More pictures from our trip

We walked around town and rode our bikes in the hills


the farmers market


a festival at the library



we brought our bikes


we found a car show


Look! A Delorean!


Cairns in a field


Getting ready to go out for dinner


the oak tree at night


our balcony door this morning

Anniversary trip

Pere and I observed our wedding (and dating) anniversary earlier this month but this weekend is our romantic getaway trip.

We are in the small town of Ojai and staying at a bed and breakfast there. Today we had a cooking class. Here are some pictures:



The yard


Pere cooking

Broccoli Rabe


Raspberry Tiramisu


Happy Cookers


The Meal - Italian comfort foods - 3 types of pizza made from scratch, lasagna with putanesca sauce, roasted peppers and mushrooms, Broccoli Rabe, and Raspberry Tiramisu.

Field Guide

This morning before snuggle time Z ran to get our field guide. She said she just had to look something up. She read through it for awhile, she said she wanted to look up the seeds she found yesterday but also found a section on the phases of the moon and the constellations.

Then she cuddled up in my lap and asked if we could take turns reading the field guide to each other.

Is that weird?

Spring

I have kept Z home from her classes (voice, japanese and gymnastics) today again because she is still all congested. But that didn't stop us from homeschooling. We actually got a lot done - EPGY, two sheets of geography homework, two science movies and quizzes on Brainpop, some spelling rules practice, reading about Castles for history and Aesop and folktales for literature, and played a game of chess.

She also did a calligraphy art project - she decided to do a cover for her Super Cell story with quill and ink (she did finish editing the story, so I can send it to Ami)





Wow today is such a beautiful day!

Yesterday it didn't seem like spring here but today it does.


Today the pine trees are raining down their seeds


There is a layer of pollen all over everything


Z wanted to collect some of the seeds and things she was looking at


ahhh....


the Koi in the pond look happy about it


the flowers are blooming


Z wanted to stick her feet in the pool and air dry them


My spring chick


We glued her nature findings to a peice of paper

husband talk

The other night when we were getting ready for bed I asked Pere "What outfits do you think I look cute in?", as I was planning to meet some friends for dinner and wanted to look nice

He said "You look nice in sun dresses."

Me, "Um, well it is cold and it will be night time... so the sun dress is out. What else do you like?"

He was so nice to look through my clothes in the closet and say he liked my long-sleeve t-dye shirt. He was right, that is a cute shirt.

Then I asked him "Which shoes do you think will look good."

"He said, "Um, your Doc Martens."

"Really?" I asked.

"No, those are just the only shoes you have that I know the name of."

LOL.

Still sick

Z is still sick. But today was her last rehearsal for her play so we had to go.



Here she is in her Biondello costume.




Here she is with some of the other girls, including Kate (far left) and Bianca (far right).



Z's cast is also going to be in the battle scene of the older student's play of Romeo and Juliet. Here they are practicing their sword play.

We hung around at the park for a little while but we didn't stay the whole time that we usually do.

I brought Z home around 2:00 and gave her a hot bath and she stayed in there for over an hour, talking and singing to herself.

Now she is watching a British version of the Lion, the witch and the wardrobe.

I have to cancel her classes for tomorrow too. *sigh* I hope she gets better soon.

Poor Sweet Baby

So Z is sick again. :(

I cancelled a playdate and dinner with a friend and math class (she did do science because it was her turn to present). I can't keep her home tomorrow because it is her last rehersal before her Shakespeare performance.

But today I brought her home early and told her she could read or rest in her bedroom. Around 3:30 she was fast asleep.

The Moon

Today Z worked on her presentation for her science class. This term the kids are all presenting on some aspect of space. Z is doing her's on the moon.

I really liked all the topics there were to choose from, constellations, physics of space, planets, space exploration, and the moon. We would have learned a lot of any one of them.

Did you know that most of the moon's of Uranus are named after characters from Shakespeare's plays?

