decided enough was enough. We are going to have a one hour rest break at 2:30 whenever possible. I sent the poor neighbor home (he was very accepting - he's seen Crumpet freak out enough to know when a break is in order) and told Crumpet to go rest in his room. He asked for stories, so we snuggled and read two stories and then he passed out. I'll try waking him after an hour to see if we can avoid a really late bedtime. Could mere rest be the solution to the angries that seem to attack more and more? Oh, that would be lovely. Again, here's hoping...Even if that doesn't solve our entire problem, a break for me should ensure that I'm patient enough to deal with him til bedtime.

Pay It Forward

2011-02-15T15:52:00.002-05:00

Well, today is Pay It Forward day. I said I'd do a random draw and pick 3 people to receive a little gift from Hawaii - but only 2 people threw their names in the hat! I guess I don't have enough followers. Anyway, the winners are:

Ticia at Adventures in Mommydom
and
Melonie at Wandering Quail Road.

Could you both send me your addresses? Thanks!

If a 3rd person wants to join in, I'll send a package to the first person to comment on this post! The rules of the game are here.

Preschool Week of 2/11

2011-02-11T01:22:00.005-05:00

This was an easy peasy week for us. Very mellow school work, not too many outings. Ahh...
Phonics: We continue to work on long vowels, and Crumpet is improving quickly. Of course, now he forgets and pronounces short vowels as long vowels, but not too often!
Math: We are still working on counting by fives. We've made some progress, but I have to be honest - I haven't been very diligent about it.
Writing: Big progress - in my eyes anyway. Crumpet started making letters on his own while playing with the white board! He got frustrated quickly when they weren't perfect, but I think he did a great job, and I'm thrilled that it was his idea!

Extracurricular:
Crumpet made some very simple Valentines from the craft store for the ladies on our Meals on Wheels route. They were so pleased!
We went to a play at the children's theatre about the first moon landing. It was a bit over Crumpet's head but he enjoyed some of it. We have another play to go to tomorrow, which is geared toward younger children. We are looking forward to it!
We have found an animal shelter which will allow young children to help with dog walking and cat cuddling, so we'll be starting to volunteer there soon! Crumpet is very excited. Me too!
Crumpet and the boy next door spend almost all of their time together now. They go back and forth between the two houses all day long. It's so nice to see him with a close friend, and it's lovely to have an hour or two a day to get some work done around the house when he is next door. We had a few low key play dates with other friends this week too.
We have had a couple of run-ins with a neighborhood bully over the last week, and Crumpet has handled it remarkably well. It crushes me to see someone be mean to my baby, but I know that this is part of growing up. I have been impressed by Crumpet's strength and kindness in response to this boy. Of course, I intervened when necessary, and I have to admit, I wasn't as nice to the boy.
Have a great weekend!

Practicing Gratitude Gifts 351-375

2011-02-10T16:44:00.004-05:00

I am truly blessed. Many people around me have lives that are unfairly falling apart right now, and I cannot tell you how grateful I am for every breath I get to take. Or how much time I am spending crying right now...
351:The sounds of Crumpet and his friends playing.
352: We are taking an unexpected trip to Maui in 2 weeks!
353: A new volunteer opportunity for Crumpet and me.
354: A friend's husband who babysat Crumpet while we had a girls' night out.
355: The courage to do something crazy that I never thought I'd do.
356: Friends to join me in my craziness.
357: A package of cool new cooking tools that arrived in the mail!
358: We will be watching not 1 but 2 dogs in March! yay!
359: Two children's plays in one week!
360: Good doctors for my best friend's mother, who is my second mom..
362: Being so close to that friend that I knew something was wrong before she told me.
363: Help at last for a very troubled girl.
364: Peace and hope for her parents.
365: Cheap long distance phone calls...
366: Another day of life and health.
367: Dress up clothes!
368:My thyroid values came back normal after 3 weeks off of medication! We'll recheck in 3 months...
369: Abundant farmer's markets.
370: Love.
371: Joy
372: Crumpet misses me when I am gone.
373: But he finally lets me go.
374: Strength to carry on during a difficult week.
375: Clean sheets.

Well, this was sort of a downer list...I hope you are all having an easier week!

Preschool Week of 2/4

2011-02-03T21:24:00.008-05:00

So, this picture demonstrates Crumpet's attitude this week. Pretty much: "You want me to do what? No way."
It was a frustrating week, and I'm realizing that some changes will have to be made here. Like I'm going to have to stop being a marshmallow, and learn to be stricter. Sigh...

As for school work:
Reading: We started working on long vowel sounds. He is having some trouble with this, and it's making him angry.
Math: We started counting by fives. Crumpet can count by tens, and can almost make it to 100 when counting by ones. He gets bored along the way, but he's close... We've also been working with a fun book I bought at our library book sale a few weeks ago. It's from the 80's, and it's called Anno's Math Games by Mitsumasa Anno. It's full of fun brain teasers for young children, and Crumpet loves it. I had planned to buy a few similar things for next year's school work, and now I'm sure he'll be happy with them.
Science: We are working on a unit about living things, and learning about the life cycles of frogs and butterflies. He is pretty familiar with these, but there are some new words that we are talking about.
Memorization: Crumpet now knows the days of the week, and my cell phone number. Now we can go back to memorizing nursery rhymes, which is much more fun!
Motor skills: I made a button snake this week. So far, Crumpet would like to pretend it's a pet, and not work on his buttoning skills...
Art: We tried shaving cream paper marbling this week. Crumpet loved mixing the paints and pretending to make a birthday cake, but then wasn't interested in decorating the paper. I love that he has his own mind, and he's creative in his own way, etc etc, but just once I'd love to have him participate in a project as I planned it... Just once??
Anyway, the technique is simple. You layer shaving cream at the bottom of a pan. Pour some paint around the top, and swirl with the end of a paintbrush. Crumpet's is on the left, with $10 worth of paint dumped on top of the shaving cream. Mine is marbled on the right.
Then, press a piece of paper on top of the shaving cream, rubbing it all over to transfer the colors. The paper comes off the shaving cream looking beautiful:
After that, we had a bit of trouble. We scraped the paint and shaving cream off the paper, but it never looked as pretty when we were done. I don't think I had a good enough scraping tool... On the left, I tried using a paper towel, but it smeared the paint too much,and on the right, I used a piece of cardboard like many sites recommeded. Maybe a shower scraper would have worked better? Anyway, I loved this project!
Creative Writing: We have been reading a lot of Magic Tree House stories around here. They are making a huge impression on Crumpet. He always tells me stories of his own creation, and now they often have elements from MTH. He often separates his stories into chapters. This week, he started naming his chapters. "Chapter 1: Danger. Chapter 2: Can't See." It cracks me up!

Have a great week. For more preschool posts, head over to Homeschool Creations.

