Three Little Jewells
Archive for the month “July, 2011”
Ready for Bed
Someday I’ll miss this… little kids ready for bed. Faces & hands washed, teeth brushed, hair freshly combed….
Homeschooling Miscellany
Homeschooling Miscellany
Several years ago I won a Picturing America grant and received 40 large, museum quality prints of famous pieces of American art. This has proved a wonderful addition to our studies of the 1800′s this year!
Lewis & Clark encountered the Mandan tribe on their travels West, so I’ve posted this picture for the children to observe.
Catlin Painting the Portrait of Mah-toh-to-pa
Thomas Cole’s “The Ox-Bow”.
We’ll be studying Human Anatomy this year with our CC co-op so I’ve posted this on the door to our school room.
Kip found this 8 foot x 4 foot bulletin board in storage. I use it to post a little of the children’s work but mostly our US map & World Maps with pin flags- each time someone sends us a postcard, we mark its’ location on our maps.
Close up of our world map- we’ve got postcards from Guatamala, Rome, Belgium, Israel, Ireland, London, Germany, Brazil, etc.
Some new poetry selections. “The Random House Book of Poetry” has some fun additions and “A Family of Poems” is just gorgeously illustrated. Both are lovely! Although Favorite Poems Old and New is still our favorite poetry read-aloud.
Books we’ve read in the last three weeks! We’ve read about Napolean, Jefferson, the cotton gin, William Carey (missionary), the decoding of Egyptian hieroglyphics and fairy tales.
Path
I’ve been meaning to post a picture of this for a while- Mary & Nathan spent an entire afternoon building this path that leads over to the fire pit. I think they did a great job!
The Homeschool Mother’s Journal- 7/23/2011
In my life this week…
Such a busy week! On Monday I had dinner with an old teaching friend, on Tuesday evening I took Mary to Tae Kwon Do, on Wednesday evening I had a meeting about a new Classical Conversations Co-Op I’ll be joining and on Thursday the children had their first lesson with their new piano teacher and I had dinner for 25 people here at our house! Our neighbor, who has been a wonderfully supportive of our homeschooling, is moving to Philadelphia so we invited everyone on our street plus a few others from the neighborhood for a pot luck cookout. For sure, by Friday I was wiped out. Mixed in all this is caring for our home, meals, laundry, a very busy 15 month old baby and schooling the older three children. There were several days I hardly sat down and we didn’t make it to the pool all week. I don’t think next week will be any less busy but hopefully after this coming week things will calm down.
In our homeschool this week…
We are starting up week 4 of our school year and we are fully immersed in the 1800′s. We’ve added Evan-Moor’s History Pockets: Moving Westward. It is for grades 4-6, so a little bit above Mary & Nathan’s 2nd and 1rst grade levels. With guidance they can do most of the activities & I read the information to them out loud. We’ve also added in Tapestry’s mapwork- so far they’ve labeled a world map with continents and oceans and they’ve started their year long cumulative map project of the United States. History is taking a LOT more time this year but we are also having a LOT of fun!
Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…
My Dad is coming for a visit this week so I think we will take one day and go to the Natural Science Center- we’ll try to do the zoo & Science area and maybe go out to lunch. The children have Vacation Bible School every night this week as well. We are really looking forward to our 3 1/2 days with my Dad- the children love having him here & I especially love having him here during the school week because he always helps with the children’s school work. An extra pair of hands is SO helpful!
Things I’m working on…
On my list this week is a blackberry pie, a coconut cream pie for Kip and a lemon pie for Dad. The book I’m reading (see below). In the link at the bottom of the page, the blog author talks about intentionally trying to incorporate five things into their week- baking, painting with watercolors, modeling, drawing & crafting. I really love this idea and am trying to incorporate these more often into our days.
I’m reading…
To Learn With Love: A Companion for Suzuki Parents
Mary & Nathan have recently started Suzuki piano lessons. They’ve been taking lessons for several years but their first two teachers went back to teaching in the public school system. The teacher they’ve had for the last year six months decided to take the summer off so she could work at some summer camps & do some traveling. I really did not want to take that much time off so thought it would be a good time to try out a new teacher. Their new teacher is a very nice elderly gentleman. He has been teaching piano for 40ish years and has been teaching the Suzuki method for the last 26 years. Plus, he is *significantly* cheaper than the rate we were paying before. At our last lesson he brought me the above book to read so I’m working my way through it & enjoying it!
