Strawberries!

Outdoor Hour Challenge: Crop Plants #5 Strawberries

I decided to do our nature study early this week so we could use our strawberries before they were all gone! To introduce what we would be learning about I had them guess what kinds of seeds we would be growing in the window this week. They both guessed "Strawberries" right away. It was challenging to scrape off the tiny strawberry seeds and get them in the bag without losing them, but we all agree it will be interesting to see what happens. I'll include our results in next week's challenge.

We did the activities suggested by Barb at the Handbook of Nature Study because we don't have any strawberry plants to examine. Austin and Nyah had a great time cutting, examining, and, of course, gobbling them up.

Nyah included other fruits in her journal page.

Austin drew the strawberry plant with his strawberry.

One of my goals for our new school year is for ME to participate in our studies more. Too often I am trying to keep my toddlers out of the way while the older two are working (i.e. stop them from scribbling all over big bro. and sis. pictures). Today I let the toddlers go while we worked at the kitchen counter and it went okay. Having my one year old bring me my husband's deodorant, lid off and smeared all over her hands, was surprising, but only caused a small interruption. Here is my journal page.

I also included the poem My Strawberry by Helen Hunt Jackson in my journal.

In other Nature Study news:
Nyah still heads our neighborhood Praying Mantis Club, though an attack this morning by one of these little green guys has caused her to declare she is done catching them. We'll see if that lasts.
My tomato-eater closely follows me around the garden hoping I will let her pick tomatoes, and of course I do when they are ripe. And the happy faces of sunflowers are appearing everywhere! These are wild ones which are growing everywhere they can- empty lots, fields, cracks in the sidewalks, and along the streets.
We like to grow different varieties of sunflowers. Our "Autumn Beauty" are starting to bloom.
And so are the "Lemon Queen" for the Great Sunflower Project

Hopefully we will have several more varieties blooming soon!

Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival

I finally did it!! I worked up enough courage to write and submit my article "It's Inevitable" to the Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival. I think they include all articles that are sent to them, but I'm still pleased about it. I LOVE this carnival- I read each issue backwards and forwards, and I constantly check back to see if its time for the next issue. I should probably just write it on my calendar, but where's the fun in that?

Today's issue is at Harmony Art Mom

Happy Days to All!!

Its Inevitable . . .

As the new school year draws closer, I often find myself in the following situation: I'm talking with another mom- one who doesn't home school- and we reach the point where we discuss the upcoming school year. I share that I home school and with a twist of the conversation I suddenly feel like I'm been turned into a saint-

"Oh, you must be so patient" or fill in your choice of adjectives

"I know I could never do that because of whatever reason"

"That is such a fabulous thing for you to do"

and I can't help wondering who she is talking about.

I see myself as a normal mom with normal kids. My husband and I have simply taken advantage of being able to make a different school and life choice for our family. We are far from being "saintly" and when we are I think we must be sleeping.

In our house there is plenty of whining, complaining, arguing, tantrums, and resistance to chores and school work- sometimes the kids and sometimes me. While we have lots of happy, wonderful times, we can also be impatient, irritable, grumpy, cranky, lazy, obstinate, and querulous. We start our days with "plans", but they can frequently go off-target. My house is tidy and pleasant for maybe all of 5 minutes a day, and the rest of the time a tornado has come through (usually disguised as a toddler named Olivia or Jolie).

Like many parents in many different situations I often wonder if we are doing the right thing, if we are being good parents, what can we do to be better and do better, maybe we should do this or try that. I guess that like all other parents, making whatever type of educational choices, we are just doing the best we can and being there for our kids.

Okay I will admit it- I think that is pretty saintly.

Learning all the time

These are random photos from this week of some of the things the kids have been doing. We haven't officially started our school year yet, but I am working on getting us back to our school schedule instead of being able to run wild all day. There is naturally some resistance to this, but luckily my kids are learning all the time and don't even realize it!!

The kids wrote letters to their Grandparent Laws' and I wanted to show Austin's. I was quite impressed with his spelling, considering we have never had a spelling lesson. I think its funny he puts a "period" after every word to show where they end. Something to talk about I suppose.

The kids pulled out a magnet learning kit we have and worked through the instruction book, as well as coming up with their own experiments.
Coloring together! I get excited whenever Nyah lets Olivia sit next to her. Olivia doesn't always stick to her own coloring book.

When I had to help the little girls with something, Austin jumped in to help Nyah with her reading. Its wonderful to see them working together peacefully.

While the older two and I worked on math, Olivia and Jolie entertained themselves by pulling some kitchen chairs together to make a platform to play on. Looking at books was the tame part, running around and almost falling off was the wild part.

Olivia has been working on her scissor skills while I work with the older two on other projects. I love to see how hard she is concentrating.

Bach on the Prairie

On Saturdays I like to listen to "A Prairie Home Companion" radio show on NPR. This past weekend they replayed a show about Johann Sebastian Bach. I really enjoyed the music selections they included in their program, and that the kids recognized who the show was talking about.

Radio show about Bach

NPR

A Prairie Home Companion

Crop Plants #3- Corn

Some of the ears are bursting.

A white juice works inside.

Cornsilk creeps in the end and dangles in the wind.

