Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Clean

I am feeling pretty pathetic. More important to me right now, than my kids schooling is the state of my home! (That makes me feel pretty pathetic!)

This morning, after being on vacation in Florida for a week, I woke up at 5 am to the smell of dinner cooking in the crockpot. Yes, that's right. I went to sleep with pinto beans and rice in the crockpot so that I would have my protein ready for breakfast/lunch/dinner. (How does oatmeal and beans sound for breakfast? LOL)

So, 5 am, and I am up and running. I fulfill my computer addiction by reading news/blogs/email/FB for over an hour. (This is something I don't want to waste my life on, and plan not  to spend much time on the computer in the future.-ah my noble goal!)
Afterwards, I work-out, start laundry, feed kids, load the dishwasher, put the trash out and start mopping the floor..I really think i may have a problem with wanting things to be a particular way.
I want to get to the point where my house can be in utter chaos and I still am able to peaceably continue my homeschooling day! I will get to this point!  Even after waking up at 5 am, we still did not start school until 8:30 am! Because everything had to be just right, before I could focus on homeschool.


So that is my goal, getting my house to an organized point so that it is not constant cleaning and de-cluttering. (*Tip* Look at everything on your desk or counter, and say "Could that go somewhere else?"
and you will start getting rid of clutter :)

J.R. Miller says~
"The woman who makes a sweet, beautiful home, filling it with love and prayer and purity, is doing something better than anything else her hands could find to do beneath the skies.

This website has a free e-book if you blog or twitter about it today. "Having a Martha house the Mary way".
 Reminds me of the story where Jesus was visiting with Martha and Mary. Mary was busy listening attentively to her Lord, while Martha was more anxious about the state of the house and preparation of food for her guest. Jesus finally admonished Martha and said "Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her" (Luke 10:38-42).

I believe that often in our hurry to have everything "just so" we can miss out on the
important things right in front of us! So I will be working on this :)

Friday, April 15, 2011

My Semi- Montessori Method

I have always been interested in Maria Montessori. I spent about 5 months working in Montessori Childrens House of Denver, as a teachers helper. I really loved how the kids were treated like little adults.
They really "led" their own education, daily free to do as they liked in the classroom. Whether it be working with an abacus, reading in a cozy corner, measuring colored liquid with droppers, or cleaning oxidized pennies with baking soda and lemons! It really is quite amazing. I saw five year olds reading fluently and doing multiplication and division-True, they had been in Montessori since 6 weeks old, but it was amazing for me to see. It made me a true believer in "Montessori Method"

Carrying that method out is another story! The organization and consistency I do not have, and the educational toys are extremely expensive, so I stick to ones that are easily found around my home or the dollar store :) I found a tray, a rug (for setting activities on), some little glass bowls, a shower curtain for messy events, and fun timers,(to give an added time-limit element to some activities)

One simple Pre K activity is a smell/match game. It involves multiple bottles with different scents mixed up, the child then finds the 2 that match in scent.
I used the above salt/pepper shakers and placed 3 cotton balls in each. On the top cotton balls, I scented 2 bottles with vanilla, two bottles with Almond extract, and two bottles with Peppermint extract.
Jessica really enjoyed it, and it took Tori just a minute to match the mixed up bottles with the correct scents!



Every week, involves filling our reading corner, and bedside table with lots of wonderful children's classics. I follow a classical education site, where these above books were recommended for ages 5+








Here is a picture of Tori in our homeschool room with a couple of her activities that we did for "Letter T" day. I have to admit, I have shifted my focus to the phonetic sound and not the letter name anymore. That can come later :)
Closer, you can see the Tree is made out of colored noodles, and she painted the Trunk.
We then colored a Tiger and made sand paper letters "T t"


The next day I had Jessica work with Tori, I just gave them all the materials and Jessica gave the lesson on letter "Z". This is common in Montessori environment where they have Multi Age Grouping. An older child will often be paired with a younger child to work/teach a skill.
They also read the two Bob books that pertained to the "zzz" sound.
I think this encapsulates the Montessori method, because it was a child led activity that was fun & play while still being educational. Positive for everyone. :)

Thursday, April 7, 2011

The Sound of Music play

We went to see The Sound of Music at the Broadway Palm Dinner Theater in Mesa, AZ.

We went for my Mother in law's birthday and were happy that the tickets were thru the H.E.R.O
newsletter with Jan Parsons. (always happy with the shows we've seen thru them)

To say it was absolutely wonderful would be an understatement. It was undoubtedly the highlight of my year, and I wish I could watch the show EVERY single day.