The Adventures of Super Cell

For my friends that got Z's first draft;

If you haven't read it, dont. Z wanted to edit it today and I think it is going to make a lot more sense. She is fixing the confusing parts where she uses too many pronouns. :)

I will post when she is done.

Thx

Fear not young lady!

"For I am Super Cell!"

Tonight, right at bedtime, Z came to me said "I have an idea for a story about a Super Cell and his adventures inside the human body. It goes like this..."

Then she preceded to dictate a four page story about Super Cell and his Sidekick Robin and their battle with Ekla and his band of Germs for the brain of the girl Lavender.

It is too long to post here but here is an excerpt:

But then Ekla threw the brain high into the air.

But Lavender’s mother, who had some gloves on, grabbed it. Then she looked at it and screamed. “This is Lavender’s brain! No wonder she fainted! Uck, I wish I had someone to put it back in.”

Right them in a booming voice Super Cell said, “Fear not young lady! For I am Super Cell! And I shall return it to its rightful place!”


and another funny party

And Super Cell said “Grlbbgrwlbggrbblw”

But then Robin, who is talented in gymnastics, did a super flip and landed right into the stomach. Acids were pouring on him like rain! All colors, pink, blue and yellow. But without taking any notice at all he said, “Super Cell, wait up!”

Then he saw the brain floating (he was also a very good swimmer) and then with a great rush he swam as fast as he could with his eyes closed and his hands out until he felt the brain. Then he swam up. Although it took him three minutes (the stomach is pretty deep) it seemed like forever. And then he saw a breathless body floating down. He said “On no, not again!”

Friday

Boy, I am glad the weekend is here.

We don't really have any plans per se and that is the best part. We might go bike riding on our new bikes. Or maybe we will go down to the beach.

Z votes for staying home and watching cartoons. *grin* She always is such a homebody. The only plans we have are to play Equate, which is like Scrabble but with math.

Z also has a new favorite TV show, the animated show The Tick and my graphic novel of it is her new favorite book.

The book gave her the idea to make her bedroom her Super-Hero Hideout. She drew a picture of a computer screen and taped bubble wrap to the bottom to be a keyboard. She drew a place to type in her keyboard her "Full name" and "Password" and then she drew her "Symbol' and taped that up. Then she said she needed a "rocket" so I told her to use a cardboard box (those come in handy in so many ways) so she taped a blown up red balloon to the back to be fire and drew on it and decorated it and made herself a rocket.

hee hee

She is so cute. I love that it is The Tick that is inspiring all thing because it is a hilarious show. :) For those of you who know the Tick I am going to end this post with "Spoooooon!"

p.s. Tonight she hit another milestone. She asked me to turn the hall light off and shut her door most of the way so it was more dark. I know I was way older before I would sleep in the dark.

Commercial!

Z's Neosporin commercial is up on This site.

On the right hand side of the screen is a window that says "watch our latest commercial"

I clicked it and then it opened up a window which opened up another window in "windows media player"

But anyway, here it is.

Pics Finally!

Blogger had been troubling me the last few days about posting pictures. So here are some from the past few days.


Z and Clementine at Build a Bear (friends B-Day party). Why does Z look so sad?


Working on her new art project - Action Painting (like Pollack)


"Mommy! I'm all done!"


This is my favorite, sitting in a box.

This was Monday or Tuesday and Pere went to her room to get her for her piano practice. A moment later he came back without her and said "Eh, she is so cute. I don't want to disrupt her play"

I am sure I rolled my eyes at him or something. So I got up to get her and I saw her looking so sweet and young talking to her dolls sitting inside a cardboard box. I too was struck down by the cuteness. Z ended up practicing after dinner.


This picture is from today. She was playing dress up. The rest of the outfit was just a shawl, a tutu and a little red basket.

So many opportunities

So someone in our homeschool group is starting a Rockestra (Rock band/ Orchestra) for homeschoolers and I was thinking of letting Z audition for singing (chorus or back-up singer.)

There is also an engineering class coming up using LEGO's.