I’m cooking…
Saturday- Herb Crusted Porkchops, green beans, salad & left over baked beans from the cookout we had on Thursday.
Sunday- Breakfast for dinner
Monday- Chicken & Zucchini Stir Fry
Tuesday- Hot dogs & Hamburgers cooked out on the fire pit with chips, fruit, etc.
Wednesday- Chicken & Sausage Baked Ziti
Thursday- not sure yet!
Friday- pizza
I’m grateful for…
The first entirely free weekend we’ve had in months! No where to go, no company here, Kip isn’t working, no big projects taking up our time- it’s been lovely! We had a glorious day today. Kip helped me catch up on math with Mary & Nathan. For our nature studies we are using One Small Square: Backyard. They roped out a square yard in a wooded corner of our property. After observing for a while with Kip they made some sketches for their nature journals. Later, Kip gave the children another drawing lesson and they all worked on water color painting on our back deck.
A photo, video, link, or quote to share…
An inspirational post- I loved the photos of the crafting area she made and was inspired by her thoughts on incorporating baking, crafting, water color painting, modeling and drawing into her week. SMALL THINGS
Funny from Savvy
7/17/2011, 9:25pm- Kip & I are watching our summer series (NYPD Blue) and we hear a great wailing upstairs. Kip rushes upstairs to discover Savannah slipped off the stool while trying to fix herself a drink of water and has gotten her nightgown all wet. Oh the horror. On top of that, she’s sobbing because she left her little pet carrying bag with a stuffed duck in the car. Really, the suffering. So, we whisk her downstairs. Kip got her items out of the car while I settled in a chair with her, quieted her down and took her wet clothes off. Kip came back in and I asked him to hand me a pair of clean pajamas from the dining room table. (I was folding laundry in there earlier this afternoon.) He couldn’t find any and swore there wasn’t any pajamas in there. So I said “allright, if I get up and find a pair of pajamas, will you give me a $20 bill?” So I got up and, sure enough, there was her pajamas on the table. After getting her changed, I told her to go over to Kip and hold her hand out and say “Pony Up! Slap me a $20!” She got all confused and said “SLAP ME A PONY!”. ohmyword, Kip & I fell out laughing, it was so, so funny!
The Homeschool Mother’s Journal
In my life this week…
In our homeschool this week…
We started our new school year last week. We will be covering the 1800′s in our History & Literature studies through Tapestry of Grace. So far we have read about Napolean, Lewis & Clark and William Carey! The kids are making History Pockets and we’ve visited the High Point Historical Museum. Our study of butterflies & moths with Nancy Larson Science has been fun- especially since we found the Regal Moth! The eggs she laid last week have just started hatching so it will be interesting to see the caterpillars, called Hickory Horned Devils, hatch. The children drew the moth in their Nature Journals and I plan to have them draw the caterpillars several times in their 36 day life cycle.
Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…
I’m looking forward to seeing some old teaching friends next week!
My favorite thing this week was…
Visiting the High Point Historical Museum with the girls while Kip & Nathan were on their Father-Son camping trip.
What’s working/not working for us…
I’m struggling with Right Start Math. 
I really believe that this is a better way to teach math but the teacher’s manual is visually overwhelming to me. I look at it and my eyes just start to instantly glaze over. I find myself searching & scanning all the small print during the lesson, trying to figure out what to say or do next. Kip taught the lesson last night because I just couldn’t figure out what I was supposed to do or how. I’m hoping that this improves the more I use it because I really want it to work for us!
A photo, video, link, or quote to share…
Here’s a video link on the Hickory Horned Devil- these things are huge! Hickory Horned Devil Video Clip
Notes to Myself- from a Young Mother and Wife to an Older Mother, Mother-in-law and Grandmother
Notes to Myself- from a Young Mother & Wife to an Older Mother, Mother-in-law and Grandmother
I have thought about compiling a list of notes to myself for years. I’ve hesitated doing so because I do NOT want to cast a bad light on my own mother. I don’t know if my own kids or grandkids will someday read this & I do not want to give my Mom a bad name if this is read many years from now. Truly, the good and bad on the the following list comes from many sources- a few from my own Mom or Mother-in-law but many also come from stories I hear from friends, neighbors, aquaintenances, things I’ve read online, etc. Hopefully I will add to this over the years.
1. As a MIL, if you do not fully love and accept your child’s spouse, you WILL damage your own relationship with your child and your grandchildren.
