Homeschool Resolutions 2014

I decided to make a list of homeschool resolutions for 2014, print them out and keep them somewhere that I will see easily to remind me to keep them. Here they are-

1. Have more fun! Life isn't just for school and school doesn't have to be boring.

2. Keep to our schedule. Don't skip subjects and try and make them up later, those days are not fun. Read out loud every day.

3. Spend more time on art and music. Clarinet lessons twice a week and 15 minutes of practice each day for Babalu. Practice singing for 10 or 15 minutes a couple days a week. Paint more, color the driveway in a beautiful spring mural.

4. Find a way to make history exciting. Study more war leaders and battles. Get together with friends to reenact famous events.

5. Take a day once a month (preferably the last day, right before grocery shopping) and make it a "life skills day". Use the day to clean the house and make the kids help. These skills are just as important as what they learn in school. Take the afternoon and bake with them. Let them do all the measuring.

Bad blogger :(

I feel like a horrible blogger for leaving such an enormous gab between posts. So sorry Mom! I'm planning to start devoting an evening a week to blogging to keep this updated. This will also give me a break from World of Warcraft. I generally only play after the kids go to bed but I shouldn't play every night.


We are just about finished with our first semester! We have math to finish for Rookie (he will finish up today) and poor Babalu has to work all through his winter break on his multiplication and division facts. We have taken a break from his math books (Singapore 3A/3B) until he has these memorized through 12. We are working on 6 right now. 2-5 were super easy as will be 10 and 11. This break also serves as a time for Babalu to have a break from division with remainders which is what he was working on (rather unsuccessfully) when we started our break a couple of weeks ago. I'm a big believer in taking a break when something is frustrating you. It worked for the subtraction with re-grouping like a charm so I'm hoping it will this time. He should still finish his books by the middle of June and if not we will keep working through the summer.

We are taking a short break from our science curriculum to spend time studying two topics that are very interesting to the boys- dinosaurs and astronomy. When we return from our trip to Texas in February we will resume our normal study of science but for now we are enjoying the change of pace. We used the Magic School Bus Dino Kit. It was great but I did not like the model of the T-Rex (the pieces were not numbered and they didn't fit together very well) and we did not use it. We may finally put together the model of the dragon that we have or I may save it for a unit study over the summer (who wouldn't want to spend their summer learning about dragons?!). For astronomy we are using the Magic School Bus Solar System Kit. I'm super excited about it. We will start it in January.

For physical activity Babalu is doing swimming. He joined a local swim team and is working hard to improve. We may begin a routine of activity at home like jumping jacks, push-ups, crunches and the like. They enjoy that sort of this. They have also been asking to begin weight training. Rookie starts baseball when we return home from Texas. His league names the teams after real baseball teams. Last year he played T-Ball for the Mets and this year he will play Rookie level ball for the Angels. My mom is over the moon with excitement that her boy is playing for her favorite team.

I'm very excited to being doing more art with the boys. I'm going to steal an idea that a friend of mine came up with- a poster uniting the elements of design. That will be a nice way to finish up the spring semester.

I'm looking forward to a fresh start in January. I'm also looking forward to a couple of weeks off from school (aside from Babalu's math facts which shouldn't take more than an hour each day and probably not even that long).

Cub Scout Nova Award

A few weeks ago I discovered an award for scouts that is right up our ally- the Nova Award. This can be earned from Wolf Scout (the second rank in Cub Scouts) all the way through Boy Scouts and Venturing. I'm not sure how it works for the Boy Scouts since I don't have one but I do have the book for the Cub Scouts so anything I may be typing is in regards to that age group.

Basically what it is the BSA is trying to encourage the boys to learn more about the STEM subjects- Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. You can see why I'm so excited. There is also the Supernova Award that Babalu will be earning (Rookie is a Tiger and isn't old enough to begin his Nova work) for Cub Scouts and a separate one of Webelos (that he will be earning next year). It is a more in depth look at the STEM subjects and when he is a Webelo it has to be done under the direction of a mentor. Thankfully the Cub Scout award can be done with me.

For Babalu's Nova journey he has decided to begin with the science and engineering awards. I told him that he will get school credit for the work so he is excited about it. Next year he will work on the technology and math awards. It is a lot of work but he is determined to see it through. Plus he gets a really cool patch. When we plan all the work out hopefully I will be able to blog again about it.

*Sorry Mom for not blogging more*

Update

The blog has been pretty quiet (sorry, Mom!). Life has been getting in the way of blogging and even schooling (illness and injury). Here are some things I'm planning for the next few months-

• Christmas Around the world Unit Study (our main focus in December!)
• Poetry Unit Study 
• Fairy Tales Unit Study
• Alamo Unit Study (since we are going to see the Alamo on our trip to Texas in February)

We had our awesome trip to Las Vegas. I highly recommend the Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay and the Titanic artifact exhibition at the Luxor to people with kids (although only the Titanic exhibition if your child is interested and can handle the museum atmosphere). The Shark Reef was a blast for all of us, Snuggle Puppy especially loved it. We live 6 hours from Vegas and we only did 1 night so it was a very long two days but Snuggle Puppy did great in the car. He even used the potty! The whole way there and back! And has been using it consistently, even when he is in underwear and away from the house! Except for #2. I won't walk about that, though.

