Smarty Pants

Our cute, little, smarty pants! She sits over on the couch while the other two are doing lessons, pretending she's not listening. But every now and then she pipes up and says a pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun. She's my little experiment of inspire, not require. I am still too scared to try it out on my other two.....

Toilet Paper Roll Elephants

 One day for Biology we decided to learn about elephants.  For the activity party of our lesson, we found this cute elephant craft on-line and the girls each made their own elephant.  They played with them for quite a while and then ended up putting them on our little Christmas tree.

www.dltk-kids.com/animals/melephants.html

Multi-Cultural Potluck

Savannah participated in our homeschool association's Multicultural Potluck night which is where homeschoolers present about a country of their choice and bring a dish to share from that country.  She and Ryan worked together on learning about Russia.  They put together a poster with the Russian alphabet and different pictures from Russia.  Ryan taught Savannah the alphabet. I baked a Russian cake (Yablechy Peroke or something like that).   When it was their turn to present, they talked a little about Russia and then they sang a Russian song together.  They did a great job!  The night was very fun and enlightening.  It was nice to learn about other cultures and taste all the different dishes.

Doesn't homeschooling look like fun?

A Typical Week

Monday - 8:30 to Noon morning routine and lessons. At noon we clean up, have lunch and get ready to leave the house. We went over to a neighbor's home who needed help with her children. We spent the afternoon there. I cleaned and watch her six children and my three so she could get some things done.

Tuesday - 8:30 to 9:45 we did lessons. At 9:45 we loaded up and went to a nearby park for a little soccer playing with other kids. Savannah and her friend Gabby and Gabby's older brother got to play "coach" and tried to coach the younger kids. We came back home at noon and then did lessons until three, went and ran errands, came back home for dinner and bed.

Wednesday - 8:30 to 9:00 morning routine. At 9am we leave to go to Savannah's violin lesson. At 10:15 we arrive back home and work on lessons until noon. Noon we have lunch. At 12:30 we are back in the car to meet up with a couple other families to work on crafts for a couple hours. The girls learned to weave this week and each made a small pot holder. At 4:15 we head back to Savannah's violin teacher's home for a group class that lasts for an hour. Then we rush home for dinner and mom leaves for young women's.

Thursday - 8:30 to 9:50 we do our morning routine and math. 9:50 the girls leave for ice skating lessons. Ice skating ends at 11:30 then we grab a bite to eat and go to a chapter book club that meets at 1:30. This week it met at 12:30 and it was a potluck and movie of the book they just finished "Tuck Everlasting". Then back home to finish up lessons that we didn't get done earlier.

Friday - 8:30 to 9:50 Morning routine and lessons. 9:50 playgroup at park until noon. Noon we eat lunch. The girls work on chores or read. 4:30 Annual Multicultural Potluck, we meet with other homeschool families and everyone presents something on a different country and brings a dish from that country. Ryan helped Savannah learn something in Russian and Savannah and I will make a Russian cake.

This is more or less what our weeks are like.  They're busy and full, but we are spending our time together and for the most part enjoying every minute.

Our Violinist!

Savannah has been asking since she was five to learn to play the violin. She has finally started lessons.  We are all so excited!  She has been to a couple lessons so far and has diligently practiced everyday.  I am so happy someone in our family is going to learn the violin.  I hope all the girls will want to do it.  If the lessons weren't so expensive I'd do it myself.  Maybe someday.....

Math - Learning About Volume

 One of the activities in Math this week was learning about the concept of volume. We found several empty containers of different sizes and then spent time seeing how many cups of liquid fit into each container. Savannah loved doing this and would probably have done it all day if I would have let her.

What are Sophie and Molly up to?

Sophie has really been doing great with reading. She reads short books with three and four letter words in them now and is always looking at books and trying to figure out the words. Molly wants to be like Sophie so she pretends to read, which is so cute. She has some little books memorized so it almost sounds like she is really reading.

Sophie and Molly have both have been learning about different shapes. They had a fun time the other day doing this little project. I cut out different shapes and traced them onto paper, then they got to try to figure out where the shapes went and glue them on. Sophie ended up making little things out of her shapes, like a house.

Recent History Projects

The past couple weeks Savannah made a Ziggurat, which is an ancient dwelling in Mesopotamia that was built for the gods to dwell in.  Savannah also made ancient African bangles. 

Her next project was to become an archeaologist.  I had to put together items that might be found in a tomb, draw her a map, then she followed the map until she discovered the tomb.  She then had to document exactly what was in the tomb before she could remove it or touch it.  She really enjoyed this project. 