Then there are book clubs and history club and science classes and chess class and Shakespeare and a homeschool friendly dance studio and more.

It all sounds good. :) But I really want to keep Z's free time.

Record Keeping

I thought I would share what we do for record keeping.

Earlier this school year I developed a Word document that I use daily for keeping track of what homeschooling we are doing.

It looks like this:

Date _._._

Math (each with two lines for writing on)
Reading
Writing
Lang. Arts
Science
Geography
History
Piano
Art
Japanese
Visual Spatial
Singing
P.E.
Computer
Field Trips

At the beginnig of the week I print out five of these sheets and then I keep it with me during the day and fill it in as we do things.

I plan our curriculum by term and by week. The term is the overview of what subject matter we are going to cover and I keep track of what resources I am using with virtual post-it notes on my laptop's desktop screen. I also use these post-it notes for listing which resources I want to use each week.

I make all sorts of lists on these "stickies".

For example, I recently checked out a book of fun activities with a Medieval theme from the library. It has 50 activities and upon perusing it, I found I would like to do about six of them. So I make a sticky with the title of the book and then list of activity and page number for the ones I want to try.

I also use stickies to keep lists of Visual Spatial activities that Z can do:
Kidpixx
Tetris
Rush Hour
Chess
Legos
Magnetix
Kinex
drawing
tangrams
puzzles
mazes
patterns
drawing maps
origami
sculpting
3 dimentional object contruction - clay

So, I use stickies to list the things I want to do and my Daily Learning Checklist, which is a physical piece of paper, for the thigns we have actually done. I keep the DLC in a folder. It has been very useful on numerous occasions to be able to refer to these records.

Lasy year I kept a similar daily list but I didn't print it out and I have found I am less likely to refer to it when it is a matter of having to open all these word documents rather than just flipping pages in a notebook.

so-so

Yesterday had it's good parts and it's bad parts.

The bad was Z arguing wth me about how to rewrite her final draft story about her future self. And then arguing with me again about her reading aloud voice. Both of these episodes ended with her trying to arguing over me speaking and then crying when I am very firm about what is going to happen.

But we also went bike riding for over an hour and worked on her first art project (abstract, inspired by Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody) and finished another chapter of Kind Arthur. Those were all good things.

**********

My daughter wakes up singing. I mean I would call myself a morning person but because of my low blood sugar issues I am not fit for company until I have had some protein (and coffee) but my girl gets up singing. Yes, she is the kind of morning person who is able to sing disco tunes Very Loudly before the sun has even come up. :)

I"m a Supahstah!

Or so says Z. And I swear she has never seen that SNL skit.

Here she is (just a little bit) in the PGA Golf Superstore commercial.

http://www.pgatoursuperstore.com/sub_comm_sand.asp

Enjoy!

the commercial

a neighbor just called me to tell me she saw Z in the Neosporin commercial when she was watching Good Morning America!

I told Z and she said "Cool! I just made more money!" *heh*

Art curriculum

So I have been searching around the last week for an art curriculum for Z. Today, at the bookstore, I found Art, and A - Z guide

It is not what I thought I was looking for. But perhaps it is even better.

The book has 59 art terms like balance, Cubism, landscape, mural, perspective, proportion, Romanticism, Surrealism, and symmetry. Each word has two pages with examples both famous and not. Amoung the 225 pictures there are works of art from every continent and time period.

My idea is to read through the book and have Z create her own book using the same words but illustrating the book with her own original art, which will include cartoon art, computer graphics, mosaics, photography and (maybe if we are really over-achieving) tapestry.

I am really really excited about this. This will give Z the art education I really want for her. With this Z will be able to see so much more at our trips to the Getty museum.

The Sound of Music

I just plugged my iPod in and download 500 of my favorite songs. The first songs to play themselves were from Mozart's Requiem. I friggin love blasting to Confutatis (that is a song that needs to be blasted) and not worrying that I am giving my daughter hearing damage or angering the neighbors. :)

Z is off with her grandparents. Pere and I slept in and then walked to the theatre and saw the oh so romantic movie, Zodiac and then came home and took a nap and then rollerbladed to the bookstore. We have been having a really nice time. :)

Ooooh! Happy Anniversary!