I want to throw a shout out to the Las Vegas Hotel. Their casino is smoke free so when you are eating at the buffet (which we did for dinner, we wanted the kids to experience a Las Vegas buffet) you aren't tasting smoke. Also it is off the strip a bit if that is important to anyone. The only down side was that the 2 beds in the room were doubles and not queens as is normal in hotels. But over all a nice stay. The wind in the morning when we were going back the car was so strong that poor Snuggle Puppy couldn't walk straight. Thankfully he didn't mind Mommy having to carry him. 

Critter classification

Things have been a little nuts with appointments and errands and things so no highlights the last two weeks. I have a couple of pics on my instagram that I can post. The boys were learning about classifying animals.

Today is the end of our first "quarter". In other words, day 45 or week 9. My hope is that everything can be caught up by today. Or by the end of the weekend. The shut down has cancelled Big Daddy's military work this weekend so we have an unexpected weekend with Daddy! We have planned a few educational activities (the fun stuff we don't have time for during the week) and we are selling Cub Scout popcorn on Saturday morning. We are also thinking of heading to a local-ish Renaissance Fair (it is about 45 minutes away). Who knows. But I'm not letting this weekend go to waste!

Geography revision

I have decided to throw out the old plan for studying world geography and just go with whatever country Top Secret Adventures and Little Passports has sent us. We can build around the info we receive from them and also incorporate our Expedition Earth. We have not received out first Little Passports shipment (it should be arriving soon) so I can't say too much about it but we love Top Secret Adventures by Highlights. Mystery and adventure really appeal to Babalu and Rookie so it is a good fit.

We have several TSA packets waiting for us on the shelf. They are Australia, Mexico, Greece, and South Africa (we also have Japan which we have already done). One is also on the way. I gather from LP's Facebook page that Brazil will be arriving soon so we are set for the next few weeks.

I also wanted to announce that Snuggle Puppy did so well in his class at our co-op! He looked sad for a few minutes but after that he was wonderful. So happy for him.

Also I assisted in the k-3 room yesterday. The kids learned about Eric Carle and made a lap book about The Very Hungry Caterpillar. The lady leading managed to tie in the days of the week as well as story sequencing. She rocked and the kids loved her. I hope I do as well when it is my turn to teach!

Tiger Den meeting 1 & 2

We have done two meetings so far and both have been mostly trying to get the boys to learn all of the things they need to know to earn their Bobcat badge. All new scouts have to earn this regardless of their age. To earn it they have to know things like the Cub Scout Promise and the Law of the Pack and all that cute stuff.

To earn the Tiger badge the boys have to complete 5 achievements and there are there three components- a family oriented component, a den oriented component and a "go and see it" component. Last week we completed our den activity for achievement 1- "Making My Family Special" by making scrapbooks. The family activity is to do a chore with your parent so Rookie and I (and Babalu) filled a bucket with warm and soapy water to scrub Snuggle Puppy's new (to us) playhouse. I know that one boy did this at home but I have to email the rest of the parents (which I am going to try to do every Thursday or Friday) to remind them to do it. I love that there are activities that the boys are required to do as a family.

Last night's meeting was a blast. After 20 or so minutes of listening to Big Daddy drill the boys on their Promise and Law I reminded him that we had a game to play. I had written the Law and the Promise three times each on card stock and then cut each line up. The boys were to put the lines in order. Then one of them decided that we (Big Daddy and I) hide the pieces for them to find. At first I was a little unsure about that but it turned out to be the best part. They had a chance to get up and RUN around and made the whole thing more fun. It also made us realize that at the beginning of each meaning we needed to spend 5 minutes "getting the wiggles out". Only 2 of the boys don't really need  this but 3 of them do (including Rookie!). After all this I'm confident that at our next pack meeting (end of October, in fact we will come home from Las Vegas about 5 minutes before we have to be at the meeting) all 5 of them will earn their Bobcat badge.

We do have one boy who is going through some family changes and is a bit of a challenge to detach from Mom but I'm hoping that if we keep it fun he will stay interested.

Our next meeting we are going to be working on achievement #3- "Keeping Myself  Healthy and Safe". When I made the plan for the meeting (centered around nutrition and fire safety) I will post about it. I wasn't able to find a lot of blogs for this sort of thing so I'm hoping when someone Googles for ideas my blog comes up and can be helpful.

In case anyone is wondering Babalu is going to earn his Bobcat Badge when his little brother does, he knows everything. Last night he said "quiz me Mommy", it was adorable.

