Our Homeschool

Last year I made the decision to try homeschooling my son, Ethan. Though he was only 4, I decided to start introducing kindergarten age concepts and consider it a "trial run." I didn't use a formal curriculum, just worked from various books to introduce developmentally-appropriate material to him. If our "trial" failed miserably, he was still young enough to start kindergarten in public school next fall. If it was successful, I wanted to be ready to jump in with both feet and be prepared to educate my son. He soaked up EVERYTHING I introduced to him and loved doing workbook pages and playing with math manipulatives.

I started doing research on various homeschool methods and my local homeschooling laws. I found myself drawn to The Well-Trained Mind by Jessie Wise and Susan Wise Bauer and after checking out from our local library a third time, I realized I had to buy it. The classical style of education (or trivium) made a lot of sense to me as it is history centered and more or less chronological, on a four-year cycle. I have a bachelor's degree in history and found it very disconcerting when I realized that Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln were not only contemporaries, but born on the exact same DAY. I was taught history in a disjointed, disconnected, very US-centric way, that I had no idea what else was going on in the world during the US Civil War.

Ethan was catching on to kindergarten concepts so well, I decided we'd jump right into a first-grade curriculum this fall. For our first "formal" year, I chose to closely follow the suggestions outlined in The Well-Trained Mind. It is sort of my safety net or the foundation of our homeschool.

For "core" subjects, I've stuck with the suggestions in the book and/or using books the authors created such as First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind for grammar, Writing With Ease Workbook for writing, Spelling Workout, and Story of the World. For math, we chose Saxon. I had to research a variety of math programs before choosing this one. We like it, though whether or not we'll use it in future years, I haven't decided yet.

I used the book suggestions for a science curriculum, combining animal study, human body, and plants, but to add in some hands on we're working our way through The Usborne Big Book of Experiments. Ethan LOVES the experiments because he thinks they're fun and I like that they take very little prep work and use mostly common household items (which also makes them a bit safer).

I've taken some of their suggestions a step further, using Harmony Fine Arts for our art and part of our music. I'm supplementing that with G Major Music Theory to teach music theory and piano basics.

We do a lot of reading. Ethan has quiet reading time and we read together a lot. Trips to our library are a weekly event. I choose nonfiction books that correspond with our studies for the week and he chooses fiction stories for his quiet reading time. We're working our way through the "Little House" series together and enjoying them a lot too. I love to see him enjoying reading and picking up books without prompting.

That pretty much covers our homeschool for this year. We started "full time" on the 8th and are getting into the groove. We ran out of time for his math lesson on Friday, and he reminded me on Saturday that we needed to do it!

Tide pools

Friday I took Ethan on a field trip to Rosario Beach, where there are great tide pools. There we met Adam, the interpretive guide for Deception Pass State Park, who gave us a guided tour of the tide pools.
Here is the pool area of Rosario Beach:


We saw a lot of marine life that day, and I hope Ethan enjoyed it as well as learned from it. I'm sure we'll be back often as it is fascinating to see what lives in the pools and its close to home.

The first thing we saw when we got to the park were rabbits. It was late morning, and rabbits are plentiful on this island. They're also pretty fearless... I stayed on the trail and one that we passed didn't run away until I was about 2 feet away from him.

In the tide pools we got to see some cool things that aren't common unless there is a minus tide and you are looking for them.

We saw Red Sea Cucumbers:


Tube Worms:


and Anemone:


We also saw various limpets, chiton, shore crabs, a large rock crab, hermit crabs, barnacles, fish, and finished the trip of with an eagle flying over head.

Ethan finished the morning by throwing rocks in the water and jumping waves.


You can see the rest of the photos from our tide pool adventures on Flickr.

