School Is Where You Are

Shea was up in Marina del Rey for a big job. He had a nice hotel room, so we decided to make the trip up to visit him for a few days. I'm always a big believer that the world is the best classroom, but this was once again confirmed to us. We spent time down in Venice Beach. This was a learning experience in and of itself. My children had never seen anything like it. Whether it was hand-made jewelry or prop planes constructed from soda cans, my children were fascinated. We spent some time on the beach, building some sand sculptures. Without prompting, Creed decided to build part of the Giza Complex in Egypt. His Sphinx was quite impressive, although he found it harder to form the face than he expected. In the background, you can see King Khufu's pyramid.

Other fun things we did on our mini-vacation:

swimming

eating Creole food (a first for the kids)

having lunch on the beach

jumping on the hotel beds

"working out" in the gym

seeing the giant binoculars

touring the scooter store (our favorite was the taxi-themed one with the sidecar)

The Crusades

History is Creed's favorite subject. He's always so excited to read our Story of the World. This week we studied the Crusades. We were surprised how unsuccessful most of them were. However, we recognized that the same conflict over the Holy Land has existed for centuries, and that Christianity, Judaism and Islam all consider Jerusalem to be a holy place. The pope at the time told the people that they would be rewarded and forgiven of their sins for fighting in the Crusades. Ordinary people wanted to reap those same blessings, so pilgrimages were born. When individuals went on these pilgrimages, they would take home a badge as a sort of souvenir. It was the middle ages version of visiting Washington, DC and bringing home a magnet. The children colored some of their own and pinned them on their shirts.

Cole's Special Day

Turning eight is a big deal for a boy in our house. You get to start going to scouts, which means getting a new uniform. You receive a new set of scriptures with your name on them. But perhaps the most exciting thing of all is baptism day. Cole looked so angelic in his little white outfit. After he was baptized, I looked over at him, and he seemed a little different to me, almost more mature. We're so grateful for Cole in our family. He is a very special, very funny guy!

Spanish Charades

This week we studied small animals in Spanish. To help the children make the connection with the English and Spanish words for the animals, we played Spanish Charades where we acted out the animals and gave the answers in Spanish. Anya chose to be an abeja (bee), and Creed was a pez (fish). Everyone liked when mom pretended to be una rana (frog).

We also made pictures where the children chose four animals, drew their pictures and gave them alliterative names. Our favorite? Tommy Tortuga (Tommy the Turtle).

LLATL

This year, I discovered these books, Learning Language Arts Through Literature. They go from grade school all the way up through high school. Each year, the student reads four classic books appropriate to their grade level, and completes grammar, spelling and writing tasks that go along with the books. In addition to the four books, the book also provides chapters with literature passages that the children copy from dictation and learn grammar principles. From the books and literature passages, we extract our spelling words list. So far, the boys are really enjoying this approach.

My Two Scouts

Cole began his journey through scouting as a Wolf this week. Here he is with Creed, who is finishing up his year as a Webelos. Scouting has been an incredible blessing to our homeschool experience. Whether it be writing an essay on "What America Means to Me" or fulfilling the Physical Fitness Requirement (as Cole did on Wednesday), there is always plenty that we can incorporate into our home education.

Life of Fred

When is the last time you heard a child say, "Can we PLEEEEASE read our math today? PLEEEEASE!!!" Yet that is exactly what I here daily from my boys because they love this book so much. It's a narrative about a little boy, Fred Gauss, who at the age of 5 1/2 teaches college level math. He's a funny little guy, and Life of Fred chronicles some of his adventures while teaching math concepts. But this book teaches more than math. The author interjects grammar and useful life information, such as a footnote on onomatopoiea or references to literature, such as Wind in the Willows. At the end of each chapter, there are problems to work that practice the skills taught within the narrative, but they focus on application rather than redundancy. For us, Life of Fred has eliminated day after day of boring math pages.

Spelling Success

I bought these photo holders to display the childrens' spelling/vocabulary words. At breakfast and lunch, they place them above their plates to study while they eat. They get new words on Mondays and have quizzes on Thursdays. Everyone received 100% today!

But spelling words weren't on our minds most of the day. We were a little preoccupied with these...

Shea received four Chargers tickets as a gift from one of his clients. So Creed and Cole got to accompany Mom and Dad to their first professional football game. They were playing the 49ers, and the seats were amazing!

What a great time! We couldn't believe how big the stadium looked, but that the field actually seemed smaller than on tv because we were so close the action. Really, this picture doesn't show do justice to how great our seats were.

The boys had a fantastic time! Creed loved seeing his favorite plays up close, and Cole liked when the big screen said, "Make Some Noise!" Everyone enjoyed doing the wave (well, except for Dad). They will not forget this experience any time soon.

The Language We Speak

For the second year in a row, we are using the second Story of the World for our history curriculum. Today we resumed talking about England after the Norman conquest. We discussed the effects of feudalism on the country and the pros and cons of such a setup. Life as a peasant/serf was definitely not fun. Who would want to have their pigs and chickens sleep in their home at night, but that's just what they did? The lords had a much better life, eating elaborate foods and enjoying spacious homes. This unbalanced situation upset the serfs, and they sometimes would revolt against their lords. That's why the lords began building stone castles. Creed and Cole built a stone castle replica out of blocks, complete with a keep, prison tower, kitchen, secret passages and windows from which arrows could be shot.

We also talked about the influence of the many groups of people that came to England. The Vikings, the Anglo-Saxons (who brought latin and greek words), and the Normans all contributed to the english language that we know today. The kids thought it was interesting that the words that the Vikings contributed were words like hungry, angry, and death.

Science is Fun!

Tuesday is Science Day! At the request of the children, we are studying the Human Body this year. We used Janice van Cleave's Biology for Every Kid to start our study, and drew models of an animal cell. Everyone agreed that "golgi bodies" is a funny name for a cell part. Then we used jello, plastic sandwich bags, and grapes to represent cell membranes, cytoplasm and the nucleus. But the best was yet to come. I pre-baked little cakes for each child, which they decorated with frosting and candies to represent all the parts of the cell.

Anya says she LOVES school. In fact, after everyone else completed their work, she wanted to continue doing math pages.

Back to School

On Monday, we were back to school and started our new curriculum and schedule. The older three kids were thrilled to get back to PE, so we started our morning with soccer at their PE class. While Creed, Cole and Anya played soccer, Mom and the twins cruised the track and played on the playground.

Once back home, it was time for SPANISH. We learned words for school supplies, played spanish bingo with our words, and made a collage.

Later, the children worked on their math and language arts. Creed and Cole were excited to start Life of Fred, a silly math narrative. Creed began reading Carry on, Mr. Bowditch for language arts.