Both boys have electives and belt loops to earn on top of the 12 achievements Babalu has to learn for his Bear Badges. And both of the boys are very ambitious with the electives and belt loops they choose to earn, especially Babalu, and they will be very busy (and broke because many of Babalu's electives require things we don't have around the house) doing all of the work. I'm working on a plan to help them earn similar (or in the case of belt loops the same) requirements together and, where I can, include it in our school work. I'm hoping to document the work they do to post on here so that Bubbe can see all the way from Texas.

Weekly Highlight {week 7}

Last week's highlight was impulsively joining a home school co-op. On Monday afternoons we head over to a local church and the kids have a 2 hour class about a famous person. The K-3 class learned about Johnny Appleseed and the preschool class learned about Mozart. Snuggle Puppy was still recovering from a tummy bug (that I thought he was completely over but apparently was wrong. Thankfully it wasn't contagious.) so I had to stay with him in his class. Tomorrow I'm assisting in the K-3 class so hopefully he will cooperate for his teachers. The big boys made friends with the other boys in their class and had a blast playing after class last week. Hopefully it will continue to go well. I'll admit that I'm a little hesitant about it because we aren't Christians and the co-op is at a Baptist church. But hopefully as long as we are respectful and not rubbing it in people's faces it won't be a problem.

In a few weeks I am leading the preschool class and I decided to read one of the James Harriot stories (because they are semi autobiographical) to the kiddies and have them make sheep out of construction paper, googly eyes and cotton balls.

Throwback Thursday

Little Rookie at Knott's Berry Farm. It was right after Halloween so his Happy Potter tattoo is still on his forehead. He was 2.5 years old years old.

Tot school

Playing with his "Popus"... aka pom poms

Weekly Highlight {Week 6}

We were running late with our spelling this week so I didn't give Babalu his spelling pretest until Tuesday. He scored a 33%. He had never done that poorly on a pretest before so I wasn't sure he would do well on his test today. I've never been so happy to be wrong! Between the practice worksheets and oral quizzes he learned them so well that he spelled them ALL correct today. He has never earned a 100% on a spelling test before (always an 80%) so we are all very proud of him.

Mondays...

I do not care much for Monday. Especially today. I slept horribly last night, woke up feeling like I was hit by a train and was so wrapped up in making a photo book on the Shutterfly website that I didn't shower (I will do it during our lunch break after Snuggle Puppy has his nap). Also the back cover fell off my planner. Needless to say I do not want to school today but I know I have to. So off I go.

Weekly Highlight {Week 5}

Last week was hard. We had a holiday and then a death in the family so we had to play catch-up on Friday.

We did decide to can our read aloud. It was boring for all of us. So tomorrow we will start a new one. 

We also did a science project using yarn to show the length of a child's digestive track. Babalu and Rookie were shocked by how long it is. They guessed the length in inches long (, not feet so their hypotheses were wrong but a whole lot. They enjoyed it. Today we may take the afternoon and do another experiment or two to pass the time since Big Daddy has to work. They both really enjoy science and hands on stuff. 

Weekly Highlight {Week 4}

Weekly Highlights from Week 4- Scottish Games!

We traveled a few hours to a giant gathering of Clans and hot kilted dudes (with an extra and very rambunctious boy the boys met at Zoo Camp and our good friend Larry, from Big Daddy's work). It was a long day but still fun. We watched a few dudes try to toss the caber (we only saw one guy it it completely over and one dude turned it but it didn't land at the best angle for scoring). Caber tossing is my favorite sport in the games. During a trip into one of the vendor buildings I bought kilts for the boys, they look so precious.

Snuggle Puppy in his MacLeod of Lewis tartan and in his shorts standing in front of the Clan MacLeod tent.

He was very adorable. I bought a second one for Rookie that I think is the US Marine Tartan. He liked it the best. I also suspect it is a woman sized but the "Y" sized was short like a girl's skirt. Plus it will last longer this way. I plan buy Babalu his own because he spend more time in Rookie's kilt than Rookie.

All in all a fun day. I can't wait to go again next year and see more of the sporting events (they had Sheep Dog trials this year and I've always wanted to see that and I missed it).

Potty training

With Babalu and Rookie we didn't push potty training. We thought it would be easier on everyone to just follow the lead of the child in question and it worked great. Babalu was fully trained by 3.5 and Rookie by 2.5 (Rookie wanted to be like Big Bro and Daddy!).

Snuggle Puppy is throwing us for a bit of a loop. We have been reading potty books but without any expectations of potty use. Until his doctor said that he was going to keep getting rashes and spots in his diaper area until he was trained because his skin was reacting to his urine. His skin has always been sensitive. And his urine is extra stinky. He drinks plenty of water so we are guessing that the smell is from holding it for so long. Clearly he is ready for using the potty.

So with that in mind we are going to try to be proactive about the whole thing. So here are our planned steps.