52 in 52 item #18

I finished project #18 for my 52 in 52 craft challenge. It is a really cute apron for Ethan. The pattern is a freebie I found at Joann.com and the fabric was from my stash. He absolutely loves it. The day I gave it to him, he put it on and wore it for about 4 hours. We've decided this one is going to grandma's pottery studio so he has one his size to use and get dirty in. I learned from my mistakes on the first one, which were purely my fault and not the pattern. I plan on making at least one more of these. I even took Ethan to the fabric store with me to pick out fabric. Next time I think I'll use cord rather than making a 44" long tube that I have to try turning right-side out without tearing the fabric or losing my mind.

Here's a photo of the boy modeling his new apron:

Forgive me...

but I'm going to brag a little. This has been a highly productive week for me and I feel like sharing. On Monday we went on a field trip to Tulip Town as part of the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival. We went early in the morning to avoid the crowds and had a great time. We even got our picture in the newspaper. I let Ethan use my point and shoot camera and he had a lot of fun taking pictures. Here is my favorite of the ones he took:

Here is my favorite that I took:

You can find more of the photos we took that day on my Tulip Trip Flickr set.

Tuesday we had library day and swim lessons. I took all our garage sale leftovers to the thrift shop.

Wednesday we went to grandma's where Ethan got to see the chickens and plant his very own row of onions in the garden.

Thursday I worked my little tail off and broke my single day production record and produced 1220 lines of transcription. Before 3:00 p.m. Ethan also had swimming again.

Friday I helped my mom load her wares for the local Garden Art Show into her car. While I was at her house, I helped myself to some of the anaerobic digester compost (very rich, dry, not stinky compost) she got for the garden. I turned the dirt in our garden at home and added in the good compost so we have a place for our tomatoes and peppers. I planted potatoes, onions, lettuce, spinach, mesclun, basil, parsley, and cilantro in containers. Cliff built a potato box last week, so that is what were growing our potatoes in this year. He painted it black to help retain heat and protect the wood. Here is a photo of the potato box:


I took more items to the thrift shop to donate and found the *perfect* bookcase I needed for our school room. Well, it wasn't perfect; it was 8 feet tall (I have 8 foot ceilings) and only 8 inches deep, but it was only $20 and everything I'd looked at so far was $80+. I couldn't even make it myself for that. The books can hang off the shelf if necessary, and I had Cliff cut the top 2 feet off for me.

Saturday I sanded, filled, and primed the new book case, mowed the lawn, took the kids for a bike ride to the park, and started lining a knit bag that I've been avoiding for almost a year.

Sunday I sanded the book case again, and painted the first coat in the color Ethan chose (dark red). We took our lunch to the beach and the kids played at the playground. I ran two clothes lines and am looking for a sewing pattern for a clothespin bag. Right now I'm soaking beans to make my white chili later in the week and I still plan to mix a batch of artisan bread dough. oh! I finished lining the cabled bag! Here's a final photo:


All this and I still worked every day, cooked a full dinner from scratch every night, cleaned the house, and did laundry. It must be spring.

oh! Fireplace update. The new mantle is framed in, the pipe has been run in the chimney, the electricity is wired in, and the new stove is sitting in its new spot. Hopefully, the project will get wrapped up this week.


Phew! I think I need a vacation.

Spring has sprung!

I'm sorry I've been so quiet, but I've been really sick for more than a week with a nasty cold/crud that apparently is going around. I couldn't even knit! Today I finally feel somewhat normal and I get to spend the next two days working at the yarn shop. Yes! I work a couple days a month at my LYS, Knot Just Yarn. I don't think I've actually mentioned that here before, and I don't know why, but I've been working there for about six months now. This weekend is the annual shop retreat and I get to stay in the shop and hold down the fort.

It is officially the first day of spring, and if it weren't for these:

you'd never know it around here. We've been having weird bouts of snow and rain and wind...yes, I know i live in Washington but the rain and wind like this is usually reserved for November.

I started my first lace project and so far I love it. The yarn is Kauni, and the pattern is the Northern Lights Shawl.
I don't have enough done yet to really show much, but I'll post a photo when I'm further in. Links to the project on Ravelry are in the sidebar.