(click on the picture to see it bigger)

Tomorrow is our anniversary. Look at what Pere gave me at midnight tonight!

The card is so sweet. And check out the homemade wrapping paper! Pere made it himself, it says Happy anniversary "Mere" , love "Pere" in Binary (1's and 0's). Isn't he the cutest thing ever!

Then he also got me an i-Pod! I am really surprised!

And I played my favorite anniversary song for him - The Flintstones Anniversay Song or Listen to it here .

Grown Up Talk

Have I mentioned how much I love my homeschooling group? I have, haven't I? Well I really do.

Today I had thought provoking conversations with many of my friends there. We discussed some parenting, of course, but also we talked about sex, religion and politics (ah my favorite subjects.) We all had different opinions and I think everyone respected everyone else. I really appreciate my friends there.

***********

Z's cold has made her voice scratchy and lower and jeez she really sounds like a teenager when she talks. She already often speaks in an adult manner but she has a little baby voice. The way she sounds now I feel it is like looking into the future and it is kind of weirding me out.

**********

Today Z was playing "X-treme Basketball!" with Pere (every game Z plays ends up being "X-treme"!) and she cried "Give me back my ball you notorious villian!"

Pere asked where she even heard that term and she said "From Shakespeare! From Taming of the Shrew"

Well at least she is learning something...

*********

My Mere sent Z some presents today. They are just perfect for her.


Three new minerals - they are BIG! - quartz crystals, rose quartz and amethyst from a geode.


a teeny tiny teacup set


A Secrets Box just for her and a new fairy doll.

Thanks Mere!

reason #47

This morning Z had her I.Q. tested (again.) This time by the local school district. If I ever have to put her back into free (public) school for a short time (knock on wood) then she will be able to go into the gifted program.

I dropped her off and did a couple errands in the neighborhood and then 2 hours later they called me to come pick Z up.

I talked to the tester and I asked her if Z's cold seemed to effect her focus. She said that Z did very well. But she said that Z seemed to have a hard time sitting still and asked if I had ever "seen" anyone about that. As in like a pyschologist I guess.

I told her that when Z was first tested at four the psychologist said that Z does not have ADD. Then this tester today said that Z's need for moving about didn't seen to hamper her test taking ability today but that it might be more problematic in the future.

I understood that she was referring to problems that would arise if I ever tried to put Z in regular school.

Uh, yeah... no kidding.

I know Z would get in trouble in a regular school for not being able to sit still at her desk for hours on end. That is reason number forty-seven that I do not want to send Z to school.

Reason number forty-eight is that Z would probably get in trouble for talking too much too, like I did.

Reason number forty-nine is that Z would probably get in trouble for arguing with the teacher and get written up like I used to: "Has problems with authority."

I wanted to get Z tested in the system cause you never know when that might be useful, but I have a long list of reasons why I will not be sending Z to public school. Homeschooling just works so much better for us.

All better

Friday night I brought Z’s mattress into my bedroom so I could watch over her while she slept. I was worried about her fever getting worse.

I became more worried about her when she woke up in the middle of the night having some kind of hallucination. She was crying out to “stop!” and hold her hands out in front of her. Her eyes were open and she was looking about but she wasn’t really seeing what was there.

This had happened once before when she was younger and also running a fever.

I took her out our room and into the restroom and took her temperature and gave got her to drink some water. She woke up and got clear-headed enough to tell me that in her “dream” someone was threatening to poke her in the chest.

I asked her if someone had ever done that to her, like a kid at the park. She said no.

She went back asleep but a couple hours later she woke up with the same hallucination. She was crying out and waving her hands in front of her. :( It was really sad.)

But the fever had broke by morning and we took it easy yesterday. We taught her to play Monopoly and introduced her to the new Dr. Who.