• Only padded underwear at home (sold as "training pants" by Gerber and the house brand at Babies R Us. Not the least bit waterproof but don't make a huge mess when peed in. Also my favorite padded underwear that actually contain mess really well are available by a company called Cloth Indulgence. Plus their prints are SUPER adorable).
• Beginning to stock up on waterproof training pants. I am planning to try the Snap-ez stuffable trainers (we used them for the older boys but they have changed their products so I'm not sure if I will still like them), the GroVia My Choice Trainers and Flip Potty Trainers. We would clearly put these on him when we leave the house.
• Use the potty on a schedule to get him started. This morning after our "good morning" and hugs I took off his diaper and it was totally dry. Same thing with yesterday. I put him on the potty and after 10 or 20 minutes he went. He didn't let it all go but it was a start. And about half an hour later let the rest of it go in his high chair. 
• Reward potty use with M&Ms. I would love to use juice as his potty reward since it has the benefit of filling his bladder and in our house would be a huge treat. But Snuggle Puppy doesn't like juice. 
• I'm considering buying him a potty training doll like Potty Scotty.

Hopefully we can stick with this plan and help our little Snuggle Puppy be a big boy like his brothers. 

Scouting

Until recently the Boy Scouts of America has been pretty anti-gay (they still don't allow gay adult leaders but at least they are allowing gay scouts. Not perfect but hopefully soon they will include everyone). As someone with a gay best friend that bothered me and I've been pretty vocal about that, probably to the point of looking like an ass. But as a Mom to 3 strapping young men I now see the value that organizations like the scouts have. They help young men build skills and character and connections. They will make friends and go on adventures.

So with that spirit in mind I signed my 2 older boys up. Babalu is now a Bear Cub Scout and Rookie is a little Tiger Cub Scout. Big Daddy and I will be sharing the responsibility of being the Den Leader for Rookie's Tiger Den and I'm looking forward to playing with all the little boys and helping them earn their Bobcat badge and Tiger badge. Babalu is pouring over his handbook and picking out the things he wants to do. They are boy super excited.

As for the anti-gay nature of BSA I will say this- our pack meets at a school so I am hoping that it never comes up. Also my boys are very offended by the thought that gay people don't have equal rights in our country so if anyone says anything they won't be swayed to think anything different.

Weekly Highlight {Week 3}

I should have posted this yesterday but I was busy. It happens :) Here are last week's highlights.

 Babalu talking to the zoo educator at the Stingray Bay. She said he actually gave her new bits of info. And she taught us that some sharks lay eggs like chickens do so in that boat are shark eggs that people can look at and hold. Unfortunately she had no idea who the eggs would taste scrambled :(

Rookie lost his first tooth! This is awesome since the adult tooth was half in behind it. He loves his shark tooth.

 Charlemagne has joined the Blue Man Group

We finally began our Magic School Bus Human Body kit. We made a stethoscope that actually worked. I could even hear poor Rookie's murmur.

Big Daddy trying to convince Snuggle Puppy to come into the pool. Not our pool, it was a function for work and was horrible for a few hours but then I started to talking to one of the other wives. Turns out her 4th grade son is as obsessed with the Titanic/Robert Ballard/Underwater Archaeology as my boys. We will be seeing them again for sure! In the end Snuggle Puppy didn't end up in the pool.

Curriculum 2013-2014

Here it is, our complete (I hope!) curriculum list-

The work they do together

R.E.A.L Science Odyssey Biology Level 1  The kids are loving all of the hands-on labs. Word to the wise- if you buy the ebook don't waste your money on the physical book, they are identical. For some reason I thought the ebook was just the workbook pages but it isn't. I'm not complaining, it was less I had to print out. We also supplement with The Magic School Bus Human Body Science Kit. We love the Magic School Bus books and the TV show as these kits are very exciting for us. I am hoping to work our way through all of the kits in the next couple of years. There are also a few weeks in our school year that we needed to find another program because the one we picked can be done in 24 weeks. We will be using Sonlight's Science B. We used this when Babalu was in first grade and it wasn't perfect but since we already own it and ran out of time when we used it the end will be fairly new. It also happens to be the section on the solar system that the boys are both interested in. It should be fun. Maybe... 

History Odyssey Middle Ages Level 1 Really loving this... We are looking forward to learning about a viking with the same name as Babalu and an Arthurian knight with the same name as Rookie.

Expedition Earth

Country Study Lapbook to help us make lapbooks for countries not included in Expedition Earth

Music Theory Haven't actually started it

Crafts from Preschool Corner that we have had for many years. We so these occasionally. Hopefully by the time Snuggle Puppy in 2nd or 3rd grade we will have gone through all of them.

I'm still searching for something artsy to do that is geared toward older kids but we might just to crafts and both free and guided painting/drawing (suggestions welcome!).

The work they do at their own grade level

Evan-Moor has the books we use for:

Daily Georgraphy
Daily 6-Trait Writing
Daily Spelling (Rookie doesn't do this)
Daily Language Review (Rookie also doesn't do this)
Daily Phonics

We also use Singapore for grammar and the Sentence to Paragraph book but we may stop soon. Babalu has a lot of work and I'm beginning to think it is too much and these are more review for him.

