Middle Ages Finally~

Well we are a bit behind in the Story of the World but we have finally reached the Midde Ages. 

England in all it's glory~castles, knights, lords and ladies. 

There are so many activities to consider during this period in history~

I hope to make time to do some fun ones.

We have lots of extra reading planned.  

Today is a stormy day so hopefully we can hit the stack of books we found at the library. 

Some include-The Legend of King Arthur, and George and the Dragon, and Knights and Castles 50 hands on activities to experience the Middle Ages.

Fall is here~

Indian Summer.......around here it is so lovely.  The leaves are changing and the the chill is setting in the air. 
The Woolly Bear caterpillars are everywhere!

Last week we went on a leaf hunt in our neighborhood.

We found lots of beautiful specimens.

After collecting we did leaf rubbings, checked out the veins a little closer, and read some books out of the fall basket.

Classification, my favorite......

Ok, I may be a Zoology nerd, but I have been wanting to do some lessons on classification for the girls for a while.

I always had wished I had a better grasp on it myself in my younger years.
Things might have made a lot more sense.

Anyway, I found this charming book called

Benny's Animals And How He Put Them In Order. It is actually a children's book that talks about how as child learns to group animals into vertebrates and invertebrates by going to a museum with a stack of animal photos and talking with a professor there.

You can check it out here.

You know how I love using living books when possible, so this was perfect, and the girls dug it.

What did we do after the book? Well we got out some animals of course.....

I have lots of follow-up activities planned for this too~stay tuned.

First week report~

~Was my motto this week.

This is from a poster the British government came out with at the start of World War 2.

They never decided to use it, and I can't understand why?

It embodies the everything that needed to be said.

I love it!

So the girls did great. Sofia loved having her own schedule to follow, and really jumped ahead at times with her subjects. We added a little circle time, which was made possible because of Lucy- (or should I say triangle) where we have been doing read-alouds, talking about the day, and Sofia has been reciting her poetry to us.

This is where I eventually plan to do our artist/composer study.

Lucy had lots to choose from, lots of Montessori "jobs", puzzles and art.

The challenge was trying to grab her here and there to do a little math or phonics.

But I am pleased, I want her to have fun.

She has her own little area, and folder where she keeps her stuff,

and she really takes pride in it.

Well It's Happening.........

I have two in the mix this year. Lucy is joining the madness, I mean fun.
I have been planning like a crazy woman, and I think we are ready.
The girls woke up to these boxes this morning full of school supplies.
and I woke up to this~~ a much needed cup o' coffee.

Will write more later about how things are going, and curriculum, one of my favorite topics~

Sunny Days!

We have been enjoying the garden this week. The sunny afternoons have been so lovely~Yesterday we found a frog, saw a dear running down the trail, and saw an amazingly bright Bullocks Oriole!

I Love Lucy!

Happy Birthday Lulu~5 years old~

You are a treasure. I love how you always make us laugh.

States Sofia has visited

visited 13 states (26%)
Create your own visited map of The United States or another interesting project

Back to Reality

Just wanted to check in, as we are finally home after an amazing trip, that seemed never ending.
It was so special to be with my dear friend Ana and her family again. They showed us so many lovely places, and I really enjoyed Massachusetts (gotta love those dunkin donuts iced coffees). We also were lucky enough to go to NYC, DC, and Virginia. More on all that later.....
We have been gradually getting back into the swing of things around here and I have personally been waiting for a bit of good weather to get outside. I have some things that just must go in the ground.
The girls are having a great time being back with all their doll stuff, and Sofia was over the moon to be back at ballet on Monday. The house is upside down, so I really have not been knitting much, will get back to it soon.

Can't believe the school year is almost over, and then I will have a 3rd grader and a kindergartner on my hands. These years are moving so fast. I cant believe I am still homeschooling, thought it was just going to be for a year......and we just keep going.
So happy I am able to be with these girls all the time so I don't miss too much.
Need to do some catching up with our schoolwork though, had a nice long break due to the trip. We all learned so much though, went to many museums, including the amazing American Museum on Natural History in Central Park, Plimoth Plantation, DC, Williamsburg......I am sure something sunk in.

Cape Cod, Massachucetts

Such a beautiful day~We spent the day doing a 2 car caravan through the winding scenic drive in Cape Cod with our good friends. We had so much fun playing on the beaches,
eating and drinking coffee

(yes, Dunkin Donuts).

One of the highlights was visiting the Thornton Burgess Nature center. Sofia has been reading all his books, so it was a joy to see the real life storybook setting.

We even hit a rummage sale!