I let her sleep in my room again last night and she slept soundly through the night. Today, other than not having her normal unlimited supply of energy, she seems much better.

How you know when your child is sick

1. She cries when she can't have "a real fun time" reading a rocks and minerals book with her friend.

2. She cries because she doesn't want to ride her with her mommy on their new tandem to the bank.

3. At the bank instead of playing in the Kid's Center she curls up on a chair and closes her eyes.

4. She askes if she can "rest her eyes" in the car on the way back from the bank.

5. After she is tucked under and blanket and watching Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone she asks "Is it okay if I don't talk? It makes my throat hurt."

6. She is given a scoop of ice cream and can only eat half of it.

7. She almost cries out of worrying that her milk might spill even though it has not come close to spilling.

*sad face*

I guess we will not be going to the Keep Los Angeles Beautiful event at City Hall tomorrow. I suppose I will just have to busy myself with babying my poor baby. :)

Art

So yesterday Z had her Girl's Club and as usual they did some kind of art project. Yesterday they actually just painted on paper which was fun for all the girls. I did notice though that Z's painting were kind of blobby. She is not very comfortable with painting because it is not something we often do.

I feel bad to admit that when something has to give at Gray's Academy it is usually art.

Last night I was rationalizing this by telling myself that Z's curriculum includes a lot of things most kids aren't studying, like a foriegn language, a music instrument, theatre, voice, and gymnastics. If we weren't doing all those things I am sure we would have time for art - but we can't do everything!

But then I realzed that one of the things that is holding me back from doing much art in our curriculum is my own dismal art educaiton. Z and I are both interested in artists and are moved by art. I loved art history when I took it in college. But the technical aspect of teaching how to make art is something I have to learn along side Z.

Well, except drawing. I draw pretty well and so does Z. And I admit that _most_ of our "art" is pencil drawings. But painting it a whole different skill set, IMO. I had a pretty good book series I was using to teach art to Z about Impressionism. But I guess it wasn't good enough to really keep us going back to it. I am wondering if maybe we should take art lessons together?

Z said...

This morning Z was writing the date on some work and she said "Whoa! Today is the first of March already!" and then she said " I guess that means I'll go back to doing my acting in only one month."

I shrugged and said "Only if you want to."

She responded "Well, now that I have my normal life back I kinda of want to keep doing that."

I said "That is totally fine."

She said with a worried voice "That is probably not fine to my agent."

I shrugged again and said "I am sure it is fine. But you don't have to worry about that anyway."

Sooooo, it looks at this point that Z is making the choice not to go back.

My Life

Have I mentioned how much I am enjoying being back to our normal life?

We went to a friend's out this morning and did some crafts and had lunch and just hung out.

In the afternoon I brought Z and her little girl friend back to our house and the girl's played for a couple hours while I did some research on my new book.

After the little girl left I put my apron on, and some music (Paul Simon) and peeled some potatoes and cut up some leeks to make tonight's soup.

Z is in her room having a tea party and singing to herself. It was a very very nice day. And now my Pere is home so I must go.

I am hoping all my friends and family had a nice day too, or one soon.

fairy picnic

kinda sweet

I am sitting here by myself this morning, Z is still sleeping, watching and listening to the rain fall down. I am in the rocking chair, under the red blanket, and it is all very cozy.

The cat is sleeping in the other rocker and I wish I could take a picture of him and how sweetly he is sleeping but I know if I tried to get up and fetch the camera he would probably run off.

I can hear the 6yo girl next door staying bye-bye to her Mommy as her Daddy is taking her to school. Hope she has her rain jacket.

Today we have a date with some friends to do decoupaging. I have the bottles and cans and she has the glue and paper. I am looking forward to our little crafty day.

Z finished Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince Saturday night. She came wandering out of her bedroom after nine almost in tears - still upset about what happened a few chapters ago and very nervous about what is to come in book 7. I let her cuddle up with me and I spun her my story about Snape as a friend and not a foe. I really believe it!