Here is the handwriting we use. It is very easy for the kids and doesn't take a lot of their time.

Rookie uses the Sonlight first grade Language Arts without the horrid "I Can Read" series. The stories are nonsense and can be hard to read, kind of like a tongue twister. We also skip anything religious because we aren't Christians.

Babalu uses Bring the Classics to Life readers and really enjoys them. We don't use them all of the time, maybe one a month, because they are short. Right now he is reading 20,000 Leagues under the Sea and is enjoying it. He finished The War of the Worlds in May and also enjoyed it.

For math we use Singapore and love it. We do skip the instructor's guides and find mental math sheets free from the internet because the instructor guides are very expensive compared to the textbook and workbook for each level. . We use the CA Standards editions. Erik is doing 3A and 3B and Tristan is doing 1A and 1B.

Classical Academic Press is where we find our Latin programs. Love these. I am excited to use the many of their other products when the boy's are older.

Since we have to do health we are using Horizon. Can't say that I'm thrilled with it but it is requited by the state we don't have too much of a choice.

Big decision for Bubbe

My Mom decided to quit smoking! She has tried in the past and has done well but always slid back. I'm proud of all of her attempts, it is not easy to quit. Babalu is also excited, he doesn't want his Bubbe to have polluted lungs. I hope she reads this so she knows how proud we all all of her.

{Weekly Highlights} Week 2

I would love to have put a picture of our awesome play date that lasted all day on Wednesday up here but I just can't. This week's highlight was the bad kind of highlight:

There is more damage under the plastic bumper thingie. The kids and I were coming home from the market on Thursday and we were rear ended on the freeway. The kids are fine which is the most important thing. I, on the other hand, had back and shoulder pain on Thursday afternoon so there was no school work. And on Friday I was dealing with some very minor whiplash also resulting in no schoolwork being done (I had a persistent neck and headache). Yesterday I woke up feeling fine so I think I'm good to go. And this coming week there will be a lot of school work (trying to fit 8 days of work into 5 days so we don't get behind, sounds nuts but it is doable).

{Weekly Highlights} Week 1

I decided that, since my poor Mommy doesn't get to see this stuff, to do a weekly highlight post. Since we just finished our second week I have to catch up so here are the highlights from week 1.

First are these- Rookie and Babalu each decorated a compass rose (available from Montessori print shop). Rookie only added the main directions since he is younger and Babalu added all of the directions. Poor Babalu, being in 3rd grade is hard.

Also there was the first playing of Catan Junior, the kid version of Settlers of Catan. They have both been wanting to play the Star Trek version but they are kind of young so I bought the kid version to start. And it was on clearance.

Overall it was a productive week.

One week down

Last week was our first week back at school. It went very well (aside from Babalu and his dawdling). We have a new daily schedule that is working great. So far here is what we are doing-

7am Boys up/brekkie/dress/morning chores

9-12 School (math, reading, workbooks)

12-1 Lunch/Recess (Rookie likes having recess instead of just a break)

1-330 School (read aloud, science, history/geography, music/art, Latin)

330-4 afternoon chores/clean up school stuff

4-5/530 TV Time

After TV time is dinner and then all the other usual evening stuff. We haven't started music/art or Latin yet, possibly this week but maybe next. When the boys are finished with the work for each block of time they are free until the next block of time. This means that Rookie has more free time than Babalu because he has less work. But Rookie is younger and still needs time to run around. On Wednesdays our morning school block is shifted to 930 because of Snuggle Puppy's speech therapy.

I'm working on a post with all of our curriculum and lists of read alouds. I am also thinking of having an overview of the week on Fridays so my Mom can see some of the highlights.

Camping with kids

This series is on hold for a few months because our camping trip was canceled due to a fire. It wasn't too near our campground but with allergies abound in our family I wasn't going to risk the bad air. It was the only chance we were going to have to camp until the spring because we have a family trip planned to Las Vegas. I am planning a post on going to Vegas with kids because it possible to visit there and have a good time with everyone.

Update on testing

I gave Babalu that darn math test and it didn't go so well. Many problems were worded differently than he had ever encountered and since I couldn't say "you know, it's when you do ____" he would not know exactly what to do. He had also never (not EVER) taken a math test. This year we will work more on passing standardized tests (Spectrum has a book for each grade level). I never bothered to test english because I know he can read above grade level and I'm sure it will just be a repeat of the math test so we will just work on it and take the 3rd grade test in the spring.

Testing

Have I mentioned that Nonni is a teacher? Well, she is. In the 12 years I have known her she has taught 1-5 grade and maybe even Kindergarten, I can't remember exactly. In the last few months she has been nagging  encouraging me to give Babalu the STAR tests (the standardized tests for California, the state we live in). She gave me links to both the english and math portions. Today I am printing them out and over the next couple of days he will be taking them. I'm sure, after looking them over, that Babalu will do fine but I am still interested to see how he does. I shall report his results at the end of the week.