My baby turned 5 years old this week, on St. Patrick's Day. This kid is so smart and so full of energy some days I wonder, did I really give birth to him? I knit him a pair of socks for his birthday but he hasn't gotten them yet because his party is on Sunday. I'm sure there will be photos to share.

We have chickens! I've thought about raising chickens for eggs for a while now but we just don't have the room. One day my mom called and said, "what do you think about raising chickens?" The first four lived with us for a couple days so Ethan could handle them and play with them. He even took photos of them:

They've since moved back to my mom's, where they will live permanently. Just this week, she picked up four more, for a total of 8. They are all Barred Rock Hens (hopefully) but we got 8 in the off chance one is a rooster. Mom has been building them a chicken tractor that can easily be moved around the property and garden, and next will come the coop/run with nesting boxes. Come this fall we should have fresh eggs on a regular basis. I am pretty excited because not only do I know exactly where my eggs are coming from, but I can use this as a great educational tool for Ethan. He named the first four and has grown particularly attached to one he named 'star' (she has a little yellow diamond shape on her head).

Happy Spring!

Rite of passage

So this week I went through a rite of passage, an age-old tradition that I am told every parent is put through by each of their young children. My sweet, wonderful little boy.... gave himself a hair cut.

Inaugural Color Walk

In an effort to find fun ways to incorporate lessons into daily activities, I've instituted what I call a "Color Walk." Ethan gets to pick a color and then we go out for a walk at our favorite place, Washington Park (it is a 2.2 mile paved loop but we take the shortcut so its closer to 1.75 miles) and take photos of everything we find in the chosen color. This allows me to get out and get some exercise while giving him something to do along the way that holds his interest.

For our first color walk, Ethan chose black. Here is a sampling of some of the things we found:

My glove

Ethan's pants and shoes.

A speed bump.

Rocks down on the beach.

A trail sign.

A One-way sign.

And last, but not least... we saw two different families of black-tail deer. It is pretty common to see them though I think there are only 2 or 3 families in this park. The first doe we saw had one fawn. The second had her twins.
Sorry about the quality on the last one, but it was taken through the windshield of my car.

A Plague Upon Our House

My baking, and therefore blogging about it, came to an abrupt end early this week when Ethan came down with a nasty stomach bug. Naturally, as a thank you for cuddling him, babying him, and washing his sheets at midnight... he passed the bug on to me. He recovered for a day and then relapsed so we were miserable together, right up to Christmas Day. We were able to spend the day with family, assuming we'd been sick so long, we couldn't possibly be contagious anymore. Though, I suppose I should look at it from the positive side... I didn't gain any extra weight from stuffing myself on Christmas dinner and sweets or over indulging on wine, because I just couldn't stomach it. I was hoping to share a couple more cookie recipes, but I guess this means I can save them for next year.

On the knitting/crocheting front, I did manage to finish all but one of my gifts. On top of the things I blogged about previously, I managed to finish one more pair of slippers, a wrap, a washcloth, bath mitt, afghan, and a headband. The one thing I didn't finish was a scarf for my sister. For some reason, now I'm having trouble getting back to it. It is the day after Christmas and I don't want to knit! My mom ordered a volume of the Barbara Walker Treasury for me as a Christmas gift and Cliff gave me a gift certificate to the yarn shop, so I'm definitely well armed.

The snow is finally melting but the wind is picking up. The snow level is supposed jump up and we're supposed to have flooding by next week. We just can't win when it comes to weather this month.

So, I'm off to force myself to work on the scarf. If I manage to avoid it, I'll be uploading photos from Christmas...

Snow!

We have snow! Typically, we get one brief stint of snow in December, and it has arrived. Overnight we received about 4 inches of snow. Ethan woke up about 7:00 a.m. and immediately started bugging me to go outside and play. I managed to fend him off until about 10:00 and he lasted about 30 minutes before getting too cold. (I lasted about 5 minutes.) The snow is actually quite dry, which is unusual for us. Ethan was bummed he couldn't make good snowballs, so he made snow angels.

The sun is coming out now and I just LOVE sunshine when there is snow on the ground. It is still pretty danged cold, but a little sunshine to warm your face somehow makes the cold bearable. (Keep in mind that "cold" here is 25-30 degrees, it doesn't usually get much colder than that.)

Mother's Day

Ahhh, Mother’s Day. My son made a card for Grandma, at my suggestion, and Grandma enjoyed it very much. I was finally able to put a photo of my Needle Cozy up on Ravelry. Since it was a Mother’s Day gift for my mom and she is on Ravelry, I didn’t want to spoil the surprise. I put 2 sets of needles in it for her, and now that she is getting more into knitting I’m sure she will use them.

My sister and her SO and my brother and his wife and kids drove up and we spent a beautiful sunny (though somewhat windy) day on the deck enjoying each other’s company and lots of good food. Brilliant photographer that I am, I FORGOT my cameras… both of them! So, there is no photographic evidence of the day, but we had fun. I made rhubarb crisp! The rhubarb came out of my mom’s garden. To me, rhubarb crisp is a signature of spring/summer. I’d share the recipe, but it’s a family secret.

I received my deposit from the IRS on Friday… $600 for economic stimulation. Too bad I have to send it right back to them for self-employment taxes.

A day of days

Yesterday was quite a day… I think I managed to re-injure my ankle slightly. While stretching I felt a pop and then could barely walk until I loaded up on ibuprofen.

I had to call a plumber for the second time in a month, at $400 a visit, because my shower and toilets backed up. Apparently, there was a blockage in the main line… again. I do not understand where this is coming from because Ethan is not flushing things down the toilet. The first time it was apparently caused by a 20-year accumulation of lint. This time, we never found out what it was.

Ethan had his first day of Peewee Baseball. Basically, they spend an hour corralling 30 four to six year olds while attempting to teach them baseball skills. He had fun and was very excited, but I think he needs to work on his listening skills.

After all that, I came home and found a surprise waiting in my mailbox. On Ravelry I am a member of a group called Random Acts of Kindness. Each month, members post their “wish list” and one of the items I wished for was knit and crochet magazines. Katalina sent me a surprise package with 5 knitting magazines and some tea. Thanks Katalina!

Socks and gloves

I've been making great progress on my first sock. My only complaint is that I should have knitted them on 4s rather than 3s. They seem VERY tightly knit. They look like they are going to fit fine and make great house socks. I must remember to get some puffy paint or something similar to put on the soles so I don't slip and fall on my hardwood floors! Turning the heel on a sock is MUCH easier than I expected it to be. Like I've been told many times, just do what the pattern says and don't over think it! Now, here's hoping I don't end up with second sock syndrome.

Now for gloves... Ethan broke the laces on his brand new baseball glove, the one Auntie Casey and Jon got him for his birthday. It came with a ball attached and apparently he wanted them separate. Rather than asking for help, he just pulled it off, breaking the laces. When I told him that he broke it, he was VERY upset, apologized, and started crying. I felt bad, because he didn't even realize he had broken it. I told him I would try to fix it, but I needed the right tools. So now I have to try to find leather lacing that is strong enough and re-lace the fingers of the glove. Hopefully I can do it in time for him to start PeeWee in three weeks.

The mind of a child

So, I've been kind of out of commission with a cold this week, but had to share a funny from yesterday. Ethan was playing baseball on the Wii. He pushed the pause button, and the game said, "Time Out!" From my office, I heard him get upset and run out of the room. When I went to find him, he was sitting in his time out chair, very upset! I couldn't help but laugh and though I tried to explain that "Time Out" means pause in baseball, he hasn't played the game since.

Ethan is all signed up for PeeWee Baseball and he is so excited! He loves playing with the plastic T-ball set he got for his birthday (Thanks Jan & Cookie!) and wants to play with other kids. Casey and Jon got him a ball and glove for his birthday, which he is patient waiting to use until practice starts April 30.

On a knitting note, I've started my first pair of socks. I'm trying to be better about working more, which means less knitting time but it calls to me!