Before she could go back to sleep that night Z asked me to pick out a new book for her to read. I offered up Inkheart, Eragon (birthday presents from friends), Anne of Green Gables, or rereading The Little Princesss (or of course, whatever book she wants from her shelves.) She wasn't sure but said she would look at the beginning of Anne of Green Gables and see. Well, by morning she informed me that AoGG was definitely her new bedtime book. I am glad she is reading it, it is such a classic.

Well anyway, I really do need to eat breakfast.

So I chanced a picture of the cat and I actually got it. Look at how sweetly his paws are crossed.



And then figuring the sounds of breakfast would wake her up in a moment anyway I snapped this one of Z.

History

This morning after teeth brushing I told Z we were going to start homeschooling. "History?" she asked excitedly. "No," I said "First we are going to do some yoga."

After yoga we got changed into normal clothes (jeans and a t-shirt for me) and Z asked "Are we going to do history now?!" "No," I said, "First we are going to do EPGY."

After EPGY she was like "History?!" again. I couldn't figure it out what that was about (not like I asked) so I went on with my normal plan. (You see how resistant I am to change?)

Finally after lunch it was time to do history and Z cried out "Can we read King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table?!"

Ahhhh, that is what she was so excited about...

I picked up where we had left off last week in the story of Balyn and Balan.

It is a pretty good book but at first I wasn't sure Z would get into it as it is written like this:

"For this cause," said Merlin. "No man shall handle this sword now, save only Launcelot, and Galahad his son. And that shall be when the knights of Logres seek for the Holy Grail... In the castle, also, you have a bed: but none shall lie in it without going mad, save Launcelot alone... But in the end Launcelot shall use this sword, and the bravest knight of Logres, the man he best loves in the world, shall fall beneath it. And that shall be Gawain... But soon thereafter shall come the last battle on the Plain of Camlann, and the darkness shall fall once more upon Logres."

And why does Merlin always speak in prophetic riddles... I mean c'mon!

But she is learning really useful words like Smote and Smitten and Smite, not to mention Alas.

And here I am having to explain what the Holy Grail is and what the Dolorous Stroke is and what the Last Supper was and who Joseph of Arimathea was.

But seriously it is fun to read and Z is obviously really enjoying it. As for it being history? Well I felt it was more like color commentary to go with our non-fiction studies, a story to hang all the images on, IYKWIM?

Wednesday

I wonder if I should nickname Z "Wednesday" for Wednesday Addams of the Addams Family.

The other day she was holding a funeral for one of her dolls and now this.

Today she was playing in her room quietly for awhile and I asked her what she was doing and she said "I am setting up a crime scene."

A while later she comes to get me to show me her crime scene - here was a noose, there were some handcuffs with traces of blood on them, over here were some hoof prints... yes hoof prints. Apparently the magical unicorn Rarity and some other of those treacherous My Little Ponies committed murder most foul tonight.

Apparently one of the mermaids was in on it as there were telltale signs of sea water dripped aroung the crime scene. Z got all biblical with her justice and wanted to truss up the mermaid but I advised that we just keep her imprisoned as we hadn't had the trail yet.

The noose was really a shiny silver necklace and the handcuffs were big plastic rings, but they would have fit around the legs of a My Little Pony. I was surprised with how well thought out a lot of the clues were although I was a bit dismayed with how much blood was found since the victim was supposedly hanged.

My birthday present

Yes I know my birthday was seven months ago but today was finally the right time to buy me my present. I got a men's black diamondback (the only woman's they had was pink) and I got a trail-a-bike for Z. Z and I rode home from the bike shop that was only two miles away. It was a wonderful ride.

Now, on days when we have time I can ride to the park (3.5 miles), piano lessons (3.5 miles) or the library (2 miles).

Classes

I know I have mentioned before that Z takes a lot of classes. Certainly she doesn't spend as much time in a class as a traditionally schooled child does. She does spend 5 hours a 45 minutes of the school week in a class. Right now she is taking piano, science (taught by the kids), Shakespeare, gymnastics, Japanese and voice. In April she is going to try an engineering class taught with LEGOs.