And now a totally unrelated cat funny:

{Throwback Thursday}

Rookie eating his lunch and reading his book, just like Mommy. 

Camping with Kids II- Packing

*Intro to this series is here and part I is here


It seems that our family prefers colder weather when camping. Maybe because where we live gives us more 100+ days than I care to think about and we want a much needed relief. Or maybe it is because our food stays cold on it's own. The reason's don't really matter, the point is I have to scrounge up jeans, long sleeve tops and heavy jammies for the kids.

This summer we are lucky and seem to have enough tops and jammies for Babalu and Rookie. Snuggle Puppy has plenty of jammies (I found a box of his brother's clothes in the garage). I obviously had a few things to buy (I took advantage of the internet!).

When I pack my kids for an overnight trip with specific dressing requirements I have a system. I start with the outfit they will put on the last day and pack it first. On top of that the jammies for the last night and on top of that the clothes of the day before and you get the idea. It saves time and we always know what clothing is dirty and clean. I find this especially important when camping because there is dirt everywhere and I want my kids to wear clean clothes. Or at least put on clean clothes in the mornings.

Zoo Camp

I am so thankful to live near (less than 5 minutes away) from a rather nice zoo. Over the school breaks they have Zoo Camp (each topic last a week during the summer and one day for the shorter breaks). Last summer Babalu and Rookie spent a week learning about life under the sea. This summer they will spend their week learning about being a zoo keeper and even get to design their own habitat. They start their first day in 1 hour and 33 minutes. So excited for them to get out of the house and have so much fun.

Camping with Kids Part I: Diapering

*Intro to this series is here*

For many people the question of "how to we want to diaper our little one?" is an easy one and they pick up an extra bag of disposable diapers and wipes. For others it isn't so easy. The real question becomes "do we want to cloth diaper on our camping trip?". On our last camping trip we went for it and used cloth. It was only a weekend so it wasn't too bad (especially considering our week long trip out of state on which we used cloth only 6 month before). We have used disposables when we leave the house many times but since we were already buying new things for the trip and I went over-budget on food (poor planning... that is a whole post on it's own) we wanted to save the 20 bucks and use cloth.

My strategy-

1. Make sure all of the diapers are clean the morning we leave so we aren't leaving a pail full of nappies at home.
2. Plan on when to change Baby and then add 2 per day. That is how many to bring. I ended up packing all of our Thristies brand covers (my absolute favorites), which is about a dozen, with all of our prefolds and pocket diaper inserts to just put in the covers (*covers do not need to be changed at every change, only 2 or 3 per day are necessary). For each night, in our case 2, I packed a double stuffed Fuzzi Bunz. This is what we use for nighttime at home. I also packed all of our wipes (just two layers of flannel sewed together and a few wash clothes) and had a water bottle set aside to get them wet. We will also have the gDiapers that we keep on the car on a regular basis. 
3. I kept all the cleans in a a duffle and brought a pail liner to keep the dirties (held together at the top with a hair tie). We did not have an issue with smell and if we had I would have put a cup of baking soda in with the dirties. Baking soda is amazing for getting rid of odors.
4. "What did you do with the poo?" is always a common question when cloth diapers are concerned. This is the answer- it depends on the poop. If it the kind of diaper that the poo can be easily shaken into the toilet I do so. If it isn't I don't worry about it and just put in into the dirty bag (now that I'm really thinking about it I should have a separate wet bag for these so I know where they are) and rinse them with the diaper sprayer when we get home. 

Something else you can do (that I have done in the past) is use the disposable gDiaper inserts with the Thristies covers or the gDiaper covers. I like these inserts because they biodegrade very quickly (you can compost the wets!) and disposable diapers take a very long time. This is what I like to use when Snuggle Puppy gets a yeast rash and I need to use the prescribed cream for a few days (and then I follow up with a week or two of coconut oil at each change. I haven't had a build-up problem with the coconut oil so I feel comfortable using it with cloth diapers).

I hope this has made using cloth on camping trips a little less scary :)

Social Science planning

When possible I like studying world history and world geography together. When we study the Celts I want us to study Scotland (so excited for that week!), as an example. That isn't always possible because sometimes 2 or more topics take place in the same place and, aside from England, I don't want to study the same place twice because I want to introduce as many places as I can. I also managed to mostly arrange the geography topics by continent, just by luck. We will be reading books on each country and putting together lap books. Many of our geography materials are coming from a program called Expedition Earth and also from Continent Boxes. Some of the countries we plan to study are not included in the Expedition Earth so I have to search the internet to find materials. Hopefully it won't be a problem. As I've mentioned before our history comes from here.  
This is the list of what we are doing when-