Practicing Gratitude, Gifts 326-350

2011-02-01T20:15:00.004-05:00

Another week of blessings:

326: Crumpet is fully potty trained. It has been months since he had an accident, even at night. Do you remember last year at this time when I was despairing because I believed he would leave for college in a diaper??
327: Cast iron pans
328: My Mom is coming to visit in March. I am so excited!!!!!
329: I've planned a most excellent surprise for Mom during her stay here.
330: We had a lovely weekend camping on the beach.
331: Sunrise on the beach.
332: Falling asleep to the sound of waves crashing.
333: Ice cream
334: Pillows (which I forgot to bring camping..)
335: Friendly camping neighbors.
336: A great dentist referral.
337: Things seem to work out the way they are supposed to.
338: Anticipation of 2 packages that should arrive next week. It always feels like Christmas.
339: Sleep
340: My poor sickly cat has nothing seriously wrong with her. Just old age and a touchy stomach.
341: Crumpet was incredibly well behaved at the vet.
342: Stain remover (Nature's Miracle= truly a miracle) for carpets where said kitty let me know she didn't feel well...
343: Automatic car washes
344: Family hide and seek games at night on the playground.
345: Parents and in-laws who have never been judgmental about the way I have chosen to live my life.
346: We are not experiencing any of the truly scary weather that so much of the world is seeing.
347: My husband tolerates my moods so very well.
348: The leak our tenants found turned out to be no big deal.
349: A pair of new shorts. You cannot buy shorts in the 'winter' in Hawaii, and all of mine are destroyed from too much wear. I found a pair hiding in a corner at Target and snatched it up!
350: A fun, unexpected play date with a friend we hadn't seen for awhile.

Pay It Forward Game

2011-02-01T19:50:00.003-05:00

At the beginning of January, Natalie from Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns, wrote a post about a Pay It Forward game she was participating in. I thought it sounded like fun, so I threw my name in the hat for a chance to win. And I did! Now, we are looking forward to receiving a little package from California.
So now it's my turn to Pay It Forward. The rules are simple. Leave a comment saying that you would like to join in. On February 15, I will choose 3 winners out of a hat, and I will send you a little gift from Hawaii! (You should be prepared to continue the game on your own blog if you win.)
Let me know if you'd like to play!

Preschool Week of 1/28

2011-01-27T18:50:00.004-05:00

This was a quiet week, spent mostly at home. It felt good to have nowhere to rush off to.
For reading, we took a break from Progressive Phonics and read some early readers from the library. This was partly because I ran out of printer paper - aaackk!! - and partly to get Crumpet used to reading real books. He complained a lot - he thinks reading books is hard, but I could see the subtle glow of pride when he finished.
We added a teeny bit of writing to our week. I have held off on this because Crumpet was just not ready. Each week, we did mazes and dot-to-dots. I had him trace large letters in order to strengthen his fingers, and teach him the correct way to make the letters. Lately, I've noticed changes though. He always holds writing utensils correctly. He has a firmer, more confident approach to writing and drawing. So, for the first time, I had him write a few letters freehand on the lined side of our white board. He was very proud of his work, and I'm happy to see that he is coming around to the idea of writing. (I'll admit though that writing just may cause me to send him to school - this is NOT going to be an easy process!!)
Science was fun this week. While they were out one day, Crumpet and Crumpet Sr. picked up a fossil excavation kit. It comes as a big block of clay, a pick and a paintbrush, and you have to dig out the dinosaur skeleton.
Crumpet worked with this for much longer than I expected, and at the end, he helped me assemble the skeleton. He's thrilled with it, and shows it to all of our visitors.
We also did McRuffy's unit on mirrors. We pretended we were mirrors of each other, and we searched for hidden pictures using a mirror. We also talked a bit about symmetry.

We've been working on a few more puzzles, and this week, Crumpet put together most of a 24 piece puzzle on his own. Progress!!
The only down side to our week was that our amazing librarian has transferred to a new library. It's a good distance away, but I'm seriously considering making the trek. He was so much fun, and the new storyteller can't keep Crumpet's attention (or anyone else's - story time has turned into a complete zoo...)

Have a great week. For more preschool posts, visit Homeschool Creations!

Preschool Week of 1/21-Nature

2011-01-21T17:59:00.005-05:00

I almost didn't write a post this week because it wasn't a very pleasant school week for us. Crumpet wasn't able to focus and didn't want to learn, and I wasn't in the mood for it. We started learning about 2 new topics though, and since this is a record of Crumpet's education...

Science: We did a short lesson on volume. I thought he would love this, because it involved popcorn in various sized containers. Instead, he ate the popcorn as fast as he could and didn't hear a word I said. We used water and measuring cups too, but I still don't think he processed any of it. He did make me laugh though - he told me he already knew what volume is. It's how loud we are allowed to turn up the t.v! Clever boy...
Math: We started using a ruler to measure centimeters. We also used centimeter cubes to do this.
Nature: This week, we mainly focused on nature adventures. We went on a whale watching cruise and also saw an endangered Hawaiian monk seal sleeping on the beach. You can read about that here if you want to. Later in the week, the waves on the North Shore of Oahu reached 20+ feet, so we went up to see them. The power of the sea was amazing to watch...
Afterward, we went to Matsumoto's shave ice for a snack - it's famous so we had to try it... The boys approved!

Have a great week!

Practicing Gratitude Gifts 301-325

2011-01-18T18:57:00.006-05:00

Many more gifts this week!
301: The Friends of the Library held a winter book sale!
302: I have enough books to keep me reading for months. At least until the summer sale, and probably much longer...
303: Crumpet Sr. is finally over his nasty cold.
304: I think Crumpet and I avoided the worst of the nasty cold.
305: Tasty vitamins for vegetarian children who are going through a horrible phase of eating nothing...
306: A sunny weekend.
307: We went on a whale watching cruise.
308: We saw a LOT of whales, many of them quite close to the boat.
309: While walking on the beach, we came across an endangered Hawaiian monk seal. I SO wanted to see one while we were here, but didn't expect it to happen!
310: Lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. Oh, I love that place...
311: I won the random draw in the Pay It Forward game, here.
312: A nice day out shopping with a new friend.
313: Curtains in the guest room.
314: A beautiful beach we just discovered.
315: We have no plans for the next 2 days. Ah, calm.
316: Crumpet Sr. was supposed to deploy again next week, but due to a minor shoulder problem, he doesn't have to!!
317: This 21 day yoga challenge.
318: Sore muscles telling me I did good work at the gym.
319: It's time to start perusing curriculum options for next year. (Ok, it's early, but I love the process...)
320: I think we get to babysit a little dog next month, for a month. Crumpet and I will be so happy. Grumpy Crumpet Sr, not so much...
321: Less than 99% humidity. (It's been a while!)
322: My senses- sight, hearing, etc.
323: Being able to be there for someone new to Navy life. She's having a really hard time with it.
324: Crumpet telling me he loves me.
325: Honeybees.