I have tried talking her out of some of her classes (voice) and bribed her out of others (ballet). Yet I am always looking around for new classes for her to try. The thing is that I just want her to try them because they sound cool or interesting but then Z wants to continue them. And at this age I just want her to try different things and see how she likes them, so far she seems to like them all.

Z has tried gymnastics, group music lessons, soccer, drama, ballet/tap, karate, musical theatre, religious school, Shakespeare, Japanese, science, piano, voice, and most recently astronaut training. (I might be forgetting something.)

Out of those I think she has liked the gymnastics and acting (Shakespeare, etc) the best. I am pretty sure she live at the gymnasium if she could, or at least would love for her room to be outfitted with a trampoline and some bars, rings and beams. but she loves all her classes so much they were her main reason for wanting to take a break from acting.

I am happy for Z that we have all these opportunities in our area. There are many more out there that would be fun to try like Yoga and Circus Arts and an American Girl book club. But it is just as, if not more important, that Z have time just to hang about in her room and play.

This afternoon she was playing in her room and I came upon this scene:



I asked "Are you having a tea party with your dolls?"

She said, "No, the Indian died and we are all at his funeral."

(the Indian is brown figure in the center of the circle)

Science

I am really really excited about our science this term.

We are studying ecology, the environment/environmentalism, and conservation. While this subject is very topical right now will also serve as a great basis for any future studies in earth science.

I made a list earlier of the Brainpop movies we are using this term. I also wrote about this middle school level science book that has a environmental science theme.

And I wrote about another book called Planet Patrol A Kid's Action Guide to Earth Care. Today I read the first section with Z and she did the activity which was naming the different species that live in our yard. Since we have no fish or amphibians living here we took those categories out and added invertebrates. We looked at what we could from the window and then went out for a walk with the field guide. There were a couple types of birds we could recognize and many type sof plants were not in the guide but she made a good list.



Then at her request she made a mancala board from an egg carton, an idea from a new recycling book she got.

Then she picked out some herb seeds for her new Hyrdoponic Greenhouse that she got for her birthday.

Then today at the library I found three books in the series Our World, OUr Future that look really neat.

I am also planning a trip to the nearby recycling plant as well as other local places that teach about the environment, renewable energy, sustainable farming, as well as botanical gardens, and animal sanctuaries. etc.

We are also going to come up with some volunteering projects (which we can do now that she isn't acting.)

I feel like all of this is giving her a good base for being a compassionate scientist and problem solver.

I know some of you have kids who are involved with helping endangered species so if you would like to recommend websits or groups that we could add to our curriculum please do!

MB

I wasn't sure what I was going to write about tonight.

I admitted something to myself tonight and now I am going to admit it to you.

I wanted a kid who was as good as Z is at piano and who could practice as much as she did and learn as quickly and as much as she did without any kind of stress or damage because she is just that good.

I admit it felt special.

But it was stressing Z out and there was no reason for it.

In my defense there was more to it than just my pride. I was more than a little intimidated by her teacher who was also feeling special to be connected to Zoe while she was performing so well.

I also trusted her teacher too much. But she was coming from the place of training Z to compete and perform and be a professional pianist someday (probably at a young age.) Since that is not going to happen then there is no reason whatsoever to stress Z out about this.

I don't mean that Z should never experience struggles or have to exert a lot of effort. But her teacher had her on a track that is really unnecessary and could be damaging Z's natural talent and passion for music.

I think the acting thing helped open my eyes about this. I think some people in Z's life were feeling vicariously special about Z doing the acting and it bothered me that anyone would let that cloud their judgement regarding what is best for her. And of course as the parent it is most important that I don't let myself get caught up in the excitement of what Z can or could do to the extent that I allow negative experiences to harm her.

I am ashamed for my complicity in stressing my girl out. I am grateful that I wized up after only one year and challenged her teacher and fixed things. And I am feeling very protective of my girl tonight.