Plimoth Plantation

What a place!~http://www.plimoth.org/

Happy Easter~

Have a blessed day!

This is our chicken Aziza. For some crazy reason, she laid an egg in this bamboo barrel.
by Sofia

The Promise of Spring

This is a photo of my beautiful Magnolia tree in the front yard.

I have been waiting to see a bloom for weeks, and now, here they are,

along with plenty of Daffodils.

Birthday Girls

Happy Birthday~

I love you!

Window with a view

View from our dinning room window, as night falls we are beginning to hear the frogs sing.

The Great Backyard Bird Count

Well here they are ready to do the reporting for the Audubon Society. February 13-16 is the Backyard bird count. The girls were more than happy to go outside after many days of rain. Here are a few photos of the serious data collecting that was going on before our eyes. I think the only birds they saw were the chickens.

Wishing you a very happy St. Valentine's day

A little update

School has been going good. I am finally coming to terms with the fact that everything is never going to get done. As usual my expectations are always high, and I am realizing it is quality not quantity that matters.

For example I had a stack of things I wanted to do on thursday, (latin, language arts, science), the math got done at least, and for some reason we began talking about right triangles, I ran upstairs to grab a geometry template I had, and she was off. She spent and hour making all the shapes with the stencil and labeling them. I took the opportunity to read What's your angle Pythagoras? aloud, and that was it. An official geometry rabbit trail.

I absolutely adore when something comes up and I have the materials, "in house" like that.
Next week I will pull the Montessori three part cards on triangles and let her play with some shape models I have.

We also have been really interested in what's going on with the birds in our backyard.
There is a great website, where you can post and keep track of migrations of all sorts of thing. A great way to teach about data collection.
check it out here~

Bye for now.

Roman Feast

We finally finished Story of the World Vol. 1, so it was cause for celebration!

Sophia put together a "Gifts of Rome" collage that came out so great, and she gave us an "oral presentation" about all things Roman.

Then we ate, (not sure how accurate the menu was), and danced......

Gung Hay Fat Choy

Moving Along

Well she is moving along with the Little House books. The other day I was in shower and she left this on the bathroom floor for me to find. The note on the book says "all done!".

For schoolwork this week I have some story cards that I plan on introducing to work on some writing. We are about to finish up with Rome, so that is exciting. It took a little longer than I expected, but oh well...Oh, and she is loving cursive.

Montessori in the Home

Wonderful article here by Montessori Lori!
http://www.montessoriforeveryone.com/Homeschooling-with-Montessori_ep_83-1.html

Inauguration for Kids!

check it out at the crafty cow~
http://belladia.typepad.com/crafty_crow/2009/01/inauguration-party-ideas-for-kids.html

loving this....

http://heartofwisdom.com/blog/20-signs-you-are-a-homeschool-resource-junkie/comment-page-1/#comment-38485

I am pleased to say that we have entered the realm of the Little House on the Prairie books.

Pleased because she is reading them to me.....no.

Pleased because I am having another opportunity to experience them again. I don't really know what I remember more, the books or the TV shows, but I loved it all.

Just in case you didn't already know it existed, I found this great little website devoted to all things Little House.

http://www.littlehousebooks.com/

Having a child read you something so

poignant such as the Ingalls family

as they battle malaria is truly an amazing feeling.

Hey kitty, you are sleeping on our math books

They joy of school at home......

Things got started again today after a long break.

It felt good to attempt to get back on schedule.

We took it slow~~Back to math operations, skip counting, and multiplying, some review of action and helping verbs, copywork, and a journal entry about her adventure riding a pony in Los Angeles. We even managed to get out for a nature walk with some friends at the marsh. It was a wonderful sunny day today~yay!

A little taste.....

of what we were up to in Southern Ca.
This was out at my mom's in the desert. The girls love it there, it is pretty wild.

Hello 2009!

Wow, I cant believe it. The holidays are over and our big trip is over too. We had a nice time in Southern CA celebrating with our family. Lucy and I got sick of course, but there were some really nice moments after we healed. My kids were blessed with lots of treats from their grandparents. Lucy even got an American Girl Doll~Kit. They had a blast!!

Our last day in Los Angeles was so fun. We spent it in Griffith Park and went to the Observatory to watch the Planetarium show. It was incredible. The view from there was just amazing and the SUN!!

http://www.griffithobservatory.org/

We even took the kids train ride and did the pony rides!


I wanted to share a picture of my first knitted/felted bag that I gave my mom. I was so pleased the way it came out.
Looking forward to jumping into this year, and getting back on schedule.