     HISTORY                                                             GEOGRAPHY

1. Overview of the Medieval World                     Over View of World Geography
2. The Byzantine Empire                                      Turkey
3. Charlemagne                                                    Belgium
4. Monks of the Christian Church                         Italy/Vatican City
5. Islam/Arabs                                                     Iran
6. The Vikings                                                     Sweden/Norway
7. The Danes/Holy Roman Empire                       Denmark
8. The Normans                                                  France
9. 100 Years War and the Black Death               England
10. The Feudal System                                         Germany
11. Knights                                                           Wales
12. Castles                                                            Ireland
13. Medieval Villages and Towns                          The Netherlands
14. Christian Church/Medieval Architecture           Spain
15. Pilgrimages and the Crusades                          Israel 
16. Richard the Lionhearted and Robin Hood        England
17. The Celts                                                        Scotland
18. Burundians/Habsburgs/War of the Roses        Austria
19. The Mongols                                                  Mongolia
20. The Russians                                                  Russia
21. Africa                                                            Africa  *Africa is listed as it's own topic in history so I thought we would take 2 extra days during the week and study the entire continent at once. We will make time later to study each place on it's own.
22. India/South East Asia                                    India
23. China                                                           China
24. Japan                                                           Japan
25. Explorers                                                     Australia
26. Pacific Ocean Islands                                   New Zealand
27. Native Americans -North                             Canada
28. Native Americans- North                             Mexico
29. Central/South America                                 Brazil
30. Central/South America                                 Argentina 
31. The Turks/Ottomans                                    Peru
32. The Renaissance                                          Panama
33. More World Expansion                               Venezuela
34. The Mughals/Reformation/Counter-Reformation  South Korea
35. Elizabeth I/William Shakespeare                    Thailand
36. Middle Ages Keepsake Books                    Arctic/Antarctica 

Over our Winter Break I am planning a unit on celebrations around the world. We are mostly of German, English and Scottish extraction so I am planning to incorporate more of those countries traditions into our family celebrations (we have been celebrating St Nicholas Day for years and the boys always looks forward to having St Nicholas put candy and a toy in their shoes).

{Wordless Wednesday}

Last week of the 2012-2013 year

This is our last week of school! I'm so excited to have a month of goofing off, trips to cool places and play dates with friends. Also looking forward to turning our junk room into a school room for the boys.


Babalu has a camp this week from 8-12. He has his reading book to finish plus reading his independent books for summer reading. He may not enjoy it but I want him to continue reading a book each week or two (depending on the length) from now until he moves out. Generally he grumbles when it is time for a new books but after a chapter or two is more than happy to lay in bed or on the couch reading. So far his favorite genre is mystery so he is enjoying The Hardy Boys Secret Files books.

Rookie isn't old enough to attend the camp so I have the pleasure of his company. So happy. He has math to finish up plus I want to him to read a books or two this week (and every week) for his summer reading programs (both boys are doing summer reading through the library and the local Barnes and Noble). Today he will start Hop on Pop (my personal favorite Dr. Seuss book).

Snuggle Puppy has no opinions since his routine won't be changing much. He may get more attention since won't be busy with his brothers. He has recently discovered just how awesome Pooh Bear is which thrills me. I adore the 100 Acre wood and all of it's inhabitants so I love sharing that with my boys.

Camping With Kids Series- Intro

For years I turned up my nose at camping. There is DIRT everywhere. Showers are either nonexistent or have to be paid for. I have to sleep in on an air mattress.! All very horrible things for me. But somehow, last summer, I decided I could live with it for a weekend (Friday afternoon until Sunday morning). We took one camping trip last fall (that is just how our schedules worked) and the camping bug bit me. When we made our reservations for our campsite last fall I did what any uninformed person should do- I googled "camping with kids" and "camping with toddler". I found just enough info for me to feel comfortable with our plans. I decided that I should add to internet's repository of knowledge on the subject by blogging a series of posts. I'm hoping that my series will help others. Our current camping trip is scheduled for the first weekend in August so as I prep our supplies I will be posting and expect at least one post after we return home.

 Aside from our regular cast of characters we also add a few more-

RP3- my BFF/boy's favorite uncle

Fish Guy- RP3's boyfriend and another favorite uncle. He also likes to keep fish.

Nephew #5- self-explanatory. He joined us last year for camping and will be joining us again. He is a blast. He is #5 because I have 6 nephews and in chronological order he is the #5. Same age as Babalu and is one of his and Rookie's best friends.

Niece #5- also self-explanatory. She is sister to Nephew #5 and Niece #6. I have a lot of nieces/nephews (including great of either kind), my husband comes from a large family. She plans to join our next camping trip.

Other Other Grandpa- Niece #5/6 & Nephew #5's other grandfather. Navy Vet and Camping Extraordinaire. Also joining us for our camping trip. Really cool guy with cool stories and is really good with all the little boys. Real Outdoorsy type.