Language Arts

Recently I have picked up some really good workbooks at the book store. Normally we don't do workbooks but I went through literally 50+ books to find these specific ones that I knew would appeal to Z, focus on the specific areas that Z needs this kind of writtten work, and meet my high standards for resources.

I was surprised after I had already bought the books to notice that they are for grades 4th - 5th, 5th and up, and 4th - 6th, respectively. I am not sure about the spelling book but I think it is probably 3rd grade. I am surprised that Z is at this level for language arts. I didn't pick stuff that was hard, just things that covered areas I think she might be missing even with all the reading we do.

Writing

I like this writing book because it goes through the editing process. That is what Z needs at the moment. Also the assignments get harder and harder.

Parts of Speech

This book is full of games that teach. It is pretty advanced, it teaches about main, and auxiliary verbs, prepositions, subjects and predicates, direct and indirect objects and more, all through games. Z loves Mad Libs and I thnk she will love this book and along the way learn about parts of speech.


Vocabulary

I like this book for the same reason as the one above.
In her lesson today Z had to choose her four favorite words, define them and use them in a sentence. She chose Barbarian, Squeegee, Lunatic and Blabbler. LOL Z certainly has a sense of humor.

Spelling

This book isn't a game but it teaching spelling the VCV, VCC, VCe, etc way by sorting words. We don't use it much but I have to teach Z the rules so she isn't just spelling intuitively.


These are just the workbooks we are using. We do a lot more that is just informal and come from reading and discussing and normal life.

Resources Review - Math

I thought that now that Z and I are back to homeschooling on a more regular schedule I would share what resources we are using this "term". (I use the term term very loosely, and mainly to mean a span of months ahead of us.)

I will start with the subject that Z does first thing most mornings, math.

Z first started math when she was 2 1/2 and looked through an older friend's Singapore workbook. She loved it and was soon insisting on doing math every morning after breakfast.

She didn't always love Singapore so much though. One thing I have noticed is that Z enjoys variety and is usually excited by a novel approach to math.

We kept doing Singapore into about halfway through the second grade book. I liked how Singapore taught many different ways to solve a problem.

Then I bought her a Scholastic math book right off the shelf of Barnes and Noble and she really liked that most of the time. I felt it was holding her back though and spent too much time on repetition, but I wasn't sure which of the problems were okay to skip.

I have also supplemented with the great ideas at livingmath.net and Z's favorite, by far, math books are the I Love Math series put out by Time Life. But she is beyond the material in them now and Julie at Livingmath told me that there is nothing else really like them out right now.

This February I was able to get the funds through my charter school to finally give EPGY a try. I have been hearing about how great this program was for years but I didn't really get it. I figured "How great can a math program really be??" But now I see what all the fuss is about. It is a very in-depth program that really does seem to work at your child's level. I am really impressed with what they are teaching Z, who just started the 3rd grade level, and how they are teaching it.

The way we are running EPGY it starts with a Math Race where Z is asked to answer addition and subtraction questions like x - 7 = 19 or 9 + x = 16, and she has to answer them quickly. Doing math quickly is not Z's strong suit at this point so she usually comes in 3rd out of 3. But I am just glad she is doing it and facing an uncomfortable situations without breaking down.

Then she has twenty minutes of lessons. Usually the lesson consists of a lecture, spoken aloud by the voice of an older man with video of the problem, and then some time is spent on this new type of problem. Then it touches on two or three other subjects that were taught previously. So far Z is making between 96% and 100% on these lessons. I am not sure if that means she will be moving through 3rd grade at a quicker than or normal rate.

Fiction Books Z is in the midst of

This is her bedtime story with Pere
Magic Kingdom for Sale


This is her bedtime story with me
The Enchanted Castle


She reads this most nights before bed.
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince


This is the book her book club is reading
The Great Brain


These two she started but I don't think she is reading them everyday
Nancy Drew and the secret of the old clock


Inkheart