Always—I never knew it any other way—

The wind and the corn talk things over together.

And the rain and the corn and the sun and the corn

Talk things over together.

-from "Laughing Corn" by Carl Sandburg

Yummy, sweet, crunchy corn!! This week's corn studies arrived just in time for the kids to help me stake our corn on a turbulent, gusty, wildly windy day. Despite our efforts, about half the stalks were blown over, and I wonder why, as I have for the last 3 years of gardening, why I keep planting corn. Despite the endless fields of corn successfully growing in the farm lands around us, my corn doesn't ever grow well and the winds beat it down. Oh well . . . at least we will have corn leaves to dry for a future project of corn husk dolls.

Also for our corn studies we set up our corn seeds in a plastic bag for the coming week and . . .

. . . and set about munching on a delicious school assignment.

The kids also helped me plant our green bean seedlings in the garden from last week's crop plant study.

My kids continue to be fascinated with the insects they find in our yard, but it was still a surprise to look out my window one day and find this crowd.

What were they gathered to see? One of them had tossed a grasshopper in the nest of a black widow, and they were watching to see what happened. I found myself fascinated and slightly horrified.

This event prompted a night-time black widow hunt with flashlight and bug spray in hand. After spraying 4 black widows I also found this beautiful creature under our deck. I haven't identified him yet, so he can continue to hang out unless I discover he poses a threat. Including the legs, he is about the size of a quarter.
My daughter brought this praying mantis home one afternoon. It was very aggressive and kept trying to attack us through the jar, making her very interesting to watch before releasing her into the next door field.

Johann Sebastian Bach

How to do Composer Study the Charlotte Mason way: Here.

Free music for Johann Sebastian bach at Classical Cat: Here.

Classics for Kids Biography and Radio Shows about Bach.

Mr. Bach Comes to Call - the amazing Classical Kids ficitonal audio cd's about famous compsers. This one wasn't as engaging for my kids as the one for Vivaldi, but after listening to it a few times they became more interested in it.

The Story of Bach - the Music Masters cd series which includes biography and music selections.

Library Books:

Bach (Famous Children series) by Ann Rachlin

Johann Sebastian Bach by Mike Venezia

Sebastian: A Book about Bach by Jeannette Winter

Bach's Goldberg Variations by Anna Harwell Celenza ***Kids' favorite*** Comes with music cd with all the variations.

Bach's Big Adventure by Sallie Ketchum ***Kids' Favorite***

We did the map activity from Homeschool Share's Bach's Big Adventure Unit Study.

And I read through Harmony Art Mom's Bach Compser Study.

Foregin Country: China

I am behind on my posting!! but I am going to make an effort to catch up this week.

As part of our history, geography we spend time learning about foreign countries. This summer we have been learning about China. The kids have long been interested in China, starting when they were 2 and 3, and Kurt was traveling there frequently. I think Hong Kong was the first city they were able to point out on a map.

Here are some of the resources we used to learn about this GIANT country!

CHINA

Wild China - BBC documentary series with 6 one-hour long episodes. These were wonderful, very similar to Planet Earth in format. Austin and Nyah both enjoyed watching all of these.

Library Books:

Once Upon a Full Moon by Elizabeth Quan

China: the Culture by Bobbie Kalman

Welcome to China by Caryn Jenner

Chinese Children's Favorite Stories by Mingmei Yip

We're Riding on a Caravan: An Adventure on the Silk Road by Laurie Krebs

Cooking the Chinese Way by Ling Yu

(I lost the list of books we read, so these are the ones that I remember)

Activities:

Cooking!!! You can't study China and not try to cook chinese. We used the above cookbook to make dumplings using won ton wraps. They were . . . edible, but not great. I was thinking the dumplings would be more noodle-y, but the won ton wraps mostly just fell apart. We filled ours with chicken and a variety of veggies- carrots, peas, corn, green beans, etc. My kids also love to eat with chopsticks, which is torturous to watch because they get such a little amount of food with each bite (especially with rice), but they keep doing it. And after dinner they use their chopsticks for wands or swords or whatever.

We have used the Sunbird seasoning mixes for a long time, and (amazingly) everyone eats dinner when I make it, which make me wonder why I don't make it more often. Lately I haven't been able to find the Beef & Broccoli mix, which is my favorite, but the Stir Fry mix works with any kind of meat and veggie combination you want to use. I rarely make the Fried Rice because most of my kids don't like fried rice.

My kids have also long been fascinated with the Chinese Lunar Years and Chinese New Year. We did check out a couple library books about these subjects, but I don't remember their titles. We sort of celebrated the Chinese New Year in February by going out to eat, my post about it is here.

Here are our Chinese Lunar Years:

Austin - Year of the Snake

Nyah - Year of the Horse

Olivia - Year of the Dog

Jolie - Year of the Rat

Kurt - Year of the Snake

Kelsey - Year of the Monkey

A couple years ago when my dad was in Taiwan (I think?), he brough Austin, Nyah, and I little charms of our Chinese years. Austin and Nyah's are currently missing in action because they like to play with them (and then lose them until I find them and put them away again). But here's a picture of mine:

That is pretty much all we did for our China study. We all had a good time.