Preschool Week of 1/14

2011-01-14T16:29:00.006-05:00

It seems that I go through phases. Each week, we do our usual 3 subjects: reading, math, and science. Then, depending on my mood, we add in one or two other subjects. This week was the week of P.E. and art.
P.E. We were outdoors a lot over the weekend, which is good, because it has rained all week... Saturday, we spent 5 hours hiking and geocaching. Crumpet didn't complain once, but he did tell us a 5 hour long Star Wars story. The whole time we were walking, he was getting bad guys with his stick/light saber... Sunday, we went kayaking and swimming all day with friends. Tuesday, we did a little more geocaching during our Meals On Wheels deliveries. And Thursday, we played at the indoor bouncy castle place at the mall. It was raining, and he needed to move!
Art: We tried a couple of the techniques that Nicole from Tired, Need Sleep talks about here. We drew on paper towels with markers and sprayed them with water to make the colors bleed. Very pretty. We also discovered that you can lay another paper towel on top and make the design transfer.
We swirled glue on paper, covered it in salt, and then used water colors to color the salt. This was a really neat process, and both of us enjoyed it thoroughly! Crumpet chose to paint the whole page after he was done painting the salt lines.
I experimented with drawing actual pictures with the glue:
Reading: We finished the first half of our McRuffy reading book, and took a unit test. I did let Crumpet take the test this time, and he did great. The only question he missed was about punctuation at the end of a sentence. Next week, we move onto the second workbook in the curriculum.
Science: This week's unit was about exploring sound. We had a lot of fun with this. I'm pretty sure my neighbors didn't enjoy it as much...We practiced banging on objects and learned that things make different sounds depending on their size, hardness and whether or not they are empty.
I also showed him that glasses make different sounds depending on how full they are:
And we learned that stringed instruments make different noises depending on the length and tautness of their strings. Crumpet enjoyed using his ukulele for this lesson, and he put on a great 'rock' show for me. He's convinced he will be a famous ukulele star someday...
Math was math, nothing new...

For more preschool posts, visit Homeschool Creations! Have a great week!

Practicing Gratitude Gifts 276-300

2011-01-10T13:44:00.005-05:00

276: We met Crumpet's doctor this week, and I like him.
277: Our reason for a doctor visit was just a mild skin problem.
278: I get great joy from watching Crumpet's mind work when we are doing school work. It is fascinating!
279: Sherri at Families are Fun has restarted the Fitness Challenge which I enjoyed so much last year!
280: We had a great weekend enjoying outdoor activities (last weekend - I'm a little behind!!).
281: Crumpet Sr. and I have learned to play Mancala, and I can beat him! I never win games!
282: The smell of baking bread.
283: Cast iron pans.
284: A new cookbook.
285: Art projects Crumpet enjoys.
286: We were able to perform a random act of kindness last week that turned out well.
287: My Meals on Wheels seniors are getting to know me and coming out of their shells a bit.
288: Indoor bouncy castles on rainy days.

289: Another chance to offer breastfeeding support to a friend with a doctor trying to scare her out of it. What is with these doctors???
290: 3 day weekends
291: My doctor has decided to take me off my thyroid meds to see if my body has healed itself. Here's hoping...
292: Thrift store books
293: I have a new yoga teacher and I love her as much as my last one.
294: It's not raining... yet... today!
295: This list - it reminds me to think of the good things when I'm not exactly staying positive!
296: Fridge magnets from around the world.
297: Weekend plans.
298: A huge new pack of pens. Seriously - we lose them constantly, and never being able to find one was making me crazy. Now there are jars of pens in every room...
299: Lists. I love lists. If only I could learn to keep them where I could find them...
300: Dinners together.

Preschool Week of January 7, 2011

2011-01-07T13:57:00.005-05:00

This was our first full week of school for 2011. It went very well, and Crumpet was very focused and interested, which meant that we completed all of our work in about half an hour a day. Some days, the same amount of work can take 3 hours. The break was a good thing!
It was pretty much the same ole same ole stuff this week.
Phonics: Reading is going well. I have decided not to ask Crumpet to memorize the McRuffy spelling words for now. They are getting difficult, and I think he's too young. We do the games with the words - making up rhymes, changing a letter here and there, etc., but I think we'll use a real spelling program in a year or two.
Science: This week's McRuffy science unit was about the seasons. There wasn't a lot of detail, so we had a thorough discussion about seasons while we were driving somewhere, and called it good!
Math: Much of math was review this week. It was interesting to see which things Crumpet knew well, and which things he needed help with. It was the absolute opposite of what I would have expected. Good thing I didn't skip any units as I had planned to! We did get to do a lesson on weight, which Crumpet was excited about. I bought a scale for school when it was on sale, and Crumpet has been desperate to use it. We spent quite a bit of time weighing Star Wars figures and comparing heavy vs. light objects... (yes, it was early and he looks like he needs coffee in this picture!)
We also spent some time working on puzzles this week. Crumpet still has no idea of how to go about putting a puzzle together. I do it very logically, so the fact that he doesn't even look at the piece before he starts trying to squash it into place drives me crazy. The idea of 'edge piece' seems to be completely beyond him. So... I think we'll be doing more puzzles in the weeks to come. :)

We visited the zoo and the beach this week. But the big news is that there has been a magical transformation in Crumpet this week. Playing with other kids has always been difficult for him. Most play dates end in tears or angry words. This week, though, he has spent many hours on the playground, playing with big gangs of boys, and there has been no trouble. He has spent many hours at the neighbor's house, and my neighbor swears he has behaved well, and there have been no arguments. I have no idea how long this will last, and I spend all of my time wondering what to do with myself while he is at his friend's house, but for now it is wonderful...

Have a great week! For more preschool posts, visit Homeschool Creations!

Practicing Gratitude Gifts 251-275

2010-12-29T16:35:00.006-05:00

This week I am grateful :
251: That Crumpet Sr. was actually home for Christmas, after nearly being shipped out at the last minute.
252: We had a wonderful Christmas day, and we were all spoiled rotten.
253: We had good friends over for Christmas dinner.
254: For silly games.
255: The rain may have stopped for a few days.
256: The water covered our porch, but never came in the house. (Much of Oahu flooded over the last few weeks.)
257: Crumpet Sr. let me have 2 wonderful days to myself.
258: One of those days was a peaceful day with a book on the beach.
259: One of those days was my Christmas present - a morning at the spa. Ahhh...
260: I went back to yoga class this week.
261: I am motivated to get back to healthy living. I have been terrible lately...
262: We have fun plans for New Year's. This will be the first time in years that we will actually be awake at midnight... Sad, I know!
263: We got to see the wonderful lights display in Honolulu.
264: We took the trolley into town to see the lights, and Crumpet loved it!

265: The dirty laundry basket is empty!
266: A haircut, at last!

