simple machines

D is learning about physical science this year and we decided to begin our year with simple machines. He decided to start with some LEGO education building kits, being the LEGO enthusiast that he is. He built a tractor to demonstrate how wheels and axels work, and a crane to learn about pulleys. In our homeschooling group we've been exploring bridge designs and D's class built a truss bridge. At home we've been using the book 'The New Way Things Work' by David Macaulay and Steven Caney's 'The Ultimate Building Book' to read more about simple machines. If you haven't seen either of these books, they are definitely worth checking out of your local library. They are awesome!

everything i need to know i learned in kindergarten.

Ah, Kindergarten. Remember the naps? The snacktime with those little cartons of milk? Learning to raise your hand before speaking? Sitting up front on the bus so as not to be inundated into back-of-the-bus-mayhem at too young an age? I have fond memories of playing with the letter people in Mrs. Erikson's class, of striving to color inside the lines, of finding the courage to hang upside down from the monkey bars with no hands, and of dressing up as Ms. A in the Kindergarten play.

Kindergarten has most likely evolved since 1981, and kindergarten here in our house certainly differs from my kindergarten experience in many ways. First of all, J hasn't napped since she was 2. I often encourage her to color outside the lines just to shake things up a bit, you know, think outside the box and all that. I'm sure the concept of learning your letters at age 5 would seem absolutely ridiculous to her. However, our mutual love of snacks very much lives on. I mean, who doesn't love snacks? And the sweetness of early learning - the snuggling up while reading together, the crafts and creating, the wide-eyed wonder of learning something new, the pride in mastering a task, are things that are very much present here as J begins her Kindergarten year with much pride. I hope she holds on to that wonder and joy in learning in the years to come.

M.I.T

We kicked off our fall learning with two field trips to M.I.T. They offer classes for homeschoolers at the Edgerton Center for education and this year Dylan has been twice. He took part in a motorized LEGO car ralley and also made a quizboard, which helped him learn about circuits. The girls enjoy coming along for the ride, riding the T and running on the quad with their HSing friends.

lazy bloggers

If blogging were a class entitled 'one more thing to add to your busy life that you will truly enjoy but eventually find you don't really have the time for due to your tendency to procrastinate and already very full schedule' we would pass with flying colors. I must admit that I am a bit embarassed that it has taken me so long to return to the blogosphere after our summer hiatus, but here we are, finally writing a new post! our school year is off to a great start this year. We have changed much of our curriculum which seems to be working very well for D. Here is a list of the resources we decided on for this year:

Math-U-See 4th grade
Learning Language Arts through Literature 5th grade
Winston Grammar Basic Level
Prima Latina
The Story of the World Vol.4 and Kingfisher History Encyclopedia
The New Way Things Work, combined with lots of building kits and experiments to explore physics

J is now a kindergartener, a moniker she wears with great pride. She continues to work on her reading and writing and is very earnest in her endeavors! I've struggled with the idea of teaching reading to a young child, having been through it once before with D. It seems that they pick it up so much faster if you wait a bit longer, say around age 8. But she wants to read so very much! So we work on it a bit each day, and as long as she is enjoying the process I'm happy to go along with her on the journey. I've been using Houghton Mifflin's Reading for Meaning and Bob Books to combine a whole language approach to reading with phonics. We use math every day in our daily lives, and I also have Saxon Kindergarten Math for the days when she would like a formal approach to learning math. She has decided to learn about animals this year so thus far we have been focusing on insects, arachnids and mammals. We are using Around the World in 80 Tales to learn geography, along with maps, puzzles and crafts for reinforcement and fun, of course.
Of course with both children our curriculum continues to be a jumping-off-place, or point of departure for learning. I let their curiosity or interest in a subject or idea be the fuel that sets us on course, and that's when learning becomes a real adventure!

summer art

This is D's drawing of the Gurnet, complete with blue jays.

Summertime

We have settled in to our summer home, our favorite place in the world, and one of the most beautiful beaches I've ever seen. This is where DG and I met, where we fell in love (awww) and where he proposed. We were a bit late settling in here this year, but now that we are finally here we've been boating, building castles, staying up far too late with friends and family, catching crabs and minnows, digging sea clams, toasting marshmallows by the bonfire and reading lots of good books. The water has been shockingly warm (let's hear it for global warming! wooohooo - that's sarcasm, difficult to pick up via computer so I just thought I would clarify) so we've all been swimming lots and lots. It's rare that I put so much as a toe in this ocean, but I'm loving it this year. D and DG have been fishing up a storm, though so far they've only caught sand sharks and small cod.
We've been barbecuing, making fruity summer drinks and eating drippy watermelon. I've realized that my true calling in life is laziness, slothdom, and mastering the art of doing absolutely nothing. Ahhhhh, summer. I love it. And I feel so fortunate to live in such a beautiful place, where I can fully enjoy it.

busy bees

June has somehow become the new December. What used to signal the end of a busy school year has now become chock full of graduations, holidays, baby showers, recitals, end of year reporting to our school district, and packing up most of our belongings to move to our summer home. My visions of leisurely sitting on the beach, watching the kids splash in the surf has more or less been postponed until July. In the midst of the craziness the kids did participate in several recitals. J played in three violin recitals, and D pretty much rocked his recital, playing drums for the first time and possibly causing substantial hearing-loss for the people sitting in the front row. He also joined Julia in a duet on violin. It was nice to see him pick it up again and he was pleasantly surprised to find that he remembered how to play it.