{Throwback Thursday} Babalu

 Baby Babalu with his binky. The only one of the three boys to use a binky past the first few weeks. He stopped using it on his own at about 8 months old. Was so thankful to not have a Binky Battle when he reached his first birthday. He was such a sweet baby, pudgy and soft. Thankfully he is still that way, aside from the pudgy part- he is rather trim now.

Sick kids

Nothing like having a feverish toddler sleeping all day and not wanting to sleep at night... it is going to be a long day!

{Family Friday} Marketing-

It's that time of the month- the monthly marketing at the nearest Navy base. Big Daddy is not in the Navy (although his was in his youth) but his current service in the local Air National Guard means we can still take advantage of the (mostly) lower prices on base. Since I stocked up on bacon today I saved $40. I kid you not, it is at least $4 dollars more expensive per pack in town (why yes, I did buy 10 packs. I know what you're thinking but it will last us for months, we don't eat it very often).

Since it is a 45 minute drive to the base I need to make sure I buy things that are a substantial savings. Occasionally there will be something that is more expensive but mostly I find better deals on base or at least prices that are the same. I did a price comparison several months ago so I feel good about my decision. Plus the kids love being on a base. They don't care if it is Daddy's base, they just love the whole atmosphere and so do I.

Generally the things I don't get are a specific brand or size... I want the huge bottles of real maple syrup and Erik's specific yogurt brand preference and the right kind of bread. We are also taking advantage of the amazing local produce and going to farmer's markets. We used to subscribe to a CSA which gave us a weekly box of local produce but we weren't able to pick what we wanted and often ended up with something we didn't care for. Plus it gives us a reason to get out of the house as a family.

Shopping monthly like this also means that I have to plan meals by the month. I also plan dinners by season (who wants shepherd's pie on 100+ degree weather?). I try to get Big Daddy's help with planning dinners or at least the veggie side dishes. My kids are unfortunately picky eaters so they don't get too much input because if they did it would be sandwiches and pizza and chicken strips all the time. I do allow them to have their picks at lunch and thankfully it is generally just peanut butter and honey sandwiches or hot dogs served with yogurt or applesauce. Nothing fancy. Breakfast is usually pancakes or french toast but occasionally hash browns or cereal. Easy to plan for :)

Healthy Eating Tip

In the evening while making Big Daddy's lunch salad for the next day I made myself one, too. It is so nice to only have to prep once and if I'm tired or, far more likely, I'm too busy to fix something yummy and health it is waiting in the fridge for me. All I have to do is add onions, dressing and almonds for crunch.

{Wordless Wednesday}

Holidays

I love holidays. Not only do we get a day off of school but also my Honey has a day off of work.

On the subject of summer holidays I have a few thoughts-

Last summer I had planned to do school through the summer, aside from the weeks Babalu and Rookie spent at zoo camp and at their Nonni's house. I wasn't thrilled with the thought of all that knowledge I just spend 9 months helping them learn would stagnate in their little minds. It didn't work out that way and we ended up with most of July off. Contrary to my belief they did both remember the things they had learned and the world didn't end (pretty much how in I envision all things ending!). In retrospect it was better that way and this summer we will take the whole month of July off on purpose. I always hated the summer break when I was a kid because there was nothing to do at home (I lived in the boondocks). Babalu and Rookie love vacations, though. They are able to ride their bikes and play in the backyard (usually jedi games) when ever they want and we take day trips or go to parks. Their lives are far more exciting than mine was at their ages.

The boy's Nonni is a school teacher and we also take holidays when she does. Her school district has a wonderful week off in February called "ski week". Her school is near a ski resort so this gives the students (and faculty!) a change to do snow sports during the week. We take this day off and generally the big boys spend most, of not all, of it with Nonni. 

Secular history

One of the hardest pieces of our curriculum to pick has been history. My state doesn't require history specifically only "social studies" which meant that after our pick for Babalu's first grade year didn't work out (Story of the World volume 1) we were able to stick with geography and reading random books about relevant topics. This continued into his second grade year when I became annoyed by Sonlight's Core B "lets pray for the 'godless' people". On the other hand Sonlight has an amazing selection of books about history for kids so we use the books but without the instructor's guide.

Part of the difficulty is that we are a secular homeschool. Most of the history programs I have found are Christian based. I don't have a problem with that but I do not want to teach history with that view in mind. After constant searching I have found History Odyssey by Pandia Press. Basically you buy an e-book that has a schedule, list of required books, suggested books and projects. They also go from ancient history all the way to modern. We follow the classical method in this way (it is also the way I wish I had been taught history).

Because we didn't start this new program until early this year we skipped a great deal of it as to finish in June. It is working out really well. We are skipping the map work this year because Rookie is still young but beginning in the fall (when we begin the study of the middle ages) we will be doing that. So far we have studied the beginning of time, the ancient Egyptians and currently the Ancient Greeks. Babalu is enjoying the reading but so far Rookie finds it a bit boring (everyone loves the projects!). Hopefully as we continue on our homeschool journey he will begin to enjoy it.