August 24-28, 2009

I've discovered that I've been using the old editor for blogspot, so I've switched it to the new one in hopes of putting an end to my photo-posting frustrations.  Fingers crossed!

It's been a crazy week.  I think they might all be crazy this year, though, so I'll try to get used to it.  The first meeting of the kids' book club I'm running is on Monday, and I'm not at all prepared (though I have at least finished the book!)  We're reading From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, and I really need to get to work coming up with some topics and questions for discussion.  I'm going to have to kind of get in there and see how things go before I really can figure out how guided the discussion should be, though, I think.  I'm kind of nervous.  Mostly I'm afraid the kids will be bored.  Maybe I should bring snacks.  Nothing is boring when there are snacks, right?

Our new co-op started on Tuesday.  The kids' classes didn't start until one, but we got there early for recess.  There were a TON of kids there, and the playground was sort of insane.  The kids found their friends L and M, though, and had a great time.  Then they went off to science class (Ari was signed up for geography, but he decided to switch at the last minute).  Halfway through science, someone had to come and get me because Milo had gotten frustrated about something or other and was under the table screaming.  Good times.  He actually doesn't melt down particularly often, but when he does melt down he doesn't hold back.  Sigh.  I'm hoping next week will go more smoothly.  After science Ari went off to his filmmaking class while Milo and I set up for the board game club I'm running.  I was thinking this would be a fairly easy thing to do, running a board game club, but it was a lot more chaotic than I expected.  I had mostly a bunch of 4 to 6 year old boys, so there was a lot of running from kid to kid trying to explain game rules.  Next week I'm going with simple games and/or games most kids already know the rules to.  And maybe a couple more active games to break things up; an hour is a long time for five year old boys to play board games.  At one point one of the kids told me, "I wish there was a TV in here."  "I don't think many parents would sign their kids up for a TV club," I explained.  But, yeah, I was kind of wishing it was a TV club by the end, too.  Ari had chorus after filmmaking, and he really enjoyed all of his classes.  His friend L is taking the same classes he is, but is also taking an art class and a creative writing class in the mornings, both of which I think he'd also enjoy.  We might do classes all day there next session; might depend on whether I sign them up for Spanish again or not.

Now let me try to post pictures and see what happens!

 

Okay, so far so good.  This is Ari doing his multiplication wrap-ups.  This kid has an incredibly good memory for most everything, but for some reason we seem to be spending three years working on the multiplication tables.  So I'm having him do these for five minutes every day in hopes we can get it over with once and for all.  He just started Singapore 4 maybe two weeks ago?  I can't remember.  At any rate, he did rounding and estimating this week in that.

 

And some scenes from Milo's Right Start math.  This was the "Handshaking Game."  Each of the dolls and stuffed animals got a number and then they had to shake hands with whoever had the number that went with their number to make ten.  Does that make sense?  I.e. if Polar Bear's card said 4, Milo would have to look around and see that Cookie Monster had the card that said 6 and then have Cookie Monster and Polar Bear shake hands....

...like this!  It was all about making 10s this week in Right Start.

 

  

We kept working on our human body books in science.  We went to Michaels, and everyone picked out a sheet of 12 by 12 scrapbooking paper for the covers.  Then we came home, finished the covers, and assembled skeletons.

 

...and it just so happens that one of the books Milo is reading this week is about bones!

We finally made Pennsylvania pages for our state notebook.  I am impressed with Milo's liberty bell (up at the top).  I'm also impressed with Ari's narrations for history this year.  They're not terribly long, but he does them all on his own, which for the state pages means he looks back over the books we've read and picks out a couple of different facts to include.  Open-ended stuff like that often gives him trouble (he likes for there to be one right answer), so it's a good thing.  Of course, on his own he is currently writing the third volume in his series of Dragon books--very, very long stories involving a lot of action and dialogue--so his fear of open-ended writing ends as soon as our schoolwork does.

No projects this week in history, owing to all the craziness, but we started some Civil War books, including If You Lived at the Time of the Civil War and Ghosts of the Civil War.  I think we may find a shorter Lincoln biography and stop reading the photobiography one.  The kids are not super into it, and my goal for history this year is to get them more interested in it, even if they never become quite as into history as they are into science.  Ghosts of the Civil War is looking like a hit so far, though.

 

We leave for Disneyland three weeks from tomorrow!  They had these travel journals at Michaels for $3, so I got one for each kid.  Mostly I'm hoping it will give them something to do on the plane.