Ok, I started this post before the New Year, and am finally able to finish it after the New Year. So, I am grateful:
267: That I was here for the last year that personal fireworks were legal in Hawaii. It was something to see: Hawaiians LOVE their fireworks and the whole island was covered in smoke by 1am. Seriously, we were in the parking lot of a football stadium, and couldn't see the stadium.
268: I'm glad it has rained so much lately, because it was too damp for the island to go up in flames...
269: I'm also glad this was the last year of legal fireworks - that much smoke just can't be good for the planet.
270: I'm grateful that we are back to a normal school and life schedule.
271: Our first full school day went incredibly well.
272: The spring season of children's plays is about to begin here.
273: We can go to the pool and play in the water in January.
274: Reusit.com
275: Crumpet has been a whole different (happy) child since Dad came home.

The Slow Return to Normal

2010-12-28T19:35:00.006-05:00

Phew, Christmas was a blast! Crumpet was so much fun this year, and he really got into it. And he got totally spoiled. He would have gotten too much anyway, but he got extra because of the craziness that is the Navy. Three days after Crumpet Sr. came home, his boss called and told him to pack his bags because he was redeploying the next day. Sigh. We were crushed, and felt terrible for telling Crumpet that Dad would be home for Christmas. So, Dad went out and bought a super special toy to ease the pain. And then, his boss called and canceled the trip. So Crumpet got Daddy AND the 2 foot tall Star Wars AT AT on Christmas. Not a bad day at all!
I decided to ease slowly back into school by spending a day doing fun science experiments that I've been saving from other blogs. Sadly, most of them didn't work. You can learn things from failed experiments, too though... We tried to make confetti dance by rubbing a balloon on our heads and then waving it over the confetti. No luck.
Then we tried to stick the balloon to the wall with static electricity from our hair. No luck. I looked it up, and it turns out that you can't create static electricity like this in Hawaii. It's too humid. Especially right now, when we've had non-stop rain and flood warnings for weeks. So it was an interesting study, but not a lot of fun..
We did one quick unit in math and we created our own thank you cards for friends that sent Christmas presents. I had Crumpet read Dr. Seuss' Hop On Pop to me. He can read almost the whole book, and it was good for him to discover that he can read real books, not just school phonics books! It was funny to watch - at first he was struggling with simple words, because he was sure he couldn't do it. When he realized he knew all the words, he whizzed through the book.

We finally went to the Pacific Aviation Museum which is right here on Ford Island, across the street from our house. Crumpet has been asking to go for ages. To be honest, it's pretty small, and not too thrilling, but we were glad to finally check it off our list... This is the tower seen in the movie Pearl Harbor.
Here is Crumpet in the gift shop, which was probably the most interesting part to him!
I always worry about getting back into school work after a break. Sometimes it's a struggle, but this time it has gone pretty smoothly. We'll do a full week's worth of work next week and see how we do..
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. Happy New Year!
For more preschool posts, visit Homeschool Creations.

Practicing Gratittude: Gifts 226-250

2010-12-19T13:34:00.005-05:00

This was a very good week!

226: Crumpet Sr. is home!
227: Crumpet is far more cheerful now that Daddy is here.
228: We finally decorated for Christmas!
229: Hubby's car started after being jump started a second time, and it has consistently started since then...
230: Cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory.
231: Several nice meals out.
232: The presents are wrapped.
233: I am finished with the post office for the season.
234: I heard from my brother at Christmas for the first time in, well.. for the first time ever!
235: We will be hosting Christmas dinner for the same people that came for Thanksgiving. I guess they had a good time!
236: Old Christmas ornaments with lots of memories and meaning.
237: Photo Christmas cards of friends' children.
238: Crumpet Sr. brought back an awesome present from Japan for my Dad, the worst man in the world to shop for!
239: Christmas movies.
240: Funny Hawaiian Christmas songs.
241: Traditional Christmas songs.
242: Daddy and Crumpet had some good bonding time at Chuck E. Cheese.
243: Crumpet has become a good hiker.
244: While hiking, we saw humpback whales from the shore. They spend the winter here, and it is amazing to watch them!
245: Christmas packages make for happy cats.
246: Command hooks.
247: Folded laundry.
248: Toilet paper.
249: The submarines and ships in Pearl Harbor are decorated for the holidays, and they are really fun to see.
250: We have new tenants in Georgia already!! We never thought someone would move in before Christmas. Phew!

Wow, I'm 1/4 of the way to my 1000 gifts! Have a great week!

Preschool Week of 12/17

2010-12-14T00:43:00.007-05:00

We got another full week of school in, just in time for Daddy to come home on Wednesday.

Reading: Crumpet moved up to McRuffy's second set of readers. The lesson plans are pretty much the same, but the books are much longer. This week, the spelling words got a bit harder - fall and doll were included, and we are still struggling with spelling these correctly, since they don't make easy phonetic sense...
Math: We began at the very beginning of subtraction. This shouldn't be too hard for Crumpet because we've always talked about addition and subtraction during daily activities. Lately he has been adding and subtracting small sums in his head while playing, with no prompting from me.
Art: I actually convinced Crumpet to do a few Christmas craft projects with me this week! A true Christmas miracle! Here's one of my favorites:
Geography: We are still making our way slowly through the Spanish speaking countries of the world. This week, we took a look at Chile. Crumpet had seen pictures of the moai statues on Easter Island before and was fascinated, so I hoped including them would boost his interest in Chile.We read quite a few general information books about the country. We also read two stories:
The Day the Stones Walked by T.A. Barron is a book about the moai and the day they came to life to rescue a boy from a tsunami. The statues were believed to be the ancestors of the people on Easter Island, and it was said that they could come to life in times of trouble. (As a side, science note - for some reason, talk of tsunamis has been included in every book or movie we've seen lately, so Crumpet is all about tsunamis... Please don't tell him they sometimes happen here!)
The second book was Mariana and the Merchild by Caroline Pitcher. This is a Chilean folk tale about huge storm waves bringing a mermaid baby to shore (more waves!).
We made a rain stick using the directions at Enchanted Learning here. Don't you just love the stunning decoration? NOT a crafty day, but he did put a face on it...
And we made some delicious peach empanadas for lunch one day.
This was a fun little study, but I couldn't find as much to do with it as some of the other countries we've 'visited'. After seeing some of the landscapes in the books, though, I need to visit Chile in person someday. Gorgeous.

Science/Nature: Crumpet found the book Sand to Sea: Marine Life in Hawaii by Stephanie Feeney and Ann Fielding while we were at the library. This was a great book describing many of the creatures we were examining last week at the beach, and others we've seen while living here. A really great find! He has now decided he's going to work at an aquarium. When he's not working at his other jobs as a police officer, a snake catcher, and a litter collector... ;)

So, as I said, Crumpet Sr. comes home on Wednesday. He has to go into work for the first couple of days that he's home, so there is a tiny chance we'll do a bit of school work, but I'm thinking we're on vacation until January. I'm sure I'll post something, sometime, but just in case, Happy Holidays!
For more preschool posts, visit Homeschool Creations.

Preschool Week of 12/10

2010-12-09T21:52:00.004-05:00

This week, we accomplished most of what we wanted to with our book work, and also managed lots of fun outings. I'm finally getting into a routine, just in time for Daddy to come home next week!

As far as book work is concerned, the only really new stuff was working with dimes in our math unit. We began last week, and went further in depth this week. We practiced counting by 10's using dimes, and started counting out specified quantities of money using dimes and pennies.

Art: We made a welcome home banner for Daddy, and Crumpet really enjoyed using paint for the first time in ages:
He was so inspired that he created this work of art, that he says is the Mermaid Lagoon from Peter Pan:
Household Helper: Crumpet decided he would help me vacuum this week. It started out fine...
Then he started getting silly...
And then, of course, he had to vacuum his face...
Outings: We went to the beach mid-week, which was amazing because there was no one there. We spent hours studying the crabs and fish that we came across. We also went to the North Shore of Oahu to explore some new areas and saw some of the big winter waves.
The Honolulu Zoo had its Christmas lights event for members. We went with all of Crumpet's friends. It was not as good as some similar events we've been to at other zoos, but it was a chance to get out.
We also went to the lighting of Freedom Tower on the air force base. While we were there, we checked out one of the planes on display:
They had some crafts and free food, and then they lit up the tower. The lights change color and dance to music, which is fun. We can see them from Crumpet's bedroom window at night.
We hope you all had a good week too! For more preschool posts, visit Homeschool Creations.

Practicing Gratitude - Gifts 201-225

2010-12-08T21:46:00.004-05:00

This week, my parents had to euthanize Bosco, the dog we left with them in May.
I am grateful:
201: To have known him for so many years.
202: That he gave my parents 7 months of pure joy. They adored him.
203: That he got to spend the last months of his life in a home where he was the center of attention, and the center of the universe to those who cared for him.
204: That he suffered only briefly.
205: That we humans have the power to release animals from suffering when the time comes.
Bosco was a wonderful dog, and he is missed by many.
On a happier note, I am also grateful that:
206: My husband has a return date and it is next week!
207: I spent a very special day at the beach with Crumpet today.
208: My Christmas cards are sent.
209: I survived one trip to the post office and only have to go back 2 more times before the holiday.
210: We have a beautiful live wreath on the door. (We are not decorating until Daddy comes home, but I allowed myself this!)
211: We have new flowers to greet my husband on the front porch.
212: Crumpet and I made Daddy's welcome home sign, and we like the way it turned out.
213: My husband enjoys so many of the same activities that I do.
214: The weather here is incredible right now. Low 80's during the days, and upper 60's at night. It almost feels like fall at night, which I love!!
215: People have their Christmas lights up in our neighborhood and Crumpet and I take the sweetest walks at night to look at them all.
216: I found some good gifts for hubby.
217: I survived many Christmas shopping trips with Crumpet.
218: Our tenants in Georgia have moved out and they left the house immaculate.
219: I finally got to see Harry Potter while a friend watched Crumpet, and I loved it!!

And I am grateful for the little things:
220: Yummy smelling shampoo
221: Bubbles
222: Magic Erasers
223: Waves
224: Sand
225: Jumper cables - oops, the boys were playing in Daddy's car and must have left the lights on... Wouldn't Daddy be happy to come home and discover that???

Have a great week!

Preschool Week of 12/3

2010-12-02T23:17:00.007-05:00

Hurray, we had another productive week! Here's a quick summary:

Math: We started working on skip counting by 10's. Crumpet picked this up pretty quickly. However, it has come to my attention that he actually can't count from 1 to 100. He gets stuck at the 10s, so we're working on this the same way we worked on the alphabet. He walks along saying numbers and turning over index cards. For each 10 he gets right, he gets an M&M. He can get to 60 now - chocolate is a huge motivator around here!

Reading: For a change of pace, we printed out a series of stories from Progressive Phonics. We're working through that, in addition to our usual reading work.

Science: We completed the McRuffy unit on special attributes. This unit was about the things all living things need to survive, special adaptations animals have to help them survive, and food chains. Conveniently, one of our Magic School Bus books was about food chains.
Also, we have been watching the series of documentaries called Life, which was narrated by Oprah Winfrey. These have some phenomenal video footage, and show some amazing adaptations that plants and animals have developed to survive. Crumpet loves these shows and talks about them all the time. You should be warned that there are some scenes with animals eating other animals, and some mating scenes (which so far have looked like animals fighting...). I spend some of the time fast forwarding past scenes which show carnivores being carnivores for my vegetarian son. But overall, GREAT shows, and we're learning a lot.

Handwriting: I have laminated a lot of simple Kumon mazes for Crumpet, and he enjoys doing a few at a time. This week, I gave him a new book of the mazes and he went wild. He did 22 mazes in one sitting - it must be something about the feel of a real book in his hands?

History: A friend gave us several Magic Tree House audiobooks, and we've been listening to them while we go on our Meals on Wheels routes. Crumpet LOVES these. He won't get out of the car at home until the CDs are finished. And he re-enacts the stories over and over. I have reserved more from the library and can't wait for them to arrive, because we know our 3 discs word for word now...

Religion/Culture: We learned about Hanukkah this week. We read the book This is the Dreidel by Abby Levine. I found this at a book sale and I wouldn't really recommend it, but I couldn't find anything better... It does cover the basics of Hanukkah in a sort of poem form, and it tells about the history of the holiday at the back of the book. I made a paper dreidel from a template I found at Enchanted Learning. We played the game for a little while, but Crumpet got bored before we finished. We learned about the menorah, and we ate latkes. I love them; Crumpet tolerated them.
For Christmas preparation, we made a chain of Hershey's kisses to help us count down the days til Christmas. I saw advent calendars at our military grocery store in October, and foolishly didn't buy them. I have not been able to find any since. Fortunately, I saw this cute idea here at my friend Debbie's blog, Hallelujah Harvest.

Nature: We did some hiking and swimming, and we discovered these amazing flowers, which smell like ginger. I don't think I'll ever stop being awed by Hawaiian plants...

For more preschool posts, visit Homeschool Creations! Have a great week!

Practicing Gratitude - Gifts 176-200!

2010-11-30T13:07:00.005-05:00

I have many simple gifts to list this week, but also 2 that are particularly special to me:

176: My goddaughter was tentatively diagnosed, and then quickly UNdiagnosed with an adrenal tumor. This little girl means the world to me, and I cry with relief every time I think about the fact that she is ok.
177: A beautiful story of breastfeeding success for a friend of mine.

178: Time to play with Crumpet.
179: Houseplants
180: I've finally learned to distinguish between 'friends' and friends, who will drop everything and help you out when you need them.
181: Thanksgiving is over. It was fun, but exhausting!
182: The Thanksgiving leftovers are gone. The scale can stop going up at an alarming rate...
183: I got a new military ID. And it was easy.
184: The picture on the new ID is decent.
185: I was warned that Crumpet is in danger of losing medical benefits if I don't bring in a copy of his social security card - before he actually lost benefits...
186: Kind, observant government employees.
187: Homemade pizza
188: Audiobooks
189: We are getting lots of rain.
190: Most of the rain is coming at night, so it doesn't affect our daytime plans.
191: Training wheels.
192: I managed to pay the mortgage on the house in Georgia without taking money out of our savings account.
193: Good neighbors
194: Extra large bath towels.
195: Cable t.v at the gym
196: I finally got an e-mail from Crumpet Sr. I was starting to worry...
197: Scratching posts
198: Hand-me-down clothes.
199: Great craft ideas from other blogs
200: Quiet weeks for playing catch up.

Once again, no pictures. Quiet weeks are great, but it means that there's not much to document with photos... I'll have to remember to just take a few random ones next week...

Preschool - 11/26

2010-11-26T12:13:00.007-05:00

This was a very quiet week around here. It was so nice! We spent the time getting ready for Thanksgiving (which was wonderful), and playing, and getting a little bit ahead on our school work. I'm hoping to take a few weeks off when Daddy gets home...
We actually sat down and did school work on 3 mornings this week, which was my goal. Woo hoo!
Math:We finished our unit on clocks, and Crumpet is now pretty good at telling time to the hour and reading the time when it is written.
Reading: We started a new Progressive Phonics book. The style of teaching in the phonics books has changed a bit for this level, and we like it. It involves some repetition, but they make it fun, so Crumpet doesn't mind. He is now reading entire pages. He also did his first word search puzzle in his McRuffy workbook, and he thought that was a lot of fun.
Science:We finally received the Scholastic Book order I place 2 months ago, which included a set of Magic School Bus books. My plan was to read one at a time and make a science unit out of each. Crumpet has other plans - he loves them, so we are rapidly working through the box. I guess we'll reread them and make science units out of them at some other time! We performed the balloon inflating experiments from Tired, Need Sleep here. These were so fun. Crumpet was a big fan of the baking soda and vinegar one that threatened to explode all over the kitchen. "Again again!!!"
Science/Art: I bought some sun print paper at the contemporary art museum last week. We had used this an art class in Georgia, and I think it's really neat. This time, we used sunscreen on one sheet and left the other one alone. I had heard that sunscreen would let less light through and the designs would not be as bright. You can sort of tell which paper had sunscreen (the one on the right)...

And can you believe the only other pictures I took this week were of the giant goose egg on Crumpet's forehead? He slipped and fell face first on our hard linoleum floors. Ouch.

I hope you all had a great week, and a wonderful Thanksgiving! For more preschool posts, head over to Homeschool Creations!

Practicing Gratitude - Gifts 151-175

2010-11-23T01:09:00.007-05:00

It's Thanksgiving week, and I'm feeling very grateful for so many things. In fact I'm kind of soppy and ridiculous right now.. I'm grateful for:

151: A wonderful, fun get together at a friend's house, just when I thought I could not handle being a single parent with no adult time for another second..
152: The delicious homemade pasta and Cheesecake Factory dessert that were served at the get together.
153: The host's fabulous 11 year old daughter who takes such good care of Crumpet so the adults can play games and chat.
154: Crumpet is learning to do his chores well, and he will be doing them without help from me soon!
155: Crumpet is learning the value of money. Twice in the last week, he has gone to the store with money to spend. He found that there was nothing worth wasting his money on though, and chose to save for something better. It made him cry, but he made great decisions!
156: I remembered to praise him for his good decisions, and to take his sadness seriously.
157: Crumpet is reading at the same level as his 7 year old friend in first grade.
158: Crumpet is beginning to show confidence in his reading and to be proud of himself, which is helping him enjoy it more.
159: Blackout curtains.
160: Our great property manager in Georgia.
161: I have a wonderful extended family that lives all over the world, and yet stays close.
162: One of those family members is in Africa working as a nurse in a missionary hospital. I feel that I've grown closer to her through e-mail and blogging during the years she has spent there.
163: I have learned to count my blessings even more after her stories of sadness (and also joy) from Africa.
164: All but one of my 6 grandparents lived until well into my 30's, so I had a chance to get to know them well.
165: 3 of those 6 grandparents are still living.
166: I have great in-laws.
167: Facebook, which I hate, but also love, because it helps me keep in touch with old friends.
168: My college roommate, who is my very best friend.
169: All of the friends who have stayed in touch through my many moves.
170: Crumpet seems truly relieved that we are finished at the preschool.
171: I made the decision to homeschool before ever sending Crumpet off to school. If I hadn't, we'd be reeling now, and desperately trying to figure out how to homeschool...
172: I have so many homeschooling friends who have made this seem like a do-able, normal option.
173: I found an awesome new pair of sunglasses, cheap.
174: Exploring the world with my little boy.

175: I have time to read tonight, so I'm off to go do that! Have a grateful Thanksgiving!!

Preschool Week of 11/19

2010-11-18T20:22:00.009-05:00

Well, this was an interesting week! We finally quit the Parent Participation Preschool. It got to the point where Crumpet refused to go in, even on the day he was line leader. Normally, he loves to be line leader, so I knew we were done. That was Monday.
Tuesday, we delivered Meals on Wheels, and it went great. People knew us from the week before, so they were less shy, and they all love to see Crumpet, even though he won't talk to most of them yet.
Wednesday is normally a preschool day, and I intend to keep Monday and Wednesday mornings as school times. We got tons of work done at home and it felt good. Crumpet's reading is coming along in leaps and bounds. This process is truly amazing to watch. We started telling time to the hour in McRuffy math. This is mostly review for Crumpet, and he did well. In McRuffy science, we completed a topic called "Clown Attributes". This is a unit dealing with many differently dressed clowns. The child has to sort them according to a variety of rules, and at the end, they sort them using Venn diagrams. Crumpet wasn't exactly focused during a lot of this, and I think we may repeat it at the end of the year...
For science, we also did an experiment that I found in the book Science Crafts for Kids: 50 Fantastic Things to Invent & Create by Gwen Diehn and Terry Krautwurst. One day when we were at the beach Crumpet asked "How do waves be made? Fish bubbles?" This book explained how waves are made, and taught us how to make a wave in a bottle. I don't think Crumpet cared at all about the waves, but he enjoyed adding food coloring to vegetable oil and seeing how it reacts. Then he added raisins to see if they would dance like they do in Sprite... You just never know how an experiment may end up around here...
Wednesday, we also went to the Contemporary Art Museum in Honolulu. This was a really neat field trip. Some of the art was wacky, but we enjoyed a lot of it. There are beautiful gardens, and the cafe has wonderful chocolate cake!
Thursday, we went to the zoo with friends.
It was a nice week. I'm looking forward to having fewer scheduled events around here, and being able to get some learning done at home. For more preschool posts, visit Homeschool Creations.

Practicing Gratitude - Gifts 126 -150

2010-11-17T23:16:00.006-05:00

Some more reasons I feel blessed:

126: Pandora.com
127: Sunrise
128: We get to spend 2 1/2 more years in Hawaii
129: We've been budgeting as if we have no tenants in the house in Georgia, which is good because our tenants are leaving early, and we have no replacements yet...
130: Cartridge world - they refill your printer ink cartridges at a huge discount.
131: Crumpet played at a friend's house today without trouble
132: Free days at art museums.
133: Ceiling fans
134: Phone chats with old friends
135: Freedom of speech
136: Friends of friends are moving in down the street from me. They are also homeschoolers, and seem nice.
137: The above friends are coming for Thanksgiving so I will get to know them better.
138: Days when Crumpet is happy.
139: We got to see an amazing guest storyteller/musician at the library.
140: The storyteller made Crumpet smile, and he even participated a bit.
141: We went grocery shopping for Thanksgiving a week early. This is lucky because the store was a madhouse and I'm sure it will only be worse next week!
142: Sidewalks.
143: My grandmother and I talk on the phone more and more often. I cherish the times I have spent with her.
144: "My" dog, who now lives with my parents, is no longer limping.
145: A good friend's dog is doing well on chemo. The dog is her baby, so I'm happy they will have more time together.
146: A clean car!
147: Homemade bread.
148: Reusable shopping bags.
149: Alone time to watch junk t.v., drink wine, and cross stitch.
150: A joyous heart.

Preschool - Learning about Service to Others

2010-11-12T00:00:00.006-05:00

One of my more important goals as a parent is to teach Crumpet about service to others. I want him to understand how blessed we are to have so much, and that it is our duty to help others who are not so fortunate. I've thought about this for years, but it took me a while to find just the right starting activity. It's hard to find a volunteer activity that is appropriate for young children, especially one as shy as Crumpet. I think I've done it though, and this week we began delivering for an organization which provides Meals on Wheels!
This is perfect because Crumpet doesn't have to interact too much with the seniors we deliver to until he gets to know them better. At the same, they get to see a young child, and that made everyone's day. Due to poor communication, we ended up delivering several routes instead of just one on our first day. It took a long time because we didn't know where all of the houses were. Through it all, Crumpet was a superstar. He never once complained, even though he climbed in and out of the car 18 times.
Fortunately/Unfortunately, our first delivery was to the friendliest woman we met all day. She was delighted to see Crumpet. And, she gave him a little McDonalds stuffed doggie as a present. This was good because Crumpet warmed up to her right away and decided he loved this volunteer stuff! He kept talking about how she was 'too kind'. However, he was a bit disappointed when no one else spoiled him with presents. It led us into a good discussion about the fact that many of these people can't afford meals, or don't have the ability to get to the store to buy food or presents, which is why we are visiting them. It gave Crumpet a lot to think about.
We will be doing this every week, and I'm excited to see how we progress.
In addition, we will be making 75 pb&j sandwiches and brownies next week for a 'feed the homeless keiki (Hawaiian for children)' program. I'm not sure how much Crumpet will be able to help, but it will be another chance for him to see the adults around him being active in the community. This is also the week we will pack our box for Operation Christmas Child, and I'm taking Crumpet shopping to help fill the box tomorrow.

In other news, we went camping at the beach with friends. Spending 24 hours in a small cabin with other kids was a really great chance to work on socialization skills! And of course, we got to do lots of nature study, and we got lots of exercise.
We tried out a peddle bike. This is hard work and it was really too bad the boys have such short legs - they couldn't help!
We got really really wet!
And we were treated to stunning views.
For more preschool posts, visit Homeschool Creations!

Practicing Gratitiude: Gifts 101-125

2010-11-10T12:19:00.006-05:00

More of my many gifts:
101) We were invited to an amazing Lego birthday party last weekend.
102) I have a big spacious house so...
103)I'm hosting Thanksgiving but...
104) Someone else is bringing the Turkey!
105) Playdoh eventually comes out of the carpet
106) I'm getting really good at networking.
107) The woman across the street, who spends a lot of time swearing at her kids at the top of her lungs, is moving in January!
108) The library system here has an annual book sale that is incredible.
109) The color green.
110) The weather is cooler so I don't have to water the garden every single day.
111) Saturday night dinner parties.
112) The time doesn't change in Hawaii.
113) Crumpet played with the little neighbor boy for hours this week. They used to fight constantly.
114) Sea turtles
115) We started delivering for Meals on Wheels this week.
116) Crumpet was great during the delivery process.
117) We found everyone on our route, despite the crazy roads here.
118) My Wildtree foods order came in - I love that stuff!
119) Crumpet slept until 7am today. That is nothing short of a miracle!
120) We have enough to be able to share with others.
121) I was reminded of Operation Christmas Child in time to pack a shoebox.
122) My husband will be home in about 6 weeks. I am ready.
123) I cured the fungus on the hibiscus flowers with a milk and water solution
124)Mail
125) My car gets great mileage.

Preschool Week of 11/5

2010-11-04T14:09:00.005-04:00

A few pics from this week...
There was Halloween:
More Halloween:
And more Halloween:
And we went to see a Russian opera, The Legend of Rusalka, which is a version of the Little Mermaid. It was 45 minutes and a perfect introduction to opera for children. Both of the children we went with loved it!

We completed a geography unit on Mexico. You can read about that here.
We read a couple of good science stories:
Where's My Tail? by Susan Schafer is a cute story about a lizard who loses his tail. He finds out about the reasons other animals do or don't have tails, and he learns that his tail will grow back.
Tracks of a Panda by Nick Dawson is a story which follows a baby panda's through his early months of life. This book has beautiful illustrations and we learned a lot about pandas.
We started on L blends in Progressive Phonics. And we played!
For more preschool posts, visit Homeschool Creations!

Practicing Gratitude: Gifts 51-100

2010-11-03T02:49:00.007-04:00

More blessings that I've been grateful for this week:
51) Music
52) Cool breezes at night
53) Airplanes
54) Coffee
55) Fancy creamers for coffee
56) The community gym in my housing development
57) Yoga
58) Waterproof mattress covers
59) Clean bathrooms
60)Papaya and avocado salads with honey and lime dressing
61) Exotic Hawaiian fruits
62) Kisses from Crumpet - there is nothing sweeter
63) Our fantastic library
64) Our children's librarian who has won awards for what he does
65) The library story hour, run by the above librarian
66) The right to vote
67) Great children's theatre
68) My Christmas shopping for Crumpet is done
69) Crumpet was incredibly polite on Halloween
70) Enough candy to feed us for a year
71) New friends
72) Blog friends who offer advice and support when I need it most!
73) My laminator
74) Our zoo pass
75) Crumpet has 3 living great grandparents and he met a 4th
76) The Harry Potter movie is coming out soon, and I have a babysitter for Crumpet and friends to go to the movie with!
77) My husband's port calls so we can talk via Skype
78) My grandparents are all computer literate so I can send news and pictures easily
79) I found the perfect wedding gift for our most recent house guests
80) Crumpet was wonderful with the little dog that came with our house guests
81) I have time to cross stitch these days (well, some days)
82) Stain stick
83) The smell of plumeria flowers
84) The military commissary, which makes food affordable in Hawaii
85)Rainbows
86) Payday
87) Topical flea prevention for the pets
88) 1-800 Pet Meds, where I found said flea prevention for 1/2 the price of the pet store!
89) Free prescriptions through our military health insurance
90) Homemade chocolate pretzel granola bars, oh my...
91) I remembered to put out the recycling bin just in time today
92) The election is over so now the ugly billboards will come down.
93) The election is over so now I will have my e-mail inbox to myself again.
94) I found a pair of shorts to purchase. Even though it will be at least 80 degrees all winter, stores are mostly selling winter clothes right now...
95) Crumpet has an amazing imagination.
96) The pumpkins lasted through Halloween and didn't rot in the heat
97) Hubby was just in port for 3 days and we got to speak with him more than once each day.
98) Hubby will back in port in couple of weeks for more phone calls
99) Near perpetual sunshine.
100) I found canned pumpkin and stocked up - apparently it's hard to find here around the holidays!

Geography Studies - Mexico

2010-11-02T16:24:00.006-04:00

We're using our geography studies to explore the Spanish speaking countries of the world right now, and this week we visited Mexico! We had a really good time with it.
We got a quick overview by looking at the website Mexico For Kids. This is a really cute site put together by a class of second graders learning Spanish. We looked at the Mexican flag and talked about the legend that led to the design. We read the Mexico section in Children Just Like Me, and we read Look What Came From Mexico.
I pulled a couple of crafts out of Mexico: 40 Activities to Experience Mexico Past and Present by Susan Milford. This is an awesome book, with lots of educational information. I can't wait to use it again when Crumpet is a bit older and ready to go further in depth with our geography studies!
We created some yarn art. I drew the butterfly outline and Crumpet painted on some watered down glue. Then he placed yarn over the glue. He really enjoyed this, as well as our other crafts of the week. Hurray!
We talked about the Mayans a little and built a step pyramid out of Legos.
We played our castanets and maracas.
We also read the book Hill of Fire by Thomas P. Lewis. This is the true story of a man witnessing the birth of a volcano in his field in Mexico. There are lots of pictures of daily life in Mexico. Crumpet was fascinated by the volcano, as I knew he would be.
Today happens to be the Day of the Dead, which is a day for remembering and celebrating loved ones who have passed away. Most of the books we were able to reserve at the library were about this festival, and Crumpet was excited about all of the skeleton and ghost decor that goes along with the celebrations. It took some effort to convince him that this is actually a nice holiday, and not something spooky like Halloween. Mostly, we made a lot of crafts for the day, and we talked about Crumpet's Nanny, who passed away in January. I've decided that this is a lovely holiday, and we need to celebrate it every year - it was nice to remember and talk about the people we miss.
We made this cute, wiggly skeleton. The marigolds on him are the flower of the dead:

We made cute ghost necklaces out of glue. You make a ghost shape using glue on wax paper, add eyes, and a paper clip for a hanger, and let it dry for a couple of days. Then peel of your ghost and draw in a mouth! These were also perfect for Halloween.
We always eat a lot of Mexican food here, so Crumpet is familiar with the cuisine. We did bake polvorones, which are Mexican sugar cookies with cinnamon in them, for the first time. We made them in Halloween shapes for a dinner gathering we had. The cookies disappeared in minutes!
We read several books about the Day of the Dead. The best was probably The Spirit of Tio Fernando by Janice Levy. This is a book about a little boy learning how to celebrate the holiday while remembering a favorite uncle, and is written in both English and Spanish.

Jolanthe, at Homeschool Creations, has an excellent post on Mexico studies, with lots of great links. You can check that out here.

I know we tend to jump around a lot, and we don't go very in depth with our geography studies yet. For now, I have 3 purposes for our geography work:
1) To have fun!! This is the time when we do most of our crafts and baking together.
2) To teach Crumpet that there are many, many other cultures in the world and that it's important to accept and learn from our differences from others. And that those differences are what make life so interesting!
3) To inspire a love of travel and exploration in Crumpet.

For more Geography posts, visit Children Grow Children Explore Children Learn!

Preschool Week of 10/29

2010-10-29T20:06:00.003-04:00

Ok, I'm not sure I can keep up with so much change in my life. Very little got accomplished this week, but we are currently entertaining our last set of visitors, so we'll have our time to ourselves soon. Maybe we can develop a routine? Oh, wait, no, because Crumpet and I are starting another something new next week... I'll fill you in on that soon. For now, my head is just spinning.
A few things did happen this week:
Last weekend, we went to a Halloween bash at the military beach. It was lots of fun, and we participated in a scavenger hunt with friends. Our team won 2nd place, and we won a free night in a cabin on the beach, along with some rounds of mini-golf and a peddle bike rental. We'll all go camping in a few weeks! There was a costume contest and trick or treating during the day too.
Crumpet thought he would be brave enough to go through the haunted forest after dark, but he and his friends lasted about 5 seconds and we had to leave!

Parent Participation Preschool was a nightmare. I knew I shouldn't comment when it was going well... Monday, Crumpet refused to go in until after circle time, and was quite difficult throughout class. Wednesday, we skipped class because it was costume day, and I just wasn't sure Crumpet would cope well with the change in routine. And we just got news that the school is moving to a whole new building in 2 weeks. Really? More change? I'm on the verge of giving up on the school. We've been doing so well the rest of the week, and school is so painful. Any ideas? Should I keep pushing this on him? If we're going to homeschool anyway, does he really need to learn to function in a group like this? Maybe he'll handle this kind of thing better in a few years? Or, should I give it til the New Year and see if he finally settles? Sigh. It would be nice to have a husband to discuss this with!
Crumpet and I went geocaching twice at his request, so we had plenty of nature time. And we went to the Halloween story hour at the library today. It was costume day with trick or treating.
As for book work, very little was done. We did a bit of math, most of which involved working with pennies. Crumpet is beginning to add and subtract in his head without even thinking about it. I convinced him to reread the last Progressive Phonics book, but I'm having him read many of the 'parent' words in addition to the words he read before. He is beginning to be able to read words that don't make phonetic sense by thinking about the context of the words and looking at some of the letters in the words. It's such an amazing process to watch.
I meant to start our Mexico unit so we could be ready for the Day of the Dead next week, but to no avail. Not sure we'll be ready in time.
For now, we are enjoying the little dog who is staying here with his owners (we want a dog, we want a dog so much...), and getting very excited about Halloween. Crumpet has changed his mind 3 times about what he will be, so it's going to be a surprise for everyone this year. I just hope he sticks to something in the costume bucket.
Sorry, this is kind of a whiny, disjointed post. Tired...