(Trying to find the tomb)

(The Tomb!)

(Documenting what she found)

Making an ancient Chinese Ming Bowl

Making and eating an ancient African feast of chicken with figs and lemons, fried plantains, and papaya rice.  I didn't take any pictures of Savannah while she was preparing the food.  She especially did not like touching the raw chicken.  I told her well at least she didn't have to go out and kill it, pluck it, cut it up, and then do what she's doing.  She just looked at me and said yes, I guess you're right, but let's not talk about that anymore.

I've really got to get a new table cloth, the red is sooo bright.

Pumpkin Eaters

One morning for kid school we decided to make some Halloween decorations. The girls ended up doing these cute masks and thought it was so funny to knock on Dad's office door saying "trick or treat"!

Puzzle Maniac

Molly is very into doing puzzles right now. She will sit for up to an hour and put together puzzles. Her favorite is a princess one we got from the dollar store. The other day she put together a 100 piece puzzle by herself for the most part. I love doing puzzles so I'm excited to have someone else who does too.

Savannah's Nile River

One of the many projects Savannah has worked on over the past month was building a miniature Nile river. She lined a baking foil pan with a strip of foil the shape of the Nile river, then she put potting soil around the edges and poured little pebbles over the foil area. She then sprinkled grass seed on the soil and poured two pictures of water into it. Within a day or two the water evaporated and the seeds sprouted and grew. After a few days she built tiny pyramids out of clay and little boats to put inside the replica. She regularly floods it and loves to watch how the water goes up onto the banks. She has also made scented Egyptian oil, ancient clay dwellings, a ming bowl and several other fun things.

A Visit To New York

We took the girls to NYC for a couple days then rented an R.V. for a week and drove all through New York state. We did a few lessons each morning while driving in the R.V., the rest of the time they just soaked everything in. It was a great family trip. For more pictures and details on it, see our family blog.

Teton Dam Site and Museum Fieldtrip

We have a little homeschool group in Teton Valley and we organized a field trip to the Teton Dam Site and Museum. I had always wanted to go see the dam site but we never took the time to do it. It was really amazing to see as was the museum. We got to kidnap Nate and take him with us too, so that was a bonus. The kids enjoyed the trip and I do believe they learned a thing or two. A little information on it: The Teton Dam was built on the Teton River upstream from Rexburg, Idaho. at 11:57 am on June 5, 1976 the dam broke, the resulting flood killed 14 people and some estimates put the damage done by the collapse of the 100 million dollar dam, at one billion dollars. Actual federal approved claims totalled almost 400 million dollars.

Watching the film strip of the clean up was really amazing. People came from all over to help and the community and surrounding communities really pulled together.

Our Schedule and Curriculum

In the mornings after our morning routine, we do what we call "Kid School". We are in kid school for Sophie and Molly about 30 -45 minutes. For Savannah usually we are finished by lunch time. I use material from A Well-Trained Mind and Saxon to teach the children lessons each morning. I am in the process of working towards implementing the Thomas Jefferson Education model (TJEd), but I'm doing it in baby steps. So far what I have implemented is the morning routine, chore chart, kid school - although it is a little more 'require' than 'inspire' right now, and I have begun my study of the classics. My next baby step I plan to make is to arrange a family room consistent with the TJEd model. This of course won't happen until we have a more permanent home. For more information on TJEd go to http://www.tjedonline.com/

I have loved the discovery of this system and hope to be able to implement the whole model into our lifestyle soon.

Currently with the girls we are reading the classic Laddie: A True Blue Story. Over the summer we read Charlotte's Web, Indian In the Cupboard, Little House on the Prairie Series, Sarah Plain and Tall Series, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, some of The Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, and parts of Little Women.

I just finished Uncle Tom's Cabin, Lonesome Gods, and Little Britches and all of the Thomas Jefferson books by DeMille. Ryan just finished The Chosen, and Jane Eyre. We do a lot of reading and we love it! The girls enjoy being read to almost more than anything.

First Day of Homeschool

Our first day of homeschooling officially began on August 31, 2009. We begin school at 8:30 each morning, starting our day off with a family devotional which consists of scripture study (we are currently reading the Old Testament), family prayer, memory work such as a quote or article of faith, we sing a song we are learning, and then do the Pledge of Allegiance. If we have time Sophie always requests that we read from the Book of Mormon children's version. She loves the pictures and the stories and will sit for a long time listening. Some mornings during this time we read from a book of family history that my Grandma put together. My girls love the stories as do I. We then have a chore meeting where I divide out the chore tickets for the day. Our first morning went fairly well and we're excited to begin this journey together!