Jessica and I already sing most of the music from the soundtrack daily, so as we prepared for the show to start, we were already noisily humming "Lonely Goatherd"
The ambience is beautiful there. Lot's of teacups, candles, dark wood, and chocolate chip cookie smells.
We had so much fun dressing up, having dinner, and an all you can eat dessert bar, before the show started.

Here is "Maria" and the children singing Lonely Goatherd during the thunderstorm scene.


And Captain Georg Von Trapp with Elsa on his lap!


So funny! Please, if you are able support our local theaters. A great evening was had by all!

Easter party

My great friend Kimberly Delongchamp put together a fantastic Easter party for our neighborhood. Complete with the Easter Bunny himself!

I was honored to be asked by the Easter Bunny to read a small story on the steps of the park about "Curious George and the Easter Eggs"
Yes, my friend is amazing, that is 800 filled plastic eggs!

Show & Tell

We had show and tell, one of the last Friday's in March. The girls really wanted to buy my mom a gift for her farm.
 This made a wonderful opportunity to a) buy gift b) have cool show & tell object to share.

Off to the Triple D Feed store and we are now the proud owners of two French Guineas!
Who will grow up to look like this
They love to eat ticks, so they are awesome for farms in the south that have tick problems. Many junk yards also have guineas instead of a dog. Guineas will roost high in trees and sound quite the alarm if ANYTHING happens out of the ordinary.

Here are the girls telling about their guineas (You can't see the 12 or so people listening!)



Play time



Snack time ( we were celebrating March B-days)



March 22nd a Sunny day for the Renaissance Festival

I was bound and determined to learn how to spell the word renaissance by the time the day was out, but I still misspell it every time!


I did the girls hair in the morning because I did not want to be suckered into those $40 braids they do for kids at the festival.                                          Et Voila !


We had just finished the portion of our Sonlight curriculum that covered the time period 1400-1600 AD. We studied lots of Michaelangelo, the Medici family, and the rise of King Henry's Church of England.
Here is a great book on Michaelangelo and Queen Elizabeth.

I definitely wanted Jessica to learn something about the renaissance from all this.
 (We went on elementary student day-which made the festival very modest & clean)

We watched the falconry show -


And the jousting tournament.( I was so glad she finally was able to see and understand a joust!
After we had read so much on Castles, Keeps, pages, stewards, lances, knights etc etc etc. She finally got a great visual!)

Their favorite part of course was a pantomiming fairy named Twig
Tori still talks about Twig, and how her stone is out of fairy dust. :)




Jess on the bungey line




The long day was finished off with a visit to Great grandma's house, and a rest in Grandma's lap


And a mad rush back to a church in the West Valley where Jessica sang "Raindrops On Roses" and "Part Of Your World" at her very first vocal performance! 
Great job! Although eye contact was only made with the floor for her ;)
I am so proud of this gentle girl!

What that in the Sky? It's a bird! It's a plane! It's rain?

March 21st we had a scheduled trip to go to the Glendale airport's Fixed Base Operator (fancy name for flight school)http://www.aerosimaviation.com/

The plan was to have the kids get a presentation from a real life airline pilot, (step in nervous airline pilot husband) fly in a simulator, have an aviation related snack (my airplane cookies with the wings falling off) and hopefully listen to Air Traffic Control bringing in a few personal aircraft to land on the runway.
BUST!!!-We had rain, 60 degree temps, and heavy clouds above the airport that morning. But that did not stop our determined young minds-we pursued our FBO tour, hoping that we could steer some of the talk toward weather and how it affects flying. 
This is the 710M simulator the kids flew. I think only a few crashed ;-)

Bobby told the kids that being good in math is an added plus (pun intended) in aviation.
But anybody can do it. They just have to teach themselves how to learn the material and retain it.
 He started when he was 14 years old mowing grass and washing cars, to make money for his flight training!
Bobby showing the kids a Cessna 172
I think he touched very briefly on Bernoulli's principle of lift, (how particles of air move faster over the curved top of the wing thus creating a sucking vacuum and therefore lift)
First Office Stokes pointed out the Stall Indicator device. Which can be tested manually by sucking on the bug infested wing (yum!)
"Yes, I think this wing is flight worthy"
All in all, we had a great time. Above are two of our 8 year old boys who may have dreams of sailing the skies one day soon.

Thank you to First officer Stokes and Aerosim Aviation